Christmas is less than a month away and already my thoughts have turned towards organising the house.
Our house is fairly small and we have to juggle the furniture around just to fit in the tree, so it’s the perfect time for a pre-christmas sort out.
The kids are encouraged to donate any unwanted toys and books to the school Christmas fayre or the charity shop and last years outgrown winter clothes are handed down to family friends.
Moving the furniture means it is a great time to give everything a bit of an extra scrub, although I am still finding bits of ingrained glitter from last years wrapping paper. Note to self: Never by sparkly wrapping paper EVER again.
I try to hold off putting up decorations until as late as possible, mainly because I find the lack of room it leaves us is quite stressful and it seems I am not alone.
Regina Blitz, one of the UK’s leading kitchen roll brands have put together a Christmas Campaign surrounding the ‘Stress of Mess’ and the impact it has on enjoying family moments over the festive period.
The results revealed:
- 63% of UK residents admit they miss out on family time during the festive season because they begin to tidy the house a week before the big day
- 37% of UK residents like to get in early and begin tidying 10-18 days in advance of Christmas Day
- Generation Y especially are putting in the extra hours, with 79% of millennials dusting, polishing, scrubbing and scraping in the lead up to Christmas more than normal
- Over half of UK residents (52%) reported the house a complete mess again within an hour or less of guests arriving on Christmas Day, even after their best attempts to keep things in order.
My top tips for keeping the mess under control this Christmas
1. Enlist the help of the family to declutter and clean – my kids love dusting and hoovering and it could be the perfect trade-off to let them help you put up the Christmas tree and decorations when they have finished
2. Keeping the house tidy can be a challenge, but those Christmas Elves that visit this time of year can be the perfect encouragement to keep things tidy. Help teach the kids independence by clearing up any spills they have caused, themselves.
4. Allocate a task per day and spend no more than 15 minutes on cleaning. You would be surprised how much easier keeping the house tidy is if you do it little and often.
5. On Christmas Day itself, encourage kids to drop their wrapping paper into a bin bag as they unwrap their presents, that way you don’t have to pick up after them AND you are less likely to lose anything in the mess.
6. When cooking Christmas dinner, wash up or load the dishwasher as you go, that way the mess won’t seem quite so overwhelming when you have finished your meal.
7. Don’t sweat the small stuff!! Christmas is about having fun and making memories – no-one is going to be bothered by ornaments out-of-place or a little bit of dust.
8. Keep a roll of Regina Blitz within easy reach! The all-purpose household and kitchen towel is perfect for any cleaning task around the home, from unexpected spillages to an impromtu window or bathroom cleaner. Its triple layer sheets with a super-strong emboss are almost 70% bigger than standard kitchen rolls and can be used inside and outside the home.
Regina Blitz is available to buy from all leading supermarkets as well as independent retailers priced from £2.50.
Disclaimer: Post written in collaboration with Regina Blitz and Tots100. All thoughts and opinions are my own
I don’t even know where our Christmas tree is going this year since we swapped the living and dining room around. Eek!
Great tips.
This sounds like great stuff. I do my best to keep the house in order during the holidays, but it can still get away from me sometimes.
It seems like Christmas is the time of the year where my house gets confused lol I seem to lose so much around this time! And then on Christmas day with the gift opening mess!
Little and often that’s how my folks keep on top of cleaning during the festive period! It’s hard not to tidy up after people though!
Since Christmas is not one of my holidays, this is actually the most relaxing time of the year for me and my family. Perhaps I could use some of these tips though for preparation for tax time. LOL
I love this kind of post where it definitely a great help to us organize and maintain cleanliness. We should always keep this in mind everyday especially this coming season.
I could relate in this,our house is not that big for big Christmas trees. And my siblings and parents aren’t fond of decorating the house. So I just bought a little Christmas lantern that is made of shells. It so cute. And definitely gives me a Christmas feels.
Oh, I like the sound of this product! Definitely ideal to have around! Keep the house in order as best as possible 🙂
being messy is part of growing up but having a mess is something none of us like. This is a great post to share at this time of year thank you
Amazing tips for Christmas. Seems pretty interesting!
I find myself cleaning around all the Christmas decor throughout the month. Frustrating, but I can’t live with dust under the garland!
Such awesome tips to keep Christmas stress-free! Thank you for all of them! 🙂
These are some great ways to keep the clutter under control over the festive season. It is the one thing that really annoys me about Christmas, all the mess.
I am.so guilty of.getting super stressed over cleaning around holiday time. I love all these tips though and the most important thing is time with family not if the house was perfect in every way 🙂
I have a Christmas cleaning plan that I have employed for 15 years. I love it!
yes absolutely, we also need this!!! you have given some great ways to keep the situationr under control over the festive season! .-)
Great tips here and a good way to get everyone involved in keeping the house in order for the holidays!
The mandating a task a day tip has to be the best tip I see seriously. I get so behind on my house and I’m trying to work on figuring out a better way to get things done and that is a great tip.
These are great holiday tips. We are excited for the holidays and holiday parties and we are going skiing with our vacation for Christmas.