Time to start organising for the C word...

Hello, I hope you have had a lovely day.

For those of you that have been reading for a while you will know that I start organising for Christmas three months before the delightful day actually arrives, I am in fact two weeks late starting this year but I'm hoping that together we will achieve a relaxed and happy Christmas and New Year.

Right let me explain how this works we take all the jobs that need doing and split them up into easy to manage weekly tasks.

Week 1

• Thoroughly clean and tidy the hall (you can pick any room you like, I start with the hall and work my way through the downstairs of the house first)
  
• Make a list of who you need to buy presents for and any ideas you have for that person, also try to work out a budget for each person so that you don't overspend  (For example, my mum - I know I would like to buy her a heated hairbrush I have seen that is £39.99 but my budget for family other than the children is £25.00 each but this means I can look for any discounts or offers on this item)
  
• I make one freezer meal per week from now until the week before Christmas so that when things get really busy at school I can just get a dish out of the freezer in the morning and know that we will have a cooked meal that evening without having to resort to takeaways.
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• I also write a list of home made goodies that I know the children will love to eat over the Christmas period and cook one of these items per week and freeze them, for example, a couple of my children love coffee and walnut cake so that goes on the list whilst another couple love Sausage rolls so that will also go on the list to be made.
  
• I buy a couple of presents each week (sometimes more) as I have five stockings to buy I normally start with these.
   
• I write a list of the grocery items that we are like to want over Christmas, I have to admit last year I completed a word document for the items we are likely to want over Christmas and saved it so that this year I just need to update any changes. Then each week I add four items to my weekly shopping list and store these in a cupboard I have already emptied purely for Christmas food. This enables me to do a quick dash to the shops when its really busy just for fresh stuff (I may do an online shop this year to make life even easier).
    
• I also wrap things as they are bought and give myself dates of when things like Christmas cards need to be written by.

I have followed this plan for four years now, ever since I did a panicky shop on Christmas Eve one year (and for someone who avoids shops whenever she can this was my worst nightmare). It works and it make for a clean, calm happy Christmas.

This year as I am still in the process of decluttering the house I am going to add a weekly task of getting rid of ten items a week. After all we will be adding further items to our mountain of stuff  at this time of year.

Join me, lets motivate each other, I'll regularly update you on how I'm getting on, let me know how you are too.

Take care xx