How to Get Organized Quickly for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays

The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are almost here.  The Christmas shopping and buying season is already underway.  Friends and family, not to mention you and your family, are making plans for Thanksgiving and Christmas... traveling, hosting, etc.  But is your home organized and ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas?  If not, here's how to get organized quickly for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

First, don't try to do everything at once.  Pick one room to clean and organize at a time.  If you have a lot of organizing and cleaning to do, trying to do it all at once will probably overwhelm you, and you'll just give up and quit.

Next, as you clean and organize each room in your home, decide what you want to have “out” and showing, verses put up and not seen.  Throw out anything that you simply have no use for. Vacuum, sweep, mop, wipe, dust, and/or wash whatever in each room that needs cleaning. 

After the room is clean, now is the time to find a place for all the clutter plus odds and ends that are laying around.  A simple rule: Everything has a home (or place) that it goes when not being used.  When done using something, put items in their home, where they belong.  Storage containers can be almost anything, depending on the size of the items being stored and what they are.  You can store things in boxes, in plastic storage containers (some slide nicely under the bed for easy access, like for blankets), stackable plastic crates, paper and bill organizers, cups for pens and such.

Closets can have hanging organizers on the door, both sides if you like.  If you have a lot of shoes, these are great.  Smaller and lighter items can be organized in closet organizers that hang from the clothes rack pole.  Out of season clothing can be packed away until needed, making more space for what you wear right now.  Get in the habit of hanging your closets in an organized manner so that you can find what you want quickly and easily.  Hanging by particular type or what you wear most helps you to save time by not having to search through everything to find what you want or need.

For kitchen organizing, if you have a full size kitchen pantry, you can use a hanging door organizer for some of your lighter food items.  Regular kitchen cabinets an benefit from shelf organizers, which basically gives you more shelving space.  If you drink a lot of canned soda, a refrigerator can organizer saves a lot of space and organizes your canned drinks nicely and neatly. 

If you need to get organized in a very short time frame, you can take some drastic measures to ensure your home is clean and organized before company arrives.  This method is different than the usual home organizing that I spoke of previously.  While in general you would want to keep your home organized and clean and not have to do the drastic method, life doesn't always allow that.  Work, kids, family...  it's not always easy to keep things just right.  So if you need to clean and organize fast, here's what to do.

To clean and organize really super fast (like company will be there in an hour or less), start with the three main rooms: living room, kitchen, bathroom.  In the bathroom, do a quick cleaning of the obvious.  Any dirty clothes, put them in a basket.  In the kitchen, if you have a dishwasher, load it with any dirty dishes.  Wipe the counters down, turn on the dishwasher (or just leave it off until later).  If you don't have a dishwasher and the sink is full to the brim (yes, I do know that feeling), fill the sink and put the dishes in to soak for a few moments while you pick things up in the living room. 

Here's the thing about picking things up and cleaning really fast.  Don't worry about putting things where they go, just get them picked up and out of sight.  Use laundry baskets or whatever.  Go around, pick up, put the baskets or whatever you used into the closet.  After company leaves, go back and put things where they go.

Grab the vacuum and the broom if the floors really need them, but if not, forget that and go wash the dishes.  Make sure your trash can isn't running over.  Hey, we all have trash, so unless it's running out of the can, don't worry about it.  If you get done with the living room, kitchen, and bathroom, and still have time, go straighten the bedroom.

With the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season coming, you can get your home organized quickly and super fast if you need to by using some of these simple home organizing tips.

More ideas for getting organized can be found from The Organizer Lady at http://www.theorganizerlady.com