HHP - Week Three

Week three of the House and Holiday Plan is called Me and Mine Week and focuses on making the master bedroom a pleasant place to retreat to when you need to revive your spirit during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. Here are the tasks:

Declutter and clean the master bedroom

Inventory your gift closet (or cupboard or box)

Inventory holiday cards, mail supplies and gift wrap

Make a Christmas card list

Buy Christmas cards

We moved the furniture around in our bedroom last month, and gave it a deep cleaning then, which meant all I needed to do this week was dust and vacuum. Fortunately, we’re able to keep this room free of clutter, and it is a refuge for us. However, that takes vigilance, so I spent a bit of time quickly going through the nightstand drawers again. This room is ready for the holidays! (And maybe our Christmas present to ourselves will be some furniture to turn the empty space into a real sitting room.)

Our Christmas Card List is in an excel spreadsheet on the computer. That makes it easy to update addresses throughout the year as we learn of friends and family moving. I’ll print out this year’s version when it gets a bit closer to mailing time, but I did double-check that I purchased cards in January, so that task can be crossed off for this year.

Finally, here’s what has been sitting in a draft post - proof that I did this exercise three years ago!

The third week of the House and Holiday Plan centered on the master bedroom. Because I had recently read Mari Kondo’s Spark Joy, compliments of a recommendation from my daughter, I decided to try some of her principles. So, I actually pulled all of my clothes out of the closet and dresser and went through them. I didn’t actually repeat “Does this bring me joy?” for every item, but the idea was a bit helpful. It also didn’t take as long as I expected (about 2 1/2 hours total) and at the end I had a box or two for Goodwill. I felt pleased with the morning’s work, and maybe someday I’ll go through the exercise again. 

One of the things I discarded, even though it was difficult, was a pile of old padded hangers. My grandmother made some of these for me, and then taught me how to do them myself, so I could make the rest. Unfortunately, after more than 35 years, they’re all a bit worn, and though I’ve looked for the plain wooden hangers in order to replace them, I didn’t have success. R.I.P. colorful hangers.

In addition, the plan also included the preliminary steps for sending Christmas cards – inventorying postage, ordering cards, starting the address list, etc. So, this week I printed out our address list and added stamps to the shopping list.

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