How to Have the Least Stressful Holiday Season of Your Life
Kathi and her favorite holiday celebrant, Roger Lipp, are bringing all the best tips for our least stressful holiday season ever and equipping us with a game plan to carry it out. So much of preparing our house is about being comfortable in our own space. There are some key things we can do to declutter and make the holidays less stressful including
Determine the priority places & spaces to be decluttered
The Christmas Project Planner: Super Simple Steps to Organize the Holidays
Christmas—whether you really love it, secretly dread it, or fall somewhere in between—shows up the same time every year, as unavoidable as your aunt’s fruitcake.
But this season, don’t stress your “elf” out. Be ready with this amazing planner designed to help you get a handle on the holidays. Stay organized (and sane) when you put expectations aside and choose to focus on the things you truly want to do during Christmas.
You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish with just a little more organization and less obligation. The simple projects in this book will help you stay on schedule so you can spend more time enjoying your friends and family instead of frantically trying to cobble Christmas together at the last minute (again).
You can do this! Let clutter-free queen Kathi Lipp show you how. Order your copy of The Christmas Project Planner here.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.
Meet Our Guest
Roger Lipp
Roger is a productivity and quality engineer for a Fortune 50 company.
Roger helps teams reach their full productivity potential by teaching them the practical and simple steps to reach their goals. Roger and his wife, author Kathi Lipp, teach communicators how to share their message through social media and email marketing.
He and Kathi coauthored Happy Habits for Every Couple with Harvest House Publishers.
Kathi Lipp and her partner in decluttering and everything else, Roger Lipp, are back to continue their great discussion on to how to celebrate the holiday season without sabotaging your Clutter Free journey. Are you unsure of how to approach the holidays without adding to your or your loved ones’ clutter? Kathi has 10 incredibly helpful tips just for that. She and Roger shared the first five suggestions in part 1. Listen in now as they share the last half of their insightful list of suggestions for celebrating the season clutter-free. Kathi explains the value in:
The Christmas Project Planner: Super Simple Steps to Organize the Holidays
Christmas—whether you really love it, secretly dread it, or fall somewhere in between—shows up the same time every year, as unavoidable as your aunt’s fruitcake.
But this season, don’t stress your “elf” out. Be ready with this amazing planner designed to help you get a handle on the holidays. Stay organized (and sane) when you put expectations aside and choose to focus on the things you truly want to do during Christmas.
You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish with just a little more organization and less obligation. The simple projects in this book will help you stay on schedule so you can spend more time enjoying your friends and family instead of frantically trying to cobble Christmas together at the last minute (again).
You can do this! Let clutter-free queen Kathi Lipp show you how. Order your copy of The Christmas Project Planner here.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.
Meet Our Guest
Roger Lipp
Roger is a productivity and quality engineer for a Fortune 50 company.
Roger helps teams reach their full productivity potential by teaching them the practical and simple steps to reach their goals. Roger and his wife, author Kathi Lipp, teach communicators how to share their message through social media and email marketing.
He and Kathi coauthored Happy Habits for Every Couple with Harvest House Publishers.
Kathi Lipp is here with her partner in decluttering and everything else, Roger Lipp, to talk about how to celebrate the holiday season without sabotaging your Clutter Free journey. Are you unsure of how to approach the holidays without adding to your or your loved ones’ clutter? Kathi and Roger give five insightful suggestions to celebrating the season clutter-free, including:
Be sure to catch next week’s episode when Kathi and Roger will share the last half of their advice for a Clutter-Free holiday.
The Christmas Project Planner: Super Simple Steps to Organize the Holidays
Christmas—whether you really love it, secretly dread it, or fall somewhere in between—shows up the same time every year, as unavoidable as your aunt’s fruitcake.
But this season, don’t stress your “elf” out. Be ready with this amazing planner designed to help you get a handle on the holidays. Stay organized (and sane) when you put expectations aside and choose to focus on the things you truly want to do during Christmas.
You’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish with just a little more organization and less obligation. The simple projects in this book will help you stay on schedule so you can spend more time enjoying your friends and family instead of frantically trying to cobble Christmas together at the last minute (again).
You can do this! Let clutter-free queen Kathi Lipp show you how. Order your copy of The Christmas Project Planner here.
Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one.
Subscribe on iTunes or subscribe to our newsletter now.
Meet Our Guest
Roger Lipp
Roger is a productivity and quality engineer for a Fortune 50 company.
Roger helps teams reach their full productivity potential by teaching them the practical and simple steps to reach their goals. Roger and his wife, author Kathi Lipp, teach communicators how to share their message through social media and email marketing.
He and Kathi coauthored Happy Habits for Every Couple with Harvest House Publishers.
When Christmas bells start jingling are you standing in the aisle of Hobby Lobby wearing your favorite snowman sweater?
Or are you at your local grocery store making a quick trip to stock up on milk, bread and bottled water so you can hide out until December 26th?
Whether you’re Buddy the Elf or feel a deeper kinship with the Grinch… Christmas is coming. And I want to encourage you! Despite what you might think you CAN have the Christmas of your dreams. It’s not Christmas itself that has you in a tizzy; it’s the expectations surrounding Christmas.
Watch this video as I explain more about how you can have the Clutter Free Christmas of your dreams.
Join us on Facebook as we go page-by-page through The Christmas Project Planner November 4th-November 27th.
If you don’t have the book already, order can order it here.
Just imagine sitting down to Thanksgiving Dinner with Christmas already in the bag!
Can I talk to you for a second?” My husband peeked into my sewing room. Fifteen projects in various stages of production covered every flat surface.
I looked up from the ironing board for a second. “Hey! Yeah, sure.”
A pause. “On the couch?”
“No, no…we have to talk in here. I have to keep working or I won’t get this done in time. It’s only fifteen days until Christmas.”
He looked at me like I’d sprouted elf ears. Clearly, he didn’t understand what a magical Christmas genie I was. All I needed was time to focus.
“Please. Just for a few minutes.”
I sighed. Maybe I could do with a break.
In the living room, my husband spent the better part of twenty minutes trying to talk me out of my crazy idea.
I sat listening, glancing at the sewing room door every three seconds. Nodded and smiled. Bounced my knee.
Meanwhile, time was wasting.
He cleared his throat, a sure sign that I needed to focus back on what he was saying. “I just don’t want you to spend three days in bed after Christmas is over.”
I popped up from the couch. “Don’t worry, I won’t. Back to work.” I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and scurried back into the sewing room. I thought I heard him mumble something about “manic,” but I didn’t have time to ask him to repeat himself.
I could get this done. Would get this done. And it would be an epic Christmas.
I wish I could say I took my husband’s wise advice that December 10. But I didn’t.
After raising a family, I felt like I’d pulled off enough Christmases to know what I was doing. I didn’t need help! Certainly not in the form of my husband’s counsel. Besides, isn’t everyone crazy-busy around Christmas?
True to form, I exhausted myself so much that I was sick in bed from December 26 until January 2. All for one day of celebration.
Skip forward to last year, when I discovered Kathi’s Christmas Project Planner. Not only was I able to have a joyful Christmas without driving my husband crazy, but I could record notes and thoughts about my Christmas plan for this year. (I already know I don’t need to buy wrapping paper and that I’m going to feature the blue and silver decorations I bought on clearance last December 27. It was fun to go shopping instead of recovering in bed!)
Each day, I tackled that day’s project without worrying about missing something or over stressing the details. My December went from frantic to peaceful and pleasant.
One of the most impactful pieces of advice Kathi gives is to find out what Christmas traditions and foods are most important to those you’ll be celebrating with. I was able to plan for the things my family thinks are important (homemade pumpkin pie with real whipped cream) and leave out what isn’t. Who knew that once they became adults, Christmas eve pajamas wouldn’t be cool anymore?
Through the process, I learned that the Christmas season is more than one day. Life can be joyful throughout the month of December with a little planning and setting of expectations.
The other positive change was scheduling everything I needed or wanted to do. That way I could have a realistic view of when things would get done and how much I could reasonably do. (My husband was very grateful that I didn’t take on a massive December sewing project last year.) We saved a ton of money on shipping alone. Instead of last-minute priority mail, we could send packages media mail with confidence they’d get there in plenty of time for Christmas.
This year, I’m already excited to plan for Christmas. I just received this year’s planner in the mail and it’s beautiful! I love that it has a place to write lists, menus, and notes inside. That way, when we’re shopping for gifts we don’t have to try to remember if we got our daughter a toaster already — it’s written down in the book. There are even pockets designed to tuck away recipes and receipts.
Since two of our kids are flying from the West coast to visit over Christmas, we’re delighted to have a houseful. But that will take some planning and preparation. We’ve already started having conversations about what traditions, activities, and food are the most important. Like last year, everything we expect to do will be on the calendar.
I’m glad I took notes about decorations, menus, and gifts last year because I wouldn’t have remembered any of those details. That saves me work.
Speaking of memories, I’m smiling as I begin this year’s Christmas planning. This morning it dawned on me that, for the first time, all of my planning and preparations last year freed me up to focus on what’s important. I don’t remember a hectic season of frantic work, or all of the details it took to pull off a wonderful Christmas.
The memories I do have are special family times and a sacred worship service. It turns out that it would be our last candlelight communion led by a well-loved young pastor. He passed away from cancer a couple months later, leaving a wife and three beautiful daughters. I wouldn’t trade that precious time for anything, and I’m glad I wasn’t distracted by a chaotic schedule and Christmas stress.
Lyneta Smith is a writer and editor who lives near Nashville, TN with her husband and an opinionated tortoiseshell cat. They enjoy holidays and family nights with their adult daughters more than ever. Lyneta is the author of Curtain Call: A Memoir, and has been published in numerous national magazines and newspapers.
If you’ve ever found yourself wrapping presents on Christmas Eve at 1:00 a.m. or attending a cookie exchange you dread every year, then this blog post is for you.
Here I give you five reasons why the Christmas Project Planner is the book you need for a clutter-free Christmas.
Projects
The planner has 21 projects broken down day by day to help you accomplish everything you want to get done for the holidays. Everything from making your meal plan to getting your Christmas cards out. The good news? You get to decide which projects you want to do and which ones you are going to skip this year. (For instance, most years we don’t send out Christmas cards. But this year, we have a cute puppy, so there WILL be cards.)
Breaking down the projects not only keeps you from being overwhelmed, it keeps you focused on the kind of holiday you really want to celebrate.
Planning Pages
There are tons of pages for you to be able to plan out everything you want to get done this year, including:
Your Holiday Mission Statement
Christmas Card Checklist
Gift Ideas
Budgeting Sheets
Mailable Gifts
Elf Supplies
Wrapping Hints
Fun and Simple Recipes
How to Have a Clutter Free Christmas
Prep Your Kitchen Checklist
Christmas Eve Meals
Christmas Day Meals
40 stocking stuffer ideas
Ideas to Refresh Yourself During the Holidays
The Best Places to Shop Online
Create a December Meal Plan
Food Planning and Shopping List
Post-it Notes
This? Is my favorite thing about the planner. You don’t have to write in the book! If you want to, you can copy the pages. (Yes, if you own the book and use the copies for your own personal use, it is totally fine to make copies of the book.) Or you can use Post-its throughout the book!
Perpetual Calendar
On Project #5: Even Santa has a Strategy, I ask you to sit down and really think through your schedule for the holiday season. I want you to put in the important dates and events early, so you have enough time to do everything you need to do, but more importantly, everything you want to do.
I want you to take all the calendars in your family into consideration (including both you and your husband’s work schedules, your kid’s school calendar, your church’s calendar, etc.) and put major events onto your holiday calendar. And then, I want you to block off space for the things you really want to do: maybe you love to cut down the tree as a family, or bake a certain kind of cookie with your sister. All of that needs to go onto your calendar so you can make room for the things that matter.
Pockets
A planner? With pockets? This is everything my heart loves. As I’m running around town, checking things off of my Christmas to-do list, and want to bring list, save receipts and make notes to myself, I can just put everything into the planner to save for later. Everything in one place. Oh my heart. It is bursting with organized love!
Join us!
If you’ve found yourself nodding along and thinking, “I’ve got to tell my friends and family about this planner!” then I have the Facebook group for you.
Kathi Lipp is the author of 17 books including Overwhelmed, Clutter Free, The Get Yourself Organized Project, The Husband Project, Happy Habits for Every Couple, and I Need Some Help Here – Hope for When Your Kids Don’t Go According to Plan. She is the host of the Clutter Free Academy Podcast with Michele Cushatt and speaks at conferences across the US.
She and her husband Roger are the parents of four young adults in San Jose, CA. When she’s not dating her husband or hanging out with new puppy, Moose, Kathi is speaking at retreats, conferences and women’s events across the US.
