Reduce holiday season chaos by completing these 8 simple things on your holiday to do list NOW!

Ready to kick it into high gear for the holidays?

Take a deep breath, because they’re coming upon us FAST.

When it comes to reducing that sense of overwhelm that goes hand-in-hand with the holiday season, the name of the game is

Do. Things. Early.

There are likely some key holiday prep tasks on your super-sized Holiday To Do List that you can focus on knocking out now, in order to carve out more time for the fun in December. Need some help generating a list of these tasks?

You got it.

8 Tasks on Your Holiday To-Do List That You Should Do Early Every Year

1. TACKLE THE DEEP CLEANING

Now’s the time to clean your carpets and refrigerator, dust the blinds and ceiling fans, and disassemble your family room furniture to vacuum under the cushions!

If you tackle the deep cleaning now, you’ll be ready to entertain guests after just a surface cleaning of the common areas.

2.  DECLUTTER

Fall’s the perfect time to declutter your home, in order to make room for all of those pretty new things that will be arriving in late December…think closets and the kids’ playroom!

Decluttering also comes into play as you begin the holiday decorating process.

Take time to review your holiday decor; remove any items that you haven’t used in the past few years from your collection. Either donate the items, or consider hosting a “holiday decor swap”.

During your declutter frenzy, don’t neglect the kitchen!

Declutter the refrigerator, freezer and pantry by tossing unused leftovers and expired items.  You’ll need to make room for all of the yummy holiday party food!

If you haven’t already, be sure to download my free Declutter Tool Kit to make decluttering easy peasy.

3.  TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR FOOD

As we all know, food plays a significant role in our holiday celebrations, so expect to devote a bit more time and energy during this season for organizing and maintaining the areas that serve as home to your food items.

Once you’ve cleaned and decluttered the refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, take inventory of what food items you now have on hand.

Related: Organized Pantry Makeover

Knowing what you already have comes in handy when you begin preparing your holiday grocery shopping list. Need help? Download these free printable freezer and pantry trackers to make the food inventory process easy peasy.  

4.  ORGANIZE YOUR HOLIDAY SHOPPING

If you’re like me and purchase holiday gifts throughout the year, it can be tricky to remember what you purchased, how much you spent, and where you are storing the gift.

If you don’t already have a system in place for tracking holiday gift purchases, you can download my free Holiday Gift Purchase Tracking printables to use for this purpose.

No more asking yourself:

• What have I already purchased?
• Where did I hide it?
• How much have I spent?

5.  ORGANIZE YOUR COUPONS

While we’re on the subject of holiday shopping, now’s a great time to organize your coupon collection and weed out the expired coupons.

Create a system for tracking expiration dates for those “great deal” coupons that you definitely plan to take advantage of as you begin your holiday shopping in the weeks to come.

6.  TAKE INVENTORY OF YOUR GIFT WRAP SUPPLIES

Are you ready for those marathon gift-wrapping sessions that go hand-in-hand with the holiday season?

Now’s the time to make sure that you have a sufficient supply of gift wrap, gift bags, ribbon, and scotch tape on hand. If you don’t have a gift wrap station, now’s the time to create one.

If you’re the DIY type, you can easily create your own gift wrap organization hack. Check out this step-by-step DIY gift wrap organizer tutorial that will walk you through the process

7.  CREATE YOUR HOLIDAY CARDS

If you choose to send out a holiday card, begin completing all of the sub-tasks associated with getting the cards in the mail:

• purchasing stamps
• updating your card recipient address list
• taking the family photo.

(just ordered mine last night!)

Even if you prefer not to send the cards out for another month, you can purchase/create cards, stuff and address the envelopes and have them ready for send-off now.

8.  DECLUTTER YOUR CAMERA MEMORY CARDS

Remove the memory cards from your cameras and video recorders, download the contents onto your computer and delete the images/videos from the memory cards.

By completing this simple task, you’ll be making room for all of the amazing images/video footage you plan to capture this holiday season.

Need help organizing all of those digital photos, check out this series.

What other holiday prep tasks do you tend to complete early in order to get them off of your holiday To Do list?  

I’d love for you to share your best tips for reducing holiday stress as well!

And if you’re ready to organize your holiday like a pro this year, join the 4-Week Organize Your Holiday Like a Pro Challenge!

Tackle even more of your Holiday To Do List items with these helpful posts:

How to Organize Your Life Using Spreadsheets

Holiday Planning Printables: My Early Christmas Gift to You!

5 Holiday Break Organizing Projects to Reign in the Chaos

Holiday Challenge: Organize Your Holiday!

Organizing Holiday Decorations: My New and Improved Method

Organizing Holiday Decor {+ Printable Storage Bin Labels}

Holiday Organization & Planning Tips: Organizing Experts Weigh In

Using a Gift Tracker to Organize Holiday Shopping (Free Printable)

Your Holiday Planning Primer {+ Free Holiday Planning Printables}