Merry Little Christmas Archives - Page 7 of 7 - Cha-Ching on a Shoestring™

4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas: My Shopping Haul

October 9th, 2013 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Want to Do Christmas Well with me? LIKE The Merry Little Christmas Project on Facebook and be a part of our community! We are working together to make Christmas simpler, organized and more meaningful. Come join us!

It’s Day 3 of our 4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas series – and we’re organizing our Christmas stuff!

I went shopping today.

Bet you can’t wait to see what I have planned for all these goodies.

Stay tuned – tomorrow I’ll give you a peek!

p.s. Most of these items were from The Dollar Tree. The Dollar Store Diva trained me well!

4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas: My Hot Mess

October 8th, 2013 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

LIKE The Merry Little Christmas Project on Facebook for daily Christmas inspiration and resources.

It’s Day 2 of our 4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas series!

This week we are tackling our Christmas decorations.

And I totally know why you’re reading this. You can WAIT for me to reveal the hot mess that my Christmas supplies are in, can you? You want to know if it’s really as BAD as I say it is, huh?

Well, ok then. Here you go:

Just kidding.

I had you there for a minute though, didn’t I?

See what I did there? Now my REAL mess is going to make me seem like Martha Stewart in comparison. (Right?)

Anyway.

Here goes:

This is the section of my basement where I keep my wrapping paper, gift bags, tissue paper and supplies.

Once upon a time, there was a system here. (And seriously, guys. I avoided close-ups just to maintain some of my dignity.)

My Christmas decorations are in these boxes:

The fact that my decorations are actually stored in matching totes with lids makes me feel a little better about myself.

But don’t let the labels fool you. My guess is that 2/3rd’s of them are inaccurate.

Now don’t you feel like we are better friends? I only share this kind of stuff with people that I really like.

If you have some before pictures you’d like to share, I’d love to see them over on the Facebook page. Then we’ll totally be BFF’s.

Stay tuned – tomorrow I go shopping!

Introducing 4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas

October 7th, 2013 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

Check out the rest of the 4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas series.

As I write this post, there are currently 78 days, 2 hours, 22 minutes, and 07 seconds until Christmas

(Not that I’m counting or anything…)

In my ever-evolving effort to have an organized, stress-free Christmas, I am starting a series that I am so excited to share with you all: 4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas.

I’ll be honest – I need this series just as much as the next person. It’s why I’m writing it – then I have to be organized, right?

During this first week we’ll be all about getting our Christmas decorations organized.

Did you get on with your organized self last year and your decorations are already perfectly labeled and containered? Sweet! Put up your feet and leave a comment with your best tips please!

If you did not, no worries – this week is for you (and me!). To start, here our a few ideas to inspire you:

Need to organize your wrapping paper?

Try this Under the Bed Wrapping Station.

Are your Christmas lights in disarray?

Why not wrap your Christmas lights around cardboard?

Here’s another idea that I love for getting my wrapping paper organized:

Store Wrapping paper in bins.

Do you have a gazillion gift bags – like me?

I love this clever way to organize gift bags.

Wait! Don’t throw out that egg carton!

Use it to store your Christmas tree ornaments.

I hope this feels as motivational to you as it does to me.

Stay tuned for tomorrow when it gets REAL around here. I’m going to unveil the state of my current ‘organizational system’ for my Christmas supplies.

It ain’t pretty, folks.

Promise me that you’ll love me anyway?

Want even more daily Christmas inspiration and resources?

LIKE The Merry Little Christmas Project on Facebook.

The Merry Little Christmas Project: Free Christmas Budget Worksheets and Apps

November 14th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

The Merry Little Christmas Project is the result of my desire to simplify and make Christmas more meaningful this year – and offer resources for you to do the same. If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!

If you’ve joined me in the November Shopping Challenge, you may be looking for a simple way to track gifts and spending like I am.

Here are two free downloadable Christmas budget spreadsheets that I found:

Holiday Gift Budget Worksheet

Free Holiday Budget Worksheets

If you are a Smartphone user:

Amazon has several Christmas budget planning apps for Android here.

iTunes has The Christmas List budget planning app for $0.99. (Or you could do a search in the app store for other free apps.)

Know of any other resources for tracking your Christmas budget? Leave a comment!

See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.

The Merry Little Christmas Project: It’s A Wrap! (a.k.a. My Wrapping Plan)

November 9th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

I shared on Facebook the other day that I have a new plan for my November Shopping Challenge: Since I do most of my shopping online, my new goal is to purchase ONE gift per day through the end of November. (If I happen to cross more than one gift off in a day, then so be it!) Somehow this seems a little less intimidating to me.

Since my goal is to finish shopping AND wrapping gifts by December 1st, I also figured I better set a wrapping plan in place. So I’ve decided to set aside Fridays as my wrapping days. Any gifts that I’ve purchased that week will get wrapped on Fridays.

AND since my wrapping system was a hot mess, I decided it was time to purchase a wrapping paper organizer. I went ahead and purchased this gift wrap organizer from Amazon:

It arrived this week and so far I love it! I think it will really simplify the time I spend wrapping (and isn’t that the goal here?!)

I also made a trip to the Dollar Store this week (the Dollar Store Diva would be proud!) and stocked up on wrapping paper supplies. (Don’t knock it until you’ve checked it out. They have really cute stuff!)

So there you have it. Even my wrapping paper has goals this year.

How about you? Do you have any tried and true systems for wrapping gifts? Leave a comment and help a girl out. I’m a work in progress, afterall. 🙂

Our goal this week? Let the wrapping begin!

See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.

The Merry Little Christmas Project: Daily 20 Minute Missions

October 22nd, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

According to my Christmas countdown app, we have 63 days until Christmas as I write this – 9 weeks until Christmas Eve!

In days past, I have been the one to resist anything Christmas-y until much much later in the year. After all, don’t we need to celebrate Thanksgiving first?

But what if by beginning our Christmas prep earlier and taking it one chunk at a time, it would FREE us up to truly soak up the holidays?

Well then…I’m all in!

SO that’s why I have been working behind the scenes on what I like to call my 20 Minute Missions Daily Calendar (through November).

The plan? To set aside 20 minutes a day (M-F) to complete one Christmas-related mission

The goal? To complete as MUCH as possible (including shopping!) before December 1st, so that we can truly enjoy the holiday season

I’d LOVE for you to join me. You can check out my Daily Mission calendar here. Feel free to use mine or create your own.

If you prefer to tackle your goals weekly instead of daily, here is a list of what my weekly goals look like:

Week 1: Planner chosen and ready to go; Budget in place.

Week 2: Photos ready to make gifts/ Plan for making gifts in place/Begin asking for gift lists.

Week 3: Christmas shopping 1/4 done. Calendar ready; donations plan in place.

Week 4: Christmas cards ordered; Menu and grocery list planned, Christmas shopping 1/2 done.

Week 5: Address labels ordered, stamps purchased, Christmas shopping 3/4 done.

Week 6: Toys donated/Christmas shopping done!

Week 7: Christmas present wrapped; Christmas cards finished and sent; Two batches of cookies frozen.

Week 8-10: Stay tuned!

I’ll be posting about my progress daily on The Merry Little Christmas Facebook page and inviting you to do the same.

Are you in?

Our goal this week? Begin our Daily 20 Minute Missions!

See more posts from The Merry Little Christmas Project here.

The Merry Little Christmas Project: Let the Planning Begin!

October 18th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

By now I hope you all are donning your Elf Hats and Silver Bells and are ready for The Merry Little Christmas Project to begin! (If you haven’t joined us on Facebook yet, be sure to do so!)

There are three things that I think would have helped me have a tear-free, less stressful Christmas last year.

1. A Plan – It’s not that I didn’t try to plan Christmas last year. I did. But I would have felt more in control if I had one central planning center (that I used!) to track everything from gifts to recipes to decorations, etc.

We are going to do that this year.

2. Preparation – Again, I could have sworn on Christmas morning that I had prepared for Christmas with the best of them. Wasn’t that why I was exhausted? The problem was that a big chunk of my preparation took place in the the late hours of the night during the final week before Christmas. I would have felt much more rested if I had set goals and dates to finish preparations AHEAD of time.

We are going to do that this year.

3. Purpose – I certainly worked hard to make the weeks before Christmas full of all kind of activities that remind us of the reason for the season. But I think there are two questions that I could have asked that would help bring real purpose to all of the activity:

“Can I simplify this?”

“Can I make this more meaningful?”

Guess what? We are going to do that this year.

Starting RIGHT NOW!

Our very first and MOST important step is setting up our Christmas Planning Center.

I have rounded up for you several FREE Christmas planners that will help you get you started on the right foot:

FlyLady has a very thorough free printable Holiday Control Journal here

Organized Christmas offers this Free Christmas Planner here

Celebrating Christmas offers free printable checklists here

Christmas Corner offers free Christmas printables here

Life Your way a free printable Christmas planner here

I recommend selecting the one that fits you best and then printing and organizing it in a 3-ring binder.

Or you could opt to simply purchase a Christmas planner from Amazon (like I did).

They have many great options to choose from here. You can purchase the one pictured above for just $5.99 shipped with Amazon Prime. I ordered this one last year (but it looks like the price has gone up).

Of if you are a Smartphone user, Amazon has several Christmas planning apps for Android here.

*I’m having a hard time finding any apps for Apple products. Let me know if you find any!

Know of any other great Christmas planning resources? Be sure to leave a comment. I’d love to hear from you.

Our goal this week? Christmas Planners organized and ready to go! The countdown to our Merry Little Christmas has begun!

Introducing The Merry Little Christmas Project!

October 16th, 2012 By Kaley
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission if you click and make a purchase.

If you are joining us from The Merry Little Christmas Project Facebook page – welcome! You can find all of my Merry Little Christmas posts here. You can find this year’s 4 Weeks to an Organized Christmas series here.

Can I tell you a little story?

Last year, midst the ribbons and bows and Christmas lights and family traditions, I cried on Christmas Day.

It was one of those cries that starts in the back of your throat and you try to swallow it down, but then it just keeps on going until it reaches your eyes and you try to blink it away but instead find yourself running to hide in the bathroom because really…who is allowed to CRY on Christmas Day?!

{Now I think I can give partial credit to the fact that I was 4 months pregnant at the time. Pregnant women are allowed to cry on Christmas Day.}

But if I’m really being honest, there were two other causes:

1) After SO much time and energy, I felt let down when my boys weren’t as thrilled about a gift as I hoped they would be. And really… was this rushing from present to present what Christmas was all about?

2) I was exhausted. Like so many other years, I had spent the past few nights staying up late finishing up last minute wrapping, baking, packing and so on.

I promised myself that this year would be different.

That’s why I’ve created The Merry Little Christmas Project. And I’m inviting you to join me.

In the next few days, I will share more details. But if you would like to join me in my quest to make Christmas more meaningful and less stressful, why not head over and ‘like’ The Merry Little Christmas Project on Facebook right now? I’ll be over there daily offering tips and resources to help make your Christmas (and mine!) more organized, fit your budget, and well…MERRY…of course. 🙂

This year I want to celebrate Christmas WELL.

Won’t you join me?

Check out more posts in my “Merry Little Christmas” series here.