A year ago: a stocking filled to the brim with posts

Last year I blogged a lot in December, so here's a recap of the best posts from that time. The holiday-themed ones are useful once again this year.

Just after Monday's post on Google Reader I rediscovered this one about salting your feed reader with your favorite blogs as an incentive to get through them. Not sure if that is as relevant if you start to be picky about what feeds you include in your most-often read folders, but it's not a bad idea.

Here are nine things that should be in every gift wrapping station. Wrapping gifts is one of the highlights of the season for me, and I've wrapped almost everything there is to wrap this year already.

Some musings about the idea that simplicity is revolutionary.

A fantastic post (if I do say so myself) on managing your magazines. Best way to do that...don't subscribe to them.

Last year's Organizer's Blog Digest on Christmas prep. Lots of good tidbits of information. Plus, a post on what to do with the holiday cards you will be receiving this year. So far, I've only received one, which makes containing them pretty easy.

Creative Commons photo posted to Flickr by Randy Pertiet.

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

Streamlining holiday cards

Over the years, the way I've done holiday cards has changed a bit. When I was a kid, my mother would design a handmade card and employ my brother and sister and me to help decorate them. These were small-batch artisanal cards, in today's parlance. When I got older and I started wanting to send my own holiday cards, I'd find cards I liked at Barnes and Noble, or, one year, Harrods, and spend Thanksgiving weekend writing unique messages to twenty or so families and friends. Now, as a business owner and married person, the list of recipients for my holiday greetings has grown somewhat, and hand writing messages, while a lovely thing to be able to do, isn't quite as practical or necessary as it once was. (In today's Facebook age, most of my relatives and friends can easily see what I've been up to over the year, should they care to.)

Our family's Christmas card from 1984.

This year I started using Send Out Cards, and I've been really happy with the product and the service. I'll be using Send Out Cards to create personalized holiday cards for everyone on my list, and it will take me probably half the time shopping for, writing, addressing and mailing cards would have.

Real Simple magazine had a great feature in the November issue regarding other online card services (unfortunately, the feature is not available online.) Send Out Cards is great, but it's fairly expensive to get started, as it is a subscription based service, with cards and postage extra. The sites Real Simple mentions just charge you for the cards you want to make. Not all of them also send the cards, like Send Out Cards does, and that's what makes a huge time difference in my opinion. Paper Culture is one that does provide this service. Among their other suggestions: Paperless Post (ecards), Shutterfly, and Tiny Prints.

Whether you are sending one holiday card or 500, it's worth looking into some of these new services.

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

Christmas card containment

Often the best solutions are the simplest. I love getting mail, and Christmas cards are so cheerful and festive that they are warmly received in my household. People often have anxiety over how to display Christmas cards and what to do with them after the season is over. Here's my advice:

• Get a shallow bowl or basket and collect the cards inside. You can shuffle through them periodically throughout December and enjoy reading their messages.
• Use the opportunity to update your address book with the return addresses included on the envelopes and update any notes you may have about a particular person, such as an engagement, marriage or new baby in the family.
• Keep those cards that have particular special notes or are from particularly special people and feel free to recycle the rest or use them for art projects. Many people simply use store-bought cards and sign their name. No need to hang on to those past New Year's day.
• Don't feel anxiety about sending cards in return. If you have the time and inclination to send out cards to friends and relatives, go for it. Otherwise, there's no life rule that says you must send holiday cards or you are a bad person. If you do want to send someone a card but don't want to go to the expense of buying and posting it, consider an e-card, which is enjoyed once and then never becomes paper waste or clutter.

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