Streamline the Holidays with To Do Lists

He’s making a list, checking it twice, and so should you! You are so busy during the holiday season; it is easy to forget something or maybe many things. You can relieve stress and save time and money by creating an organized Christmas. Take a few minutes every day in your apartment to create and update Christmas lists.

Photo by: Krissa Cavouras

Getting Started

The first step to having an organized Christmas is to buy a small notebook that you can keep with you all the time. If you are a PDA person, then use it. To get started, write down on separate pages any holiday events you may have or things you need to accomplish. Here are a few suggestions of how to get organized with page titles you need to have:

• Christmas gift list
• Christmas card list
• Hosting a holiday party, date and time
• Holiday parties or events you are attending
• Travel Plans
• Holiday Guests
• Decorating

Next, you need a calendar of December you can put on your refrigerator, a day timer or PDA. Take a moment and fill in the events of everything you have going on in December. Don’t forget times and locations!

What should be on the list?

Now, you are ready to really get organized with your Christmas lists. Here are some ideas of what needs to be included in these lists:

• Names, sizes, price range for gifts. Don’t forget gifts for white elephant, hostess, teacher, coworkers and always have a few extras.
• Christmas cards, addresses, and if you don’t have your card list set up in contacts on your computer, do it now so you can print labels from it every year. Don’t forget stamps!
• List all food, toiletry and household items you need for parties and holiday guests.
• New clothing you may need for parties.
• New decorations such as table clothes, candles, Christmas candy, etc.
• List of music you want to play at a party.
• Names and addresses of people you want to invite to a party.
• Time line for having your house clean and ready for guests.

Once you have all this set up, just glance at it for 5 minutes every morning and night, make any changes necessary and check off anything you have completed. When you leave your Jacksonville apartment everyday, make sure you take your notebook or PDA with you. As you go to the mall, check your lists to remind yourself of what you are looking for. When you stop at the grocery store for a gallon of milk, check your lists since you may be able to take advantage of some weekly specials for your holiday party.

Taking an evening now to get your lists set up, will save you time, money and most of all stress during this holiday season. So…make your lists and check them more than twice!

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