• List everyone you want to recognize with a gift including family, friends, teachers, service providers, neighbors and more.  It might take more than one pass to remember everyone.
• Jot notes with potential ideas, sizes (if needed), favorite hobbies or activities to jar some gifting ideas.
• On-line saves time.
• Take advantage of Free Shipping on-line this season…I hear there are going to be allot of these offers.
• Choose stores or websites that match the recipient.
• Plan your physical shopping geographically to maximize your time out in the stores.

Kids: Can you anticipate what will be coming in from Grandparents, relatives and possibly Santa? Books and Toys for instance? Take the time now before everything gets super busy to prepare a donation bag with a few books and toys that the kids have outgrown. Throw out those that have seen their best days and are finished (read nobody else will want it). This small gesture of letting go of 3-6 books and 3-6 games will make some space for the new items. Plus charities will be happy to re-sell your outgrown items to other families.

Adults: Not really sure what is headed into your life as far as presents? Start with some obvious areas like books (3-6 can make an impact). You can also look around for items that you might want to pass on to your friends or relatives.

Make a promise that if you get a new pair of slippers or a cookbook, you will toss or donate (depending on the condition) your old ones immediately. Take this idea out to any gifts your receive.


Here is my argument for lists. List get and keep you organized if you use them, and I mean use them. If you like to use lists you are likely nodding your head. If you don’t, I want to suggest you give it a try and see if you are feeling more organized.

List Principles:
1. Keep all your lists together in one place. You will possibly have several lists going at any time including a “to do” list, grocery list, gift list, event planning list, and more. The rule is not one List, but keep all the lists together in one place. Loose papers are dangerous. A bound notebook, an electronic list program like Notes are good examples of keeping your lists together.
2. Your lists should be portable and stay with you. That way when an great gift idea hits you, you are able to immediately jot it down next to the recipients name. Chose a smaller notebook that fits in your bag or purse.
3. List all the people you want to gift and add to it as you remember other names.
4. Jot down possible ideas or themes by each name to make the gifts more personal.
5. Shopping can start anytime in stores or on-line as you see things or as you are running your regular errands because you have put this to the top of your mind. Just by raising your consciousness now you will gain a head start.
6. If you really like last minute shopping, start your list now anyway. You will be more prepared and thorough when you hit the stores (or screen).

Each year I ask you to consider non-tangible gifts that are less likely to become future landfill. Tickets to events, music, movies, restaurant gift certificates, babysitting, wonderful food are some ideas that people enjoy so much and they use them up….

Remember when our moms would go through an elaborate process of defrosting the freezer. She would empty it, turn it down, put in a pot of hot water and sop up the water all day as it melted. Well thankfully those days are behind us, but it is still good to clean out the fridge and freezer to make room before all the big entertaining is here.

A couple of things to keep in mind….the goals of this process are:
1. make room.
2. Get rid of un-edible foods.
3. Create space so that air can flow in this appliance. This is more energy efficient as it is easier to maintain the internal temperatures of the fridge and freeze when there is good air flow. (read: green and lower PG& E bills).

Here we go…
1. If your F and F are really stuffed, you are going to have to pull everything out. Do this shelf by shelf.
If your F and F are somewhat full I would still suggest that you review each shelf one at a time.
2. THROW OUT all science experiments (you know what I mean), expired items and things you know you will never eat. Empty green waste into the green can and toss wrappers in the appropriate bins. You may find some perfectly good things that you forgot about. Now is a good time to work them into your food plan for the week. You will save money by using what you already have.
3. Before you put items back, wipe down all the shelves and doors.
4. Think about what types of things you want on which shelve and doors. Group like with like. (condiments with condiments, dairy with dairy, all leftovers together in one space). Some things will be dictated by size, but the more you keep “like with like” the easier it is to find things later.

The final step is to slow down your shopping and buy only what you need. This is not the time to overload since you know you will have things like Turkeys and Roasts coming in soon.

If you have a spare Fridge or Freezer, clean it our and plug it in a day or two before the big event shopping.

Lesson for the week: lighten up the amount of foods in your fridge and freezer. It’s green, saves money and will get you set for the holiday entertaining.

It is a great idea to clean up Holiday décor every year. What I mean by this is to acknowledge that you don’t love or use everything you have in those boxes and that they are really clutter in your life. Follow these simple steps and you will have a clean, clutter-free set of your favorite decorations for each year.

As you unpack each box, set aside your favorite items that you love, cherish, evoke wonderful memories, are really functional, or are just simply pretty. These are the items you look forward to seeing every year.
Separately, look at the items which are left behind. Ask yourself to honestly answer if you really want or need these. Do they address the emotions or practicality listed above?
With the decisions made as to what you no longer want to keep, box or bag these up and set a date to make a trip to any one of the great places to donate your re-saleable items. Charities that have stores want these items right now in season. Toss the rest in the trash or recycling.
Let me give you a real life example. I recently helped someone unpack their holiday items and we came to an entire box of holiday tins. This gal used to attend a yearly cookie exchange and received a new tin to take home her shared goodies annually. The result was a large collection of at least 15 tins. The party has fizzled out over the years. Once she realized that she truly didn’t need that many tins, she selected her favorite three and donated the rest. That is good clutter reduction.

We did the same process with wrapping paper, especially the leftovers from many years ago. She acknowledged that she didn’t want to use certain papers because her tastes had changed and she likes some new patterns better. We put the old papers in a bag and donated them to a local pre-school who will use them for craft projects. Now she has a reasonable amount of wrapping paper and will use them this year. Think about ribbons, gift boxes and more that you have in abundance.

The same process will work with other holiday items. Look for ornaments you don’t really love, serving dishes that aren’t right, light sets that don’t work…you get the picture.