After the Gold Rush
Are you like me eyeing the boxes under the tree and beginning to wonder where you’ll put it all once the boxes are opened? Our daughter asked for three items that looked reasonably sized on the internet. Ha! The toys are enormous.
Jill Miller Zimon recently contacted me about an article she wrote a few years ago entitled After the Gold Rush. She interviewed professional organizer Stephanie Denton for ideas on how to contain the Christmas loot. I especially liked Stephanie’s idea to just order refills for toys at the same time you buy it. So simple yet why did I never think of that?
The article also offers tips on the inevitable returns. Personally I have a business sized envelope in our Receipt folder labeled Christmas 2007. The receipts are all contained in one location and it makes it easier to reconcile our bank account.
Speaking of money, I can personally attest to the idea of a Christmas fund. Because of our involvement with Financial Peace University this year, we are paying for Christmas with cash. There won’t be any January surprises for us and its such a relief. If you would like to try this next year, get started right away on January 1st. Figure up how much you want to spend next Christmas and divide that amount by eleven. Put that amount of money aside in savings each month. By December 1, 2008, your Christmas fund is complete.
Glad you found the article helpful. Stephanie was a pleasure to interview - not intimidating at all (I get a little intimidated very well-organized people, even though I’m told I project an image of being organized - I know better!)
Love the look of this blog, best of luck with it and of course, Merry Christmas.
Oh! And if I could add just one thing to help everyone know how widespread the after the holidays storage issue is: Remember - Chanuka is EIGHT nights! And with three kids, grandparents, family friends and so on? Multiply that out to just how much there COULD be to store. My kids are old enough now that we pretty much just go for one larger/more desired gift and the other nights are far more incidental (calendars and yes, socks). I’ve spent enough Christmas mornings with friends to witness the bounty there too, but again - living as far as we do from relatives has meant that we get ENORMOUS boxes of stuff for all three kids from all the grandparents at Chanuka-time.
Enjoy!!