Halloween is in 17 days

Halloween is such an enjoyable holiday, and compared to some other holiday events, it can take relatively little preparation. Here's the bare minimum I do to get into the spirit:

• I hang up a skeleton cut-out on my front door
• I get a pumpkin and may or may not carve it and make roasted pumpkin seeds
• I send my close family and friends Halloween post cards using Send Out Cards because it's nice to get mail
• I get ONE bag of Halloween candy just in case we have trick-or-treaters, but we never do, so I make sure I get a kind that both my husband and I like so we will use it up eventually

That's it. That's all it takes to get me in the Halloween mood. If you want a chuckle (at least this made me chuckle) read my Halloween prep post from last year that I just found--it is almost identical to this one, which I suppose says something for my low-stress Halloween style and traditions, and hopefully not that I'm just boring.

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Poll #5: Planning for the holidays

I was a little surprised at the results for my last poll: Is it too soon to start planning for the holidays? While I'm a bit torn on this issue myself, I didn't expect it to be so close! 60% of respondents said Not at all, while 40% said Yes, it is. Personally, while I love the fun and family aspects of the fall to winter season (back-to-school all the way through the new year), I never want to start so early with the planning and celebrating that the magic wears off or I get overexposed to holiday fervor. However, there are some things you can do to prepare that aren't going overboard and will make the season go more smoothly:

• Find out how the people you tend to spend holidays with are feeling about travel and hosting. Figuring out where you might be on the major holidays is a big first step. Then you can make travel, lodging and time-off arrangements.
• Focus on the early fall holidays, like Rosh Hashanah or even Halloween, so you can feel some of that holiday spirit without getting too far ahead of yourself.
• Make lists. Lists are a good way to order your thoughts, but you don't have to act on them right away. Lists I've already begun: Halloween card recipients, menu ideas for Thanksgiving and Christmas gift ideas.

I'm really looking forward to the traditions that make holidays so much fun in my family, but I'm practicing patience as best I can...the holidays will be here soon enough for us all, I'm sure!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by nao.k

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com. Sign up for Lelah's News, a once-monthly newsletter.

A year ago: NaNoWriMo, change and Halloween

NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, starts November 1, and I'm participating for the third year in a row. (If you are attempting it, too, friend me!) Last year I wrote about balancing the hours it takes to actually write about 2,000 words of fiction a day with all the other things that a person has to do.

Change affects us all, practically all the time, and I love Julie Morgenstern's take on change and organization: “Every time we go through a major change, we experience a breakdown in our organizational systems.”

This time last year I also wrote about the benefits of a paperless, automatic billing. It really does help to stem the paper tide and keep things simpler and cleaner if you can switch most of your bills to this format. Try it, and see what a difference it makes.

Regarding organizing for Halloween, I put together a holiday-themed Organizer's Blog Digest. Check it out.

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com


      

Halloween prep

Halloween is a fun holiday. Candy, dressing up and fake blood always make for a good time. I like to get into the Halloween spirit by doing a few simple, low stress things.

• Decorate by taping a skeleton cutout on my front door. I use the same one every year - it was originally a Halloween card my mom sent me.
• Watch The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the 1950s Disney cartoon version narrated by Bing Crosby that's scarier than you'd expect.
• Get a pumpkin and carve a jack-o-lantern, saving the seeds to roast. My trick: boil the seeds in heavily salted water for a few minutes before roasting them tossed with some olive oil and a tad more salt. 
• Buy one (1) bag of Halloween candy. I usually don't get many trick-or-treaters, but it's always good to be prepared. 

What do you do to prepare for Halloween?

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

The un-holiday holiday

Halloween is behind us and the fall holiday train is now chugging right along toward Thanksgiving, with Christmas not so subtly waiting in the wings if the displays at my local stores are any indication. At this time of year it can be hard to make time for socializing with friends when family usually takes precedent on these major holidays. In today’s world, people often live far from family members and take the opportunity to travel and visit. But many of us have formed new families with our friends, who we’ll see far more frequently, but sometimes not on the days that are set aside for family bonding. It can be stressful to have to choose between friends and family, and also to deal with the pressure that these high profile holidays can put on even a simple gathering.

One solution to this annual dilemma is to start a new tradition with your friends (or your family, depending on your situation). Create your own annual holiday on a date that doesn’t conflict with any universally recognized ones. By choosing to entertain in an off season, you can avoid the stress of committing to too much during the fall holiday rush, and take time to really have fun, appreciate your loved ones and make a unique memory.

Here are some un-holiday holiday examples:

• For people with birthdays that fall on a holiday like Christmas, celebrate their half birthday instead.
• Find an obscure “national day of” something you love and turn it into an annual homage to pie, or pi.
• Co-opt another country’s holiday, such as Canadian Thanksgiving (Second Monday of October), or Boxing Day (December 26).
• Love poetry or the epic ramble of James Joyce’s Ulysses? Stage your own Bloomsday celebration on June, or celebrate your favorite poet’s birthday with an annual reading and feast.
• Make up something out of the blue. My family started “Salmon and Pork” night accidentally one year when a casual dinner party turned into a night of declarations about goals and resolutions. Now the fourth Sunday in April is a unique, five-year running event.

Creative Commons pi pie photo posted to Flickr by pauladamsmith

Creative Commons Bloomsday photo posted to Flickr by Barnacles Hostels

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Organizer's blog digest: Halloween

Halloween is a couple of short days away, and has always been one of my favorite holidays. It's just so much fun to get to dress up and eat sweets and indulge in the spooky and the macabre for a night! My Halloween tradition is to make chocolate chip cookies and watch the classic Disney short film "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," narrated by Bing Crosby.

Here are some fantastic Halloween-related tips and organizing advice from around the web:

Paula at Organizing Tips and Thoughts for Moms posts a countdown to Halloween with a good checklist for everything you need to think about in advance of October 31. She includes a sample Halloween shopping list to help you out.

Mary Frances Ballard shares some safety tips for trick or treating, including ideas for how to keep germs out of the equation at Organizing Tips From Orderly Places.

Jan at Ask an Organizer has a few ideas for how to get the most out of the holiday, such as make a note on the calendar to watch your favorite Halloween show or movie.

Finally, Jeri at Jeri's Organizing and Decluttering News offers some beautiful and creative organizing products found on Etsy with a Halloween theme. Check them out!

Happy Halloween!

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Waldo Jaquith

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com

Pre-holiday organizing

The holiday season seems to encroach upon us earlier and earlier every year, so I’m reluctant to even bring it up in this last full week of September, but we’re on that slippery, speedy downhill slope towards Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas/Hanukkah/Solstice/etc. I love all of those holidays and the fall-to-winter season in general, but I truly feel that they are best enjoyed in small doses. If you spend three months prepping for Christmas, you’re going to be all Merry Christmas-ed out by the time the 25^th comes around, let alone be raring to party on New Year’s Eve.

However, you can do a bit of pre-holiday organizing that hopefully won’t kill the holiday joy in you yet. Here are some ideas for getting the process gently started:

• Popular Halloween costumes can sell out early, so plan ahead if you’re going to purchase topical costumes.
• Don’t buy Halloween candy far in advance unless you have a place to store it where it won’t get raided before the 31^st. If not, you’ll just have to buy more when the holiday actually arrives.
• Think about ordering your Thanksgiving turkey in advance if you want a specialty one, such as an organic free range bird.
• Book holiday airplane flights now, in addition to rental car and hotel reservations if necessary.
• Keep an eye open for deals on holiday cards and stock up in advance if you really like the card, the price and have somewhere to put them out of sight until Thanksgiving.
• Order holiday stamps online and have them delivered with your mail.
• Plan your gifts budget ahead of time. Instead of having a massive credit card bill in December or January, open a savings account for your holiday gifts and have money deposited automatically each month into year all year long, then you can pay cash for presents.
• Think about gifts you can buy online and have delivered by the company, avoiding post office lines.
• Alternately, consider patronizing local businesses for your holiday shopping to help the local economy, and make sure you bring a good book to the post office with you.
• Brainstorm clutter-free gifts that your friends and family might like and that you and your family might like to give. Clutter-free gifts can be consumables, gift cards or gifts of experiences or services.

Good luck getting through the next 91 days!

Creative Commons candy corn photo posted to Flickr by calmdownlove

Creative Commons Christmas card photo posted to Flickr by wordridden

Lelah Baker-Rabe is a Los Angeles-based professional organizer. To discuss your organizing needs, call her at 818.269.6671 or email lelah@lelahwithanh.com