By Cheryll Gillespie

'Twas the night before Christmaswell almostand this designer is already thinking ahead to next year. Christmas is a crazy, festive, busy time of year. In fact, I'm pretty sure all of my friends are completely exhausted (although we all still have smiles on our faces!). With that in mind, let's plan ahead to make next year run even smoother than this year. After all, a lack of sleep can cause wrinkles.

Buy Lots of Clear Plasic Bins

When you are out buying those last-minute items this year, buy some clear plastic bins lots of them and some wrapping paper storage containers. Personally, I have three of these handy dandy containers. Each container holds things for:

1. Christmas
2. Birthdays
3. Miscellaneous (baby showers, weddings, get well, etc.).

By the way, I have already seen a few ads for these containers on sale for 50 percent off this week you can be organized and save money; a girl's gotta love it when that happens!

Bins Help to Organize Christmas Chaos

The more organized you are, the more efficiently things happen at home. If you have the bins at home, you can organize all of your Christmas decorations as you put them away.

• As you take the tree down, sort decorations and put away the lights, you can put them directly into the bins.
• Your outside decorations should also have their own bins.
• I love the clear plastic bins once each bin has been labeled and stacked, they are then safely stored in the basement until next season. This makes getting ready for Christmas next year a breeze.
• Many stores offer coloured bins, or at least bins with coloured lids, so consider buying bins with red or green lids to differentiate them from the other bins in the storage room. My Christmas decorations are stored by colour as I often change decorating themes from year to year or have different colours and items in different sections of the house.

One can Never have Enough Bins...

I also stock up on new decorations, small stocking stuffers and hostess gifts as the retailers put them on sale at the end of the year. So ensure that you have enough bins for :

• New decorations
• Gifting accessories
• Cards
• Stocking gifts (such as Christmas candles, special ornaments that you may need to store)

Label & Organize your Bins

• Inside my bins, I use various-sized Ziploc bags to keep light strands from becoming tangled, cards sorted and scented oils and miscellaneous berries together.
• The same can be said for New Year's Eve décor. If you have clearly labeled bins for each special season or day, decorating and hosting a party is easy and you can actually take advantage of sale items you have purchased. There is no savings in buying stuff on sale when you are unable to locate it when you need it.
• I also have smaller bins that are filled with ribbons, miscellaneous cards and gift-wrapping supplies, such as scissors, tape and tissue paper.

The more organized we become the better life flows. Start your organizational makeover this year and kick off the new year on the right foot.

Feeling overwhelmed by the clutter in your home? Hire a local, certified Professional Organizer from casaGURU and have a stress free Christmas.

Emer Schlosser
		About the author:
		Always a fan of words in various glorious forms – novels, dialogue, lyrics, etc – Emer translated her passion into a writing career in 2005. She has since supplied gossip on celebrities to Canadian Press, interviewed individuals from the arts for Inside Entertainment, expressed her fondness for food for Cheese Boutique’s blog, & co-founded, edited and contributed to iheartthemusic.com. At the moment she’s taking the mystery out of Green Living and providing some great tips on Home Renovation, Decorating & Design and Curb Appeal to the members of casaGURU.com. casaGURU, “the homeowner’s home online”, is a free web community that connects homeowners and local house experts.
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