Welcome to A Cozycakes Christmas: My Organized Christmas Series!
For the next few weeks leading up to Christmas, I’ll be posting about my Christmas organization which will include ideas, tips, printable lists and more. You can read more about the series in detail here. I want to thoroughly enjoy my favorite time of year and that means eliminating as much of the planning, hosting, & celebrating stress as possible.
*It’s Day 5 of the series and today we’re focusing on clearing more clutter. Making sure my home is in order before December descends on me means that I’m less stressed and more pleasant to be around. 🙂 No joke. When my home is in disarray, I can’t focus on the good things. No one wants to be around that gal. If you’re anything like me, the decluttering cleanses your mind and your soul. Here we go!
And remember:
- 1) If you’re behind on the tasks, please don’t stress. This series is meant to be a help not a guilt-inducer. You can jump in at any time and you can also play catch-up wherever you need–we will be taking weekends (and Thanksgiving) off so those days are “extra days” where you can do what you need to. But please don’t work on Thanksgiving!
- 2) Be sure to keep your printables in a safe place because you’ll need them throughout the series. I keep mine in my homemaking binder so I always know where they are (let’s hope I don’t lose my binder!).
Here are your tasks for today:
- Task 1: Declutter kitchen drawers and cupboards: We’re back in the kitchen today. Time to open the cupboards and drawers. Believe me, I know it can be a tough area to tackle, but we’ll feel quite accomplished when we’re done! (suddenly I’m all-knowing. 🙂 ) Set the timer for 30 minutes and go through all your drawers and cupboards, removing any extra items you’ve accumulated: do you need 3 veggie peelers? Probably not. Just because that lizard dish was a gift doesn’t mean you need to hold on to it for eternity.
If you don’t love it, don’t use it, don’t need it…Get it out of the house. If you don’t use the coffee carafe from your old broken coffee maker, toss it or donate it. Do a quick wipe down of the drawers and cupboards when they’re empty. Next, organize items like you did with the pantry: keep like items together and, if possible, create zones. For example, it’s much more efficient for me to store oven mitts and hot pads in the drawer directly next to my oven. My spice shelves are divided into zones as well: baking items and baking spices take up one shelf while my oils and herbs live on another shelf. And don’t forget storage containers! Those pesky things seem to multiply and I always find myself with missing lids or I find extra lids with no matching containers. Toss/donate those items without a mate!
You might need more than 30 minutes to do this–if you choose to take extra time on this task, wonderful! If not, just focus on what you can accomplish in 30. Any extra work or tinkering you’d like to do in here can be done when you have a few extra moments throughout the next few days.
I think it’s important to focus on the holiday next week. Therefore, I won’t post a task each day next week. I’d rather urge you to enjoy your family and friends, spend time pampering yourself, read a good book, take a long walk in the cool autumn air, count your blessings. I’ll post a couple of times early in the week and then we’ll continue after the holiday weekend. ♥
xx ~Danielle
*Printable Worksheet for Day4: Christmas Card List
*Printable Worksheet for Day 3: Gift List Planner
*Printable Worksheet for Day 2, Task 1: Christmas Priorities: Master To-Do List (Printable)
*Printable Worksheet for Day 2, Task 2: Christmas Calendar
*Printable Worksheet for Day 1: All I Want for Christmas: Your Christmas Heart Worksheet (Printable)
Other posts in the A Cozycakes Christmas: My Organized Christmas Series:
Cozycakes Cottage 
Just cleared out 2 boxes of can goods that were outdated but prob still good will donate to food bank and it feels good to clearout and reorganize..how many cans of diced tomatoes can one accumulate…don’t ask;-)
Haha! Well, I have quite the stash of whole canned tomatoes. We can trade 🙂 Good job, Cherie! What are you tackling next?
I have gotten more organized with my time in December since my kids have gotten older. (Luckily, I have no clutter to rifle through…I de-clutter as clutter rears it’s ugly head, and AmVets is on speed dial!) I am happy I have a lunch date with hubby today to get our holiday plans going. Love your homey, cozy, and delicious blog! (BTW, my family loves Bubble Pizza! And I love it to because that’s the extent of my culinary desires. I envy you!)
I love your decluttered-ness! I think it is definitely key to sanity in this crazy life! And thanks for your kind words, Kim. Hugs to Alyssa please!!! ❤
Great tips! xoxo
Thanks, Dearie. xx
Ahhh. You make Christmas planning seem so relaxing and purposeful! My plan this year has been to run around like crazy in November so I can enjoy December! Ha! Your way makes more sense.
I LOVE your ideas for setting the timer to clean and also breaking tasks down in steps (i.e just making Christmas Card list and walking away from it instead of creating card, making list as addressing cards…eek!)
I know you said to take the week off for the holiday, but I have all your lists printed out and am bringing them with me to get organized. I’m looking forward to being away from home and having down time to think about Christmas without the dishes and clutter calling out to me!
xxx Your comments make me happy, Abs. I always bring my “organizational” tasks with me when I travel, too! I didn’t want to encourage working during a lovely holiday, but I totally get it! You’re ready for December which means we get lots of time together in the coffee shop! xxxxx