3 Cleaning Tips to Prepare for a Stress-Free Holiday
Winter holidays and the festive season is just around the corner.
Here are 3 cleaning tips to help you prepare, reduce stress and spend more time with your family over the holidays.
Start with scheduling your holiday events - early.
Getting the dates, times and attendees on the calendar will help you create a ‘to-do’ list as you plan for the holiday festivities. This includes, what events will be happening on what day, who will be attending, and what is the agenda for the day. Write them on a calendar and share with those who will be attending. Tip: Sending a digital Google calendar invitation ensures that the event will be on their mobile calendar and any updates will be immediately shared with guests.
Create a holiday cleaning calendar
With all the traditions of a Canadian Christmas, comes days of festive fun filled with family dinners, games, wrapping paper, Christmas trees, lights, and decorations. Take the time to walk around the house to see what cleaning needs to be done. Refer to the holiday events calendar to make sure you plan a cleaning schedule to include tasks that need to be done before, during, and after the holidays. Making a cleaning schedule will ensure you don’t miss anything and that chores get done in the right order.
Ask for help
Now that you know your event calendar, everyone is invited and you created a cleaning schedule, it is time to recruit people to assist. What tasks can you do yourself, what requires assistance, and what can you delegate to someone else to do.
It’s now time for a family meeting! For everyone to be able to enjoy the holidays, it is important to have everyone contribute to the tasks that make it all possible. People get busy over the holidays, so make sure to delegate these tasks early enough to ensure they get done.
For small children, they will require more assistance, but they are often eager to help (with the right incentives). Breaking the tasks down into weekly charts and putting them on the fridge or bulletin board so they can be checked-off or ‘starred’ might be the best.
For older kids, giving them their own list that they can manage within a certain period of time gives them some flexibility and a sense of responsibility.
For young adults, giving them tasks on a digital to-do list is recommended. This way they have access to it all the time and you can monitor the progress of the list while still giving them space.
For your partner, a separate conversation prior to delegating any tasks is ideal, which may include an overall discussion about the holidays, helping to delegate tasks, budgeting, or to just have a heads up on what is expected of them.
Is it time to hire someone to help?
If you decide that there is quite a bit of work to be done and you need extra help outside of the home, consider bringing in a house cleaning service for a few days over the holidays to help. They can do a deep cleaning before the holidays or help after the decorations are put away in the new year. Good house cleaners are usually in high demand, so book them as early as possible.
Holidays are a wonderful way to have a change of pace, take time to be with the family and enjoy some traditions. Planning your festive events early, making a cleaning schedule, and enlisting assistance with chores will help reduce holiday stress so everyone can enjoy the holidays.
