 That's right, the holidays are HERE! 2020 be an unusual year, but one thing we can always count on is some holiday cheer. With coronavirus still being a concern, many of us are spending most of this holiday season cooped up at home. More time at home means more time for holiday decorating and even time to ORGANIZE your decorations. Have you ever felt dreadful of decorating because you know it's going to take you forever to sort through all your decor? Have you ever limited your decorating solely because digging through all those decorations is frustrating? Has your holiday cheer ever turned into holiday gloom because decorating made you feel overwhelmed? If you answered YES to any of the above or you just want holiday decorating to go smoother for you, then you have got to follow my three tips to organizing your holiday decorations: 1. Purge as you go Decluttering of course is one of the most fundamental steps of organization. However, when it comes to holiday decorations, I recommend decluttering not just once every couple years but instead, every time you put up the decorations AND when you take them down. This is a great way to keep up with your decoration inventory and also make room for any new decorations you purchased while your current decorations are on display. PLUS, you’ll notice if there are decorations you aren’t putting out (<<hint: donate!) 2. Separate long-term, sentimental items out While doing your first round of decoration purging this holiday season, separate your sentimental items out. These may include the ornaments your children made, maybe decorations you inherited or were given as gifts. Whatever your “for-sure-keeping” decorations are, separate them in bins of their own. This will make it easier in the future when you are doing Step 1 because you KNOW you don’t have to declutter/purge the sentimental decoration bins. 3. Label your bins I may sound like a broken record by now, but I can’t stress this step enough. Please, please, please, label your bins! Labeling your bins streamlines Step 1 and makes it far easier to know where your holiday decorations are so you aren’t accidentally dragging down bins of old papers or whatever else you have in storage. Labeling eliminates the hassle of pulling out the wrong storage bins or checking inside every bin in your attic for the right ones! Which holiday decoration organizing tip is your favorite? Comment below!  Need more help with organizing your holiday decor? Check out our newest service- Holiday Decor Pack-Away. Book a call to get your Holiday decor taken care of. Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area.
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 Thanksgiving is right around the corner which means a lot of us will be traveling to see family. If you're going to spend Thanksgiving at a family member's house, you may not be as concerned about the tidiness of your own home, but you should be thinking about how you are going to pack up your household to get on the road. Packing can really be a drag especially when you are struggling to fit everything in and zipper your bag. I know- it's SO frustrating. I'm sharing some of my favorite packing hacks that will help save space in your luggage. Follow these tricks to get the most out of your suitcase. 1. Roll, Roll, Roll Tops, bottoms, skirts, dresses- roll it all! Lay your clothing out, fold it in three, then roll tightly. Line the bottom of your suitcase with your rolled clothes. You'll be shocked how much more you can fit! IMPORTANT: Do not roll bulky items like sweaters and jackets. Rolling bulky items takes up more space in your suitcase. Fold those and place on top of the rolled clothes. 2. Shower caps for your Shoes Shoes can be tricky in a suitcase. You can't go without them (Ha!) but nobody wants their clothes getting dirty from the bottom of their shoes (Yuck!) Cover the bottom of your shoes with a shower cap. This is an easy way to keep your clothes clean and you'll be able to squeeze your shoes in wayyy more places without the concern of dirt spreading. 3. Small items in a glasses case Your hard glasses/sunglasses case can be used for more than just eyewear! Pack your jewelry, earbuds, pillbox, hair bands. . .etc. in your hard glasses case to keep the small items from falling in nooks and crannies of your suitcase. 4. Pack socks in shoes This is an easy one and it just makes sense! Fold your socks so they are in pairs, then stuff them in your shoes. Now your socks will be with your shoes (no searching!) when you unpack at your destination. 5. Turn worn clothes inside-out This is my favorite packing hack! While out of town, fold the clothing you wear inside-out. Leave the clothes you don't wear right-side-out. You'll be so happy you did this when you're home and unpacking. You won't have to question if something needs to go in the wash or not! Which packing hack is your favorite? Comment below! If you're looking for more organization ideas and tips, follow Sage Organizing Co. onPinterest!
Need more help with organizing your home or estate clearing? Contact us and book a consultation to start your organized life today! Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area.  The holidays are over and the twenties are officially upon us. Woo hoo!! The phrase "out with the old, in with the new" is true for many people when it comes to starting off the new year fresh-- organization is no exception! New Year's resolutions are often well-intentioned, but let's be honest-- they are usually thrown to the way-side a month or even a few weeks into the year. Life is busy, work and kids are a lot to manage, how are we supposed to find time to do yoga and eat vegetables 3 times a day?! Whether it's quitting bad habits, starting a new hobby, or adjusting your lifestyle, you can set yourself up for success this new year by implementing organization in your home and schedule! Read on to find out 5 tips to organize your 2020! 1. Utilize a calendar Whether it be paper or digital, having (and using!) a single calendar for all tasks, reminders, appointments, and events is the first step to organizing your day, week, month, and year. Most phones come with a calendar app already installed, but if you aren't a fan of how it functions, there are plenty of other calendar apps you can download. A great benefit of digital calendars is you can also set up reminder notifications to prevent from any confusion. If digital calendars aren't your thing, a paper calendar works too! One thing to keep in mind is to make sure your calendar is portable so you can add events to it even when you're not home. At some point, we all have had to delay scheduling or adding an event to our calendar because it's at home on our wall or desk. A portable calendar makes it easy for you to keep track of your life at home and on-the-go! 2. Post-Holiday Present Declutter Presents are abundant during the holidays which is all great fun until our home gets cluttered. Think about all the presents you received and count them. Now, take that number and give away or throw away the same number of items in your home. Read here to decide if an item should be donated or thrown out! A post-holiday present declutter is a great way to maintain organization in your home and make sure you don't have too much stuff for the space available. 3. Cleaning/Chore Schedule Establishing a cleaning/chore schedule for your household is a must! None of us are excited about cleaning our bathrooms so it's easy to put it off. However, this often ends up in frustration and feeling overwhelmed. A schedule keeps everybody on track and spreads the responsibility evenly amongst all family members. Nobody can use the excuse anymore that they didn't know or forgot they had to do a house chore! Plus, by spreading the cleaning and chores across all family members, you have more time and can realistically plan accomplishing those new year's resolutions! 4. Family Message Board A family message board and a chore schedule sound like they may be same, but these are separate and have their own functions. The chore schedule should show family members their responsibilities for the week or month. A message board is perfect in the kitchen or anywhere everybody in the house passes through to communicate. Messages may be something like, "I fed the dog" or "I'll be back around 6pm" or "dinner is at 7pm." Message boards are an easy and fun way to make sure the whole family is on the same page and knows what's going on. 5. Meal Prep Prepping your meals for the week is another way to manage time plus eat healthy. Meal prepping prevents those times of coming home from work, starving, and not in the mood to make a balanced meal so you just reach for the instant mac and cheese for you and the family. Moments like these are what often lead to giving up on resolutions. Meal prepping gives you a sense of accomplishment and enables you to be more productive during busy weekdays. You can read more details on meal prepping (and how I manage to do it for my family) here. And those are 5 tips from a Certified Professional Organizer® to start your 2020 off organized! Set yourself up for success in the new year by getting your home, schedule, and life organized. What are your New Year's resolutions? Comment below! If you're looking for more organization ideas and tips, follow Sage Organizing Co. on Pinterest and get ideas from a Professional Organizer! Need more help with organizing your home? Contact us and book a consultation to start your organized life today! Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area. Related Articles: How I created a weekly routine that works for our family 6 Tips to Maintain Organization in Your Home Your Guilt-Free Decluttering List   Whether you're full of excitement or dread, the holiday season is officially upon us. The holidays can be chaotic no matter your own personal feelings on the season. During this busy time of year, it is easy for your home to suffer from clutter and disorganization. I think it's safe to say we all have the thought of "What am I supposed to do with (this/that/the other)?" more often than usual during the holidays. One holiday tradition that trips up a lot of people is organizing, displaying, and storing greeting cards. We all love seeing adorable pictures of family and friends! However, it is important to establish a functional way to organize these cards so that they don't start taking over all flat surfaces. Your favorite professional organizer is here to help! Here are six ways to manage your greeting cards this holiday season: 1. An easy way to display, organize, and store greeting cards is to hole punch the top corner of each card. Next, grab a binder ring clip and thread all of your cards on the ring. This is a great method to keep your cards from being scattered all over the house and to easily flip through all of them. BONUS: if you're really feeling ambitious, you can create a "cover" card to label the year. A cover card, for example, may say something like "Christmas 2019" or "2019 Holiday Cards." Feel free to make it as pretty and festive as you like!! 2. Another way to organize greeting cards is to store them digitally. Of course, you can scan each card into your computer or laptop but for those of who are a little more technologically challenged, it is simpler to take a photo with your phone. Make sure to create a "2019 Holidays" folder for the photos to be kept in so that you aren't cluttering your phone gallery while decluttering your home! 3. Shop for a festive card holder! You can find just about anything on Amazon, am I right? A great way to show off those beautiful pictures of your kids and grandkids is to use a card holder that doubles as holiday decor. I found this absolutely gorgeous card holder that looks like a chapel here on Amazon: Chapel Card Holder There are tons of different styles if you prefer something else like this Wire Christmas Tree Card Holder 4. Another more "trendy" option for displaying photos and cards is on strings of light using clothespins. Here's a link to a string of lights that has the lights IN the clothespins, we are truly living in the future folks: Photo Clip String Lights A lot of people keep these lights up all year round and switch out the photos as often as they like. This is an easier way to display more recent memories without having to find places for more photo frames. 5. Card storage boxes or accordion file folders are great options for storing those cards of your sweet little ones. Here's a storage box on from Bed Bath and Beyond: Card Storage Box with Dividers Whether you use a storage bin or an accordion file, make sure to take advantage of the labels! You can either label by year or even by child. This is a great way to see how your kids have grown through the years. 6. One last tip is the importance of differentiating cards that turn into keepsakes or clutter. Consider why you are keeping holiday cards? If it's out of pure guilt, know that it is okay to recycle the majority of your cards. The KonMari method is a great tool for this situation. Keep the cards that truly spark joy! What is your favorite way to display or store cards? Comment below! If you're looking for more organization ideas and tips, follow Sage Organizing Co. on Pinterest and get ideas from a Professional Organizer! Need more help with organizing your home? Contact us and book a consultation to start your organized life today! Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area. Related Articles: Post-Holiday Organizing: detox + declutter your home after the holidays Gift these 5 Wonderful EXPERIENCES to the Ones you Love Your Guilt-Free Decluttering List  
This holiday season, instead of giving “stuff” to your loved ones, gift them with experiences they will love. Not only are experiences more memorable, but doing things instead of buying things will reduce the amount of clutter in your life and home.
Read on for 5 fantastic experience gift ideas...1 ). Tickets and/or Memberships
2 ). Classes
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3 ). Trips
4). Big Tickets items
5). Other cool Experience gifts
*Hot air balloon ride
*Helicopter tour (or airboat, tractor, train etc) *A year of date nights (12 gift cards to restaurants, movies, sporting events, museums, etc) *Skydiving *Sailing or boating tour *Massage and or facial *Subscription boxes Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area. 
Enough with the stuff! Give the Gift of Experience instead.
Using these great ideas of how to give the gift of experience, you are sure to be popular this holiday season.
After you make it through the holidays, you'll be ready to detox, declutter, and organize your home. Your post-holiday disaster zone can be whipped into shape if you take a couple extra minutes as you are putting things away. Take the time to donate, discard and simply pare down the volume of holidays items this year, and next year you will be golden!
I'll be sharing tips I've learned as a Professional Organizer to get your post-holiday home organized. And because I'm cool like that, I'm sharing this free printable Post-Holiday Organizing Decluttering Checklist with all ya'll!
Ready to rock your post-holiday organizing? Keep reading!Organizing for the holidays
There are a boatload of things you need to sweat BEFORE the holidays. Scheduling, budget +shopping, hosting, entertaining, travel, food, and family dynamics: no wonder we're already exhausted (and, honestly, a bit pissy) in early December.
I'm here to give you a few simple tips and tricks for getting your act organized AFTER the madness has passed. My advice: give it a couple of days before you jump in to taking everything down and putting it away for next year. And seriously...have a little Bailey's Irish Cream in your coffee as you work. Working at a reasonable pace with a little drinky-poo in your tum tum makes the task waaaay more tolerable. #MyPersonalMotto Decorations
Lights: Discard strings of lights that don't work and keep on walking. End of story. Don't fool yourself into thinking you're going to replace the bulbs. Ain't nobody got time for that.
Ornaments: Save your egg cartons throughout the year and store your random ornaments in them. Don't plop them all into a leftover popcorn tin, like some dummy I know once did. (Ahem: I'm the dummy. What a dang mess I made). Interior decor: time for some Tough Love, y'all. If you haven't put it up in 3 years, donate or discard it. There: I said it. I get it: some of the stuff is sentimental. There are family items, wedding gifts, and stuff you bought when your kids were babies. But you DO NOT HAVE TO KEEP IT ALL. Remember: you still love your grandma even if you donate the Precious Moments Christmas figurines she gave you for your wedding. Struggling? OK, try photographing the item, developing the picture (like...on paper!), and keep the photo. (I'll give you a tip for what to do with the photos in a bit). BOOM! Problem solved. Let the actual items go to Goodwill or the trash can.
Related reading:
Clutter Puts the "Rage" in Garage: 6 DIY Steps to Organize Your Garage with free Garage Planning checklist 4 Smart Ideas for Selling Your Stuff Offline...and 1 Really Dumb One 
Cards
Cards you received this year: I truly love looking at photo holiday cards through the year. I keep mine in a pretty wooden bowl in my office and browse through them often. A sweet friend of mine keeps hers on the coffee table in her living room: I love looking at them every time I visit her in Florida. Naturally, I make sure my family card is placed at the top of her pile, 'cuz that is how I roll.
Extras of the photo cards you sent out this year: Keep 5-10 and recycle the rest. I mean it...walk over to the recycle bin and put those extra cards in there. I'm putting my money where my mouth is: I tossed out probably 100 duplicate photo cards this year. I felt a little Grinchy, but I did not need 25 extra cards from 2012. Neither do you. Extra generic cards that you've picked up on clearance but haven't used: Let 'em go. Keep what you HONESTLY think you will use, then donate the rest to Goodwill. Your donation will benefit someone else! Make notes in your planner about cards ordered, sent and received. I like to note in my planner how many cards I ordered and the price each year. It makes it easier for me when ordering the following year. It truly simplifies my post-holiday organizing.
Suggested Reading:
3 Ways to Organize Your Life + Time with the Erin Condren Life Planner How I Created a Weekly Routine That Works for Our Family with free Weekly Family Routine Checklist Gifts
Kitchen + Pantry
Food Gift containers/tins/jars, etc.: My theory is Use It or Lose It. I'm totally guilty of hoarding cookie tins like there's no tomorrow. But you know what? I don't bake cookies and gift them...so why on earth am I collecting tins? Goodwill: you are welcome for all the cookie tins I just donated.
Corporate food gifts: We receive "business" food gifts throughout the season. If you do too, I'd suggest freezing whatever you can and stashing it for later. My friends and family will attest that I pull out frozen Christmas kringle and Cheryl's cookies all year long. And God Bless the wonderful companies that send us Omaha Steaks! Clean out your pantry: After you've made it through the holidays, do a down+dirty pantry clean out. Chuck out the half-eaten bags of Christmas tree shaped pretzels, the last few pieces of peppermint bark, and the stale cookies. Get yourself ready for all the delightful kale and chia seeds you're going to eat in the new year. 
The house
Related reading:
Assess the Mess: How to Plan out Downsizing a Home with free printable Room-by-Room Checklist 4 Smart Ideas for Selling Your Stuff Offline...and 1 Really Dumb One You are ready to crush your post-holiday organizing + decluttering!
Organizing your house after the holidays is easier than you may think. Take the time to declutter items as you put them away and next year you'll have less to deal with . Donate items you don't use to charity: your cast-offs can be a blessing for someone else.
Professional Disclaimer: The ideas, recommendations, and opinions on this website, blog, and made in person are for educational and entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered legal, financial, or medical advice. I am not an attorney, doctor, or licensed financial professional. Sage Organizing Co., LLC is not liable for any losses or damages related to actions or failure to act related to the content of this website, blog, or in-person discussions. If you need specific legal, financial, or medical advice, consult a professional in your area.
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