Christmas
Stay Sane While Entertaining for the Holidays
By
Dec 3, 2005, 23:55

(ARA) – The mere thought of entertaining over the holidays is enough to keep many people awake at night. Indeed, according to a survey published by the Gallup Organization, over three-quarters of American adults lose sleep between Thanksgiving and the New Year. But the prospect of entertaining isn’t worth losing sleep over, says Julie Morgenstern, professional organizer, author of “Organizing from the Inside Out” and member of the “Kitchen Cabinet,” an advisory panel of home industry thought-leaders put together by Diamond Cabinets.
“Many factors can contribute to holiday stress, but being overwhelmed doesn’t have to be one of them,” Morgenstern says. “With all those guests on the horizon, staying organized means staying sane. In fact, there’s no better inspiration for getting organized than knowing that guests will soon be arriving at your door.”

The kitchen is the focal point of holiday entertaining, and keeping it organized is the easiest way to reduce holiday stress, notes Morgenstern. “The kitchen is where it all happens, from cooking and preparing food, to mixing drinks, to standing around chatting. Getting it organized and cleaning it up will help reduce clutter and bring peace of mind as you’re trying to get ready for your holiday guests.”

Here are Morgenstern’s tips for staying sane during the holiday entertaining season:

Take inventory. Assess the accessibility of your kitchen: look through your cabinets or pantry and check the overall set up. Make sure you know what you have and that you can get at it ? everything from cups and saucers to carving knives and swizzle sticks. You don’t want to be digging deep into your cabinets and cupboards to find things.

Start with significant pockets of clutter. Begin organizing in small doses. You can only tackle a few areas within a short time frame, so pick the most-cluttered areas that lead to the most stress. Start with a project you can complete, such as organizing a countertop. Clean up and toss out any unneeded items and reorganize the few remaining countertop items that you actually use -- then move to the next pocket of clutter, and so on.

Have a system. Even rookie party hosts can make it work if they have a good organizational system. For example, allow your guests to help wash the dishes, but always put the dishes away yourself so you can continue to maintain your system after the party. Another way to stay organized is to add functional cabinets with built-in organizational systems. For example, Diamond Cabinets offers many smart solutions including a Pegged Dish Organizer that holds stacked china in a convenient slide-out drawer; a Roll-Out Tray Divider for oversized platters and trays; and even a “secret” Toe-Kick Cabinet that carves out bonus space beneath your cabinets.

Plan, plan, plan. Before a party, you can easily lose hours frantically looking for things, running errands or going to stores, so take time to plan for your party in detail at least two to three days ahead. Run through the event in your head and arrange items in the order of how you’ll use them. For example, store mixing bowls and measuring cups in one area, and assemble and chill all ingredients for drinks.

Start preparing your home. Don’t wait until the night before or morning of the visit. Take time to prepare each area in advance. Set the table. Put out cocktail napkins. Set up the coffee pot so all you have to do is turn it on. Arrange a tray with cups, saucers and spoons; if you need to keep it away from small kids or pets until your guests arrive, cover it with plastic wrap and stash it somewhere so you can grab it in a hurry.

“One of the biggest causes of stress around the holidays is overexertion,” Morgenstern says. “Keep it simple and don’t let your kitchen exhaust you -- make it work within your own system and make it easy to use on a day-to-day basis.” Courtesy of ARA Content

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