Two Steps to Minimizing Your Holiday Stress

Entertaining your family and friends is one of the wonderful joys of the holiday season. All the preparation that goes into entertaining your loved ones, however, is also one of the greatest stress inducing aspects of the holidays. This year, you can minimize some of that stress by taking two simple actions right now.

Declutter

I've spent many years running around like a crazy woman the day before Thanksgiving, trying to get our home cleaned up and ready for guests. This normally included several hours of trying to find places to store the things that have a tendency to pile up: toys, mail, magazines, laundry, school papers and the clutter that accumulates under the bathroom cabinets. Reorganizing and deep cleaning generally left me frazzled and too tired to enjoy my guests or our Thanksgiving meal. This changed when my best friend let me in her little secret—she made a yearly ritual of decluttering in October.

While my friend allocated a different space to work on each week of the month, I normally work all my decluttering into the last two weeks. Maintaining the clutter-free zones after the initial clearing out is a lot easier and we're all motivated to do it because the holidays are approaching.

Prioritize

My biggest holiday epiphany has been to keep it simple. Every year I see elaborate holiday displays in the mall and in the design magazines I read. Many of my favorite design bloggers create lists of the 30 handmade gifts and crafts they plan to accomplish before the Dec. 1. I really enjoy reading about these activities, but I've learned to not let their enthusiasm cause me to feel like I need to live up to that level of activity.

Instead, I spend several weeks before the beginning of the holiday frenzy creating a carefully selected list of five to 10 activities to enjoy with my family and friends. The list may include things like selecting a charity to support for the season, spending an evening selecting our Christmas tree, spending another evening decorating the tree and living room, an evening baking premixed cookies to give to teachers, friends and coworkers, as well as an evening making simple Christmas ornaments with our neighbors. Prioritizing our activities like this keeps me focused on the meaning of the season and minimizes the chances of my inner perfectionist rearing her ugly head.

Remember, spending time with your friends and family during the holiday season should be something you enjoy. By prioritizing your activities and tackling your household clutter in advance, you'll make sure you have the mental and physical space available to focus on enjoying the season with the people who are most important to you.