Halloween is yesterday’s news, and the holidays are suddenly in view. As we descend from our sugar high, anxiety builds in preparation of entertaining, decorating, shopping, socializing, overindulging, and. . . oh right, enjoying everything the season has to offer. It should be a time of celebration and joy! Here are some tips from around the web to help make this time of year fun, instead of stressful.
When you have too much to do on your own, you can always outsource! This book demonstrates how outsourcing can be done in the extreme. But for most of us, friends or kids can make great worker bees. We just have to ask for help. And, there are services for finding helpers, like TaskRabbit or Thumbtack. It’s just a matter of delegating, right?
People tend to go crazy with decorations this time of year. When you’re getting it all out is also the time to declutter some of that stuff. A “save” box is a good way to deal with items you don’t want to decorate with, but aren’t ready to part with yet. This post suggests the job can be even simpler.
Holiday décor can be a bear to store. Here are some inexpensive ideas for storage, and some vetted, long-lasting ones. Using lights for multiple holidays and fresh (and possibly free and compostable) decor like plants and greenery can reduce what requires storage. Here are more ideas on storage and decorating with less.
It’s hard to keep it simple in a season of excess. Thankfully, there are myriad ideas for clutter-free gifts. The gift of travel is one of my favorites. Use Google Flights (free) or Scott’s Cheap Flights (subscription) to track airfare and buy when it’s cheap(er). I’ll have more on making the holidays simpler next month!
I love The Daily podcast, but even more so, it’s theme song. My exploration into who composed it led me to Song Exploder, another podcast that delves into the creative process of contemporary musicians. In 12 minutes, you too can learn how the composing duo called Wonderly created the theme song. It’s brilliant.
This post is taken from my monthly newsletter, The Short Sort. If you’d like to receive the newsletter via email on the first of every month, you can subscribe through my site. Thanks for reading!
