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The 12 Days of Holiday Organizing

12/2/2025

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Do you dream of having family and friends gather at your home for the holidays? But maybe looking around your disorganized house makes you think this is an impossible dream.

Join me for 12 Days of Holiday Organizing and make your dream of hosting a reality!

Day 1: Plan Your Approach
As with any organizing project, you need to start with a clear vision and a plan. Make a list of the areas of your home that need attention before the holiday rush. Focus on the public areas: kitchen, living room, dining area, and bathroom. To make sure you follow through, schedule daily time for organizing.

Day 2: Declutter the Entryway
Make a welcoming impression. Exit your house and step up to the door, seeing it with the eyes of a visitor. Clear out shoes, coats, and unnecessary items that clutter your entrance. Use hooks and corral items in baskets or bins to pull together a tidy look.

Day 3: Simplify Kitchen Countertops
Holiday cooking will be so much more manageable once you’ve cleared your countertops. Only keep what you use daily out, and store holiday platters and tins until needed. Find extra storage space in high cupboards, the backs of lower cabinets, or even in a bin in the basement.

Day 4: Meal Prep Organization
Now that you’ve streamlined your kitchen, you can plan meals for the holiday period. Prep ingredients in advance (freezing works well), label containers, and ensure your pantry is stocked with essentials. This way, you won’t be stressed if someone happens to drop by for tea or even dinner.

Day 5: Organize the Living Room
Prepare for guests by creating a cozy space to hang out. Put away non-seasonal décor and consider where holiday decorations will go. Instead of decorating the whole room, choose a focal point (e.g. fireplace, bookcase, or one wall) and concentrate your decor there. This will look festive without turning your whole house into Santa's Village. Unless, of course, that's the look you were going for!

Day 6: Tackle the Bedroom
Even though guests won’t see it, a clear bedroom sets a calm tone for you. Sort through clothes, declutter nightstands, and cut back on stuff that's stored under the bed. Give yourself permission to let go of books you thought you’d read this year but now know you’ll never get to. Put together a couple of holiday outfits so you’ll be ready for a party at a moment’s notice.

Day 7: Manage Gift Wrapping Supplies
Set up a wrapping station with all your supplies in one place. Use the back of a door, a portable caddy, or a designated drawer to keep everything organized. You’ll need paper, tape, scissors, ribbon, gift bags, tissue paper, and gift tags. To save time, wrap gifts as you buy them.

Day 8: Sort Holiday Decorations
Take stock of your holiday decorations. Decide what to keep, repair or discard. Organize by type and/or by room for easier setup next year. Pro tip: Take photos of your displays so you remember how to set it up next year.

Day 9: Dining Room Declutter
Spend time going through your dining area, letting go of chipped dishes, getting out and cleaning holiday-only service pieces, and making sure you have the linens or paper goods you’ll need for holiday entertaining. Adorn your table with some candles and a festive bowl or platter as a centerpiece.

Day 10: Children’s Areas
If you have kids, organize their spaces. Make room for new toys and gifts by sorting through what they have, involving the kids in the process. Help your children get into the spirit of giving by having them come with you to donate the toys. If you don’t have kids, maybe your pets’ toys could use some organization.

Day 11: Guest Accommodations
If you’re like most people, you’re probably using your guest room for some extra storage space. Now’s the time to prepare for actual guests. Fresh linens, clear space, and amenities like soap and lotion make guests feel welcome. If you can’t clear a whole drawer or part of the closet, place some empty fabric or woven baskets in the room for them to use to organize their clothes and toiletries.

Day 12: Reflect and Celebrate
After the organizing spree, reflect on what worked well and what could be improved for next year. Celebrate your hard work by inviting a couple of friends over for a spontaneous gathering over cocktails or tea. Revel in the fact that you are now ready for guests whenever they show up!

Need help customizing this list for your home? Need a partner to coach you through the process? I help clients with this kind of thing all the time. You can schedule a consultation with me or, if you just have a few questions, let’s start a conversation over on my Instagram or Facebook pages. Feel free to ask away!

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Why You Need a Gift Wish List

11/7/2023

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Professional organizer discusses why you need a gift wish list
“What’s the hot toy the kids want this Christmas?”

“What size clothes do they fit into now?”

“What do you want for your birthday?”

My family is blessed with generous, far-flung relatives who thoughtfully want to give my kids (and my husband and me) wonderful gifts. But fielding all of these questions for every holiday and event was more than I could manage. Then I had to remember which gift idea I’d given to which relative. Not to mention the added dread of new toys and stuff flooding into a home that I’d tried so hard to keep organized.

THE SOLUTION? WISH LISTS!
People register for weddings, kids send their lists to Santa, Amazon even has a list option. So why not keep an ongoing wish list that relatives could consult for any gift-giving occasion?

I started keeping a Wish List for each of my family members and soon my whole extended family jumped on board.
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But I know what you’re thinking...

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Guilt-Free Giving

12/8/2022

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Kate Bosch home organizer holding wrapped Christmas presents
“If a gift has come to you wrapped in obligations and tied tightly with a ribbon of guilt, then it's not really a gift at all.” -Peter Walsh

Why is giving so tied up with guilt? Guilt about overspending, guilt about underspending, guilt about having to give equal gifts to various people, guilt about giving in proportion to what you’re getting, guilt about not liking a gift you received…the guilt list is as long as Santa’s list!

Of all of the gift guilts, the one that causes the most consternation is the problem of receiving a gift you don’t love.

For our first Christmas as a married couple, my husband really wanted to delight me. I gave him several not-so-subtle hints that I had my eye on a chocolate brown Persian lamb coat in a local vintage shop.

​I couldn’t hide my excitement on Christmas morning when he handed me a box stamped with the shop’s logo. Lifting the lid, my face fell when I pulled out a mangy-looking, poison-yellow rabbit fur jacket. Seriously, what was he thinking?!

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New Year, New Plan

1/11/2022

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New Year, New Plan with a professional organizer
January: New Year, New You! GO Month: Get Organized and Be Productive! Have you made your resolutions? Hitting the gym every day? Are you crushing it?!

Um, not so much.

Honestly, once I clean up from the holidays and start getting back to the reality of a normal schedule, January is nearly half over!

It’s natural to want to set some intentions for improvement. What’s unrealistic is thinking that you’ll accomplish them in the first month. This year, to take on your organizing projects, make January your regrouping and brainstorming month.

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Holiday Prep: Pare Down

12/14/2021

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Streamline to enjoy the season with home organizing
What comes to mind when you think about holiday preparations? You’re probably thinking about getting out the decorations, baking yummy treats, juggling the party and event schedule, and wrapping gifts.

This season, I invite you to prepare by paring down. Simplifying and lightening your load is a great way to give yourself more time and space to enjoy your family and friends—and your home—during the holidays.

I like to focus on paring down these three areas:
  1. Food
  2. Stuff
  3. ​Schedule

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Think Local for Unique, Clutter-Free Gifts

11/23/2021

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Reasons to give locally from a home organization professional
Are you ready to tackle your holiday shopping? It’s time! In my family, we traditionally start shopping way early. In fact, according to family lore, my grandmother always had all her gifts bought, wrapped, and stowed in her closet by the end of August.

By contrast, when I owned a store (Who knew that little fact about me?), lots of last-minute shoppers would show up on Christmas Eve with a look of panic in their eyes, frantically trying to find a gift. They were so relieved when I offered them free gift wrapping!

This year, with the supply-chain problems causing shortages and delays, you definitely want to get a head start so you don’t end up grabbing whatever you see on the shelves.

My biggest tip for this season is to keep it local. As much as possible, I love to support my local businesses, both because I used to own a main street shop so I know how tough it can be and also because these businesses create the flavor that makes your neighborhood fun.

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Create a Year-Round Closet

10/19/2021

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Home organizer Kate Bosch in a closet holding hanging clothes
Years ago, a change of seasons was a fraught time for me. Excited as I was about the warmer or cooler weather ahead, I dreaded the looming Big Closet Switch.
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It was a messy, days-long chore. It always looked worse before it got better: clothes spread all over the room; keep/donate/does-it-still-fit piles everywhere; last-season’s clothes needing to be washed before being binned; next-season’s clothes needing to be ironed (nooooo!) after getting crumpled in bins.

The problem is, I really love the change of seasons. It’s fun when you first pull on a cozy sweater in the fall or head out the door in only a light jacket in the spring. But the way I had organized my closet was turning the change of seasons from a fun celebration into a dreaded chore.

How did I free myself? I discovered the Year-Round Closet.
Clothes decider diagram for a professional decluttering service.

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Fall Clearing

9/21/2021

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Stay organized this fall with a home organizer near me
It happens predictably every year in the early fall. Is it triggered by the kids going back to school? Or when I notice the sun setting earlier and the air getting cooler?

Whatever the cause, I feel compelled to pare down the excess and spruce up the house, creating a more streamlined, restful space to live in.

“We don’t need this many mugs,” I announce to my husband as I peer critically into the kitchen cupboard, pulling out one with a chip and throwing it into the trash.

That evening, after I toss an extra deck of cards into the donation bag that I keep by the door and tell him that I’d like to repaint the living room, I see a look in his eyes like he’s just figured something out. “Oh,” he observes, “you’re nesting again.”

“Yup!” I laugh, “I do it every fall.” Organizing isn’t just something you do once and it stays that way forever. Things pile up, new things come into the house, and life changes. It’s rituals and routines like this fall clearing that keep me organized.

Clear the space so you can enjoy your place.

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4 Strategies to Help You Pare Down

1/13/2021

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Eliminating excess will help you maintain organization with ease, says Kate Bosch Professional Organizer
One question I always ask a new client is, “Do you think your space has the problem of too much stuff or is it just that things are not properly organized?”

I admit that this is a bit of a trick question because nearly always the answer is “both.” Having too much stuff will always stand between you and organization as you struggle to maneuver around the excess.

​Sure, you can file-fold your entire t-shirt collection and just barely manage to cram it all into your dresser drawer, but those shirts will be so jammed together that you’ll struggle to pull one out without others coming with it. Not to mention that your t-shirts will have permanent wrinkles from being so tightly packed. And I’d like to see you maintain your composure while trying to put it back into the drawer!

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Creative, Clutter-Free Presents

12/8/2020

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Clutter-Free presents and a decorated Christmas tree
In a typical December, I like to help you out with a clutter-free gift guide. However, this is anything but a typical December. This year, everything seems a little more complicated, even gift giving.

With restaurants, gyms, and other in-person experiences closing off and on, your go-to gift certificates might not seem right. Even clothes are a bit different with so many of us working from home more and wardrobes becoming much more casual.

Let me help get your creative juices flowing as you check off your gift list!

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