The holiday season used to seriously stress me out. I have a lot of anxiety to begin with, but during the entire month of December, I was a full on raging lunatic. The people, the shopping, the parties… and don’t even get me started on my house.

After years of living in clutter, I finally discovered my love of organizing and the pretty cool correlation between my anxiety and my home. When it’s messy, I feel frazzled and when it’s clean and clutter free, I feel much more calm. It is for this reason that I need to retain some sort of order during this busy time of year. This also happens to be the time when everyone seems to “stop by” for those nice, unexpected visits. I don’t want to have to worry about dirty bathrooms or the fact that my house smells like dog farts, I want to be able to relax and enjoy all the crazy that this season brings.

Enter my Holiday Night time Cleaning Checklist. Just by spending a few minutes every night to tackle the things on this list, my home never gets too messy or chaotic and I never feel the stress that comes with a dirty home. Want a clean house for Christmas? Daily maintenance is the key! This time of year is way too busy to spend hours on the weekend scrubbing, instead, spend just 15-20 minutes each night and get the exact same results!

The other super stressful part of the holidays for me was shopping. I always wait until the last minute and this bad habit was made worse by the fact that I never shopped with a list. Who doesn’t Christmas shop with a plan? The truth is, most people.  A simple Gift Giving Planner can save you time, money and make your holiday shopping a million times less stressful! I keep a copy in my purse AND a copy at home by my computer for online shopping. You can download the Gift Giving Planner as a PDF HERE or the Gift Giving Excel File HERE. 
So let’s make this holiday season a little less stressful with a little planning and organization!