Getting your house ready for the season

Ohh Christmas is just here, are you ready?   Here are some final tips for these last few days to ensure that you are ready for whatever over the next few days! 

De-Clutter.

Take a look around each of your party rooms.   Is there something there that shouldn’t be there?  Yes, well put it away.  Get it out of your sight for the next few days.  If you don’t need to see it either does any of your guests that are popping over.

Remember also that if you have a clear coffee table it is easier for people to leave down their drinks and not ruin your carpet by leaving a glass there.

Once you have your party rooms done – take a look over every other room in the house.

Bathroom

When throwing a party it is always essential that you have your bathroom perfect.  Make sure you have enough toilet rolls visible for your guests should the original roll run out.  Ensure your hand towel is clean and fluffy. I remember going to one party where the towel was damp when I got there.  Ewww I wasn’t impressed.  If you have a cabinet in your bathroom leave another towel or two out so people can easily move to another towel if they are not happy.   Always remember to make sure you have enough hand soap – go out and treat yourself to some fancy soap for the occasion.

Clean as you go.

Ok so you have the mega cleaning done on your house. But every day you need to make an effort so that you house is ready for entertaining.   Make time during most days to take out the hoover and give a quick run around.   Don’t forget to get clean down the kitchen as you go along.

Do you have any tips?

S

Candy Cane Vodka

Seasonal and fun!   I don’t need to say any more do I?

Take some candy canes or sweets like skittles.  Soak them in a vodka for two days and voila!   You can also give this as a present by dressing up so cute like below. 

Getting the right food in stock for Christmas

Planning is the most important thing to do when it comes to any family occasion. Christmas is especially one of those times when you don’t know who is going to call over and what you need to have prepared.

Two things to do before you start food shopping.  Stock Take and List.

Stock take

Check what you have you in your cupboards.  Do you have stuff since last Christmas that really should be dumped?  Or do you think you have essential ingredients for that certain dinner but not too sure.   This is the exact reason why you need to stock take.  Take everything out of the cupboards, fridge and freezer.  Check all the dates, throw out what is out of date and what you probably won’t ever use again.  While everything is out of the cupboards give them a good wipe down.   Then put everything back in an order whereby you can see what is there easily without moving 101 items to get that sauce packet.

List

Do what Santa does? Make a list and check it twice.  Plan your menus for the festive season.  Then write down the list of all the ingredients that you need. And simply go shopping.   Remember to do a list nearer Christmas as well of the fresh ingredients that you need to buy the day before the big day.  Making a list is a sure fire way that you won’t forget to buy anything and that you will have everything you need in stock for the season.

Don’t forget to check the drinks cabinet too! 

Remember once you know what is in your cabinets you will be best prepared for the shopping.

Any other hints for getting ready for Christmas.

S

Preparing your house for Christmas.

With less than one month to go to Christmas my thoughts have turned to preparing my house for the upcoming festivities.  I love the holidays, that holiday cheer that everyone has. It is defintely my favourite time of the year.  However, not only are my thoughts going towards putting up my Christmas decorations but I am also thinking about cleaning the house for the holiday period.  I suppose it is my version of a spring clean but a holiday clean.   So I have decided to plan everything out so that come Christmas week I don’t need to do too much other than the basic every day cleaning and enjoying the holidays.    So what’s on the to do list?

I am starting by listing each room in the house out on an excel spreadsheet, I don’t have a big house to clean so we are not talking major amount of rooms, but it is an average size house. 

Target date	Room
05/12/2012	kitchen
10/12/2012	Utility Room
10/12/2012	Hall / Stairs / Landing
12/12/2012	Living Room
14/12/2012	Tv Room
15/12/2012	Bedroom 1
17/12/2012	Bedroom 2
19/12/2012	Bedroom 3
20/12/2012	Bathroom

You can see from my grid above that I have set a target date to tackle each room on. This means that from 20/12/2012 I will have a perfect pristine house just in time for when those visitors start calling over. I won’t need to worry about opening a cupboard and finding something out of date, or opening another cupboard and items falling out on my head. 

My schedule is a little spread out and I would love to be done before 20/12/2012 but I will just have to see how it all works out.

Each week I will post an update on the big Christmas clean up and let you know how it goes.  I feel the most important rooms to start with are the Kitchen and the Utility room.  Starting with the kitchen will allow me to go through the cupboards and actually see what food is in there, what is still in date ( shameful face) and what I need to throw out or buy for the upcoming holidays.

I have scheduled my hall/stairs and landing and the living and tv rooms for the same days that I intend to put up my Christmas tree and decorations this means it will all be done in one day in each room and I will be stressed out in to when to put these things up when I don’t have a room I am happy.  I am hoping to have these rooms cleared out alittle before then as I have junk cupboards and drawers in there that I would dearly love to eradicate completely.  I may just be wishful thinking here but I think it is worth a go don’t you?

There are countless blogs out there that will help you become organised for the holiday period, to schedule your cooking, cleaning and baking.   Try popping over to some of them to get some fantastic ideas on how to arrange your rooms so that organisation becomes a key component to your holiday season with little stress and fuss.

Keeping the house clean during the holidays

Let’s start cleaning now so that we can enjoy the holiday season.

S