The Mommy Cooler

DISCLAIMER: THIS POST IS NOT SPONSORED. THIS POST IS WRITTEN BY  GUEST CONTRIBUTOR ALLEN MICHAEL.  ALL OPINIONS ARE HIS OWN.  SEE MY DISCLOSURE/ PRIVACY POLICY. THIS POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS.

The holidays are a wonderful time of celebration and typically provide the opportunity to spend time away from work and with family and friends. They also bring with it a sharp increase in commitments and activities. As a result, your home can suffer, with you along with it.

If you’re looking to keep on top of a clean home this holiday season, we’ve put together a few ways to prepare for the holidays.

Determine How Much to Decorate

The first place to start as the holiday’s approach is to determine how much you will be decorating your home. This is different for every family, and can actually change year by year.

Some families prefer to go all out with decorations, while others like to keep it to a minimum. Either way, make a list of exactly what you’ll be doing this year for decorating.

This will allow you to plan out when you’ll be doing the decorating, and it won’t fall to the last minute. You can also work in plans for some Christmas crafts with your kids, or hanging a new decoration that you picked up this year.

If you’ll be traveling out of town for the holidays this year, then it might be a good year to cut back on decorations. Talking about it well in advance will make sure everyone is on the same page.

Plan Your Calendar in Advance

The holidays always bring with them a more frenetic and hectic calendar. Between holiday parties, end of year activities, and time with family and friends, your calendar will undoubtedly be busier than most other times of the year.

Sit down and plan out your calendar down to the day (as much as possible). Try to determine what you’ll be doing, especially on busy weekends. If you need a babysitter for a specific evening, jump on finding one quickly.

This will also allow you to find the gaps in your schedule, for when you can do a little shopping or relax a bit.

Prep for Guests Early

If you’re hosting at all this holiday season, starting prepping your home sooner than you normally would. The faster pace of the season means that hosting will sneak up on you a lot quicker, and could leave you in a panic.

In addition, stores tend to run out of various food and supplies. If you waited until the last minute to pick up the roast or to find a few table decorations, you might be left stranded.

Prepping early also helps to lower your stress, and make the clean up easier. Follow along on a few preparation hacks to keep the mess to a minimum and your clean up time shorter.

Curb the Mess

Whether hosting or not, don’t let a mess get out of hand during the holidays. Even if its just avoiding dishes that are piling up, keep on top of your home during the busy time period.

A small mess can turn into a big mess quickly, especially as schedules are crunched. You might not have those 20 minutes every night that you are used to tidying up and keep things at bay.

If a small mess turns into a big mess during this time period, it’s hard to recover and thoroughly clean your home. Focusing on keeping messes at bay during this holiday time frame will help you avoid this.

Commit to a Post Holiday Deep Clean

Keeping messes at bay can only work for so long, but planning on a post-holiday deep clean will help you stay positive about it. Plus, your home will probably need some TLC following a crazy holiday period.

This is a great time to break out your heavy duty vacuum cleaner, rubber gloves, and cleaning supplies for a deep clean. Set aside at least a half day to thoroughly clean your home and get it back to good working order.

The holidays are a wonderful time to spend with family and friends, but they can bring with it a lot of extra commitments and activities. Planning for this business, instead of being caught behind the curve, can help you keep your home in order during a busy holiday season.