Don't Let Your Family Get Away With This!

Christmas traditions.

Always fun to plan & participate in. Putting up the tree, decorating for the holidays.

Hopefully your family members participate in this and your have some fun traditions built up around what really is a lot of work. We have a doughnut/champagne tradition. It makes the entire family really look forward to decorating.

If only this was all there was to put away.....

Then comes the time to take down the decorations. Suddenly everyone is "busy". And undecorating becomes your responsibility.

 Don't let your family get away with this.

Time to start a new tradition that accompanies TAKING DOWN the decorations.

No more.

circa 1968, made by me!

 There's nothing worse then doing the  undecorating all by yourself. Your holly is no longer jolly. The tree is just something you trip over. And there's lots of big boxes to carry up a whole bunch of stairs.

Last year in our house we started a new tradition. Hey, it worked for us!

Here's how:

1. Write in PEN a date on the calendar to undecorate. Make sure everyone is free on that day. For the entire day. Having to rush or having one family member missing undermines the entire thing!
2. Pick something you all like to eat that can be personalized. We all love pizza, so on that day everyone can get whatever toppings they want on the pizza. We  have 4 people, so 2 pies with 1/2 toppings each fills the bill. No sharing! Everyone gets exactly what they want. Sandwiches would work too, Chinese - whatever is your families thing. The point is that everyone gets exactly what they want 
3. Get fun beverages also - this is not the day to limit people's choices. You want happy elves, not disgruntled ones.
4. Put some upbeat music on - swing, 50's, anything that has a quick moving beat. Keeps the family going. Nothing like bopping to the beat, eating your favorite food, and putting ornaments away!
5. Make/buy some spectacular dessert that you can't cut into until EVERY LAST SCRAP OF HOLIDAY CHEER IS PACKED AWAY!

That's it! Create a system that makes a dreary activity into a fun family activity. I'm all about the systems...........

And stay tuned - next week I'm shooting a series of eHow videos all about common organizing problems. With a videograper! I'll let you know as soon as they're posted.

Want a free sample of my book?......no obligation, just click, enter your email, hit send and voila - free tips for your kitchen!

freesample@organizingwithevelyn.com

See you next year!

be organized.....evelyn