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closeMonday, Nov. 02, 2009
Time management expert offers holiday tips, workshop
By Loretto J. Hulse, Herald food writer
Making a list and checking it twice may work for Santa, but having a list and checking it more -- much more -- than twice is how Deniece Schofield, a time management expert from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, gets through the holidays.
The author and mother of five will be sharing tips on getting organized during a workshop Thursday in Kennewick.
"It helps to have a holiday notebook," she said. "In it, have a place to jot down what you give the neighbors, your friends, your family, so you don't give them the same thing three years in a row."
Have a timeline section too. Make a permanent list of everything you do for the holidays -- shop, mail cards, bake, decorate -- and when.
Make another section for gift ideas and jot down all those hints you hear all year long.
Being organized is how Schofield lives, but her life wasn't always that way.
"I wasn't born organized, rather my organizational skills were born of desperation. And the holidays were just one part of my life I needed to take charge of," Schofield said.
She remembers being so frazzled one Christmas she took cookies over to a neighbor with two white flour handprints on her backside. "I was a mess," she said.
Schofield sat down, wrote a letter to herself detailing everything that was creating so much holiday stress and then read it before the next holiday season to remind herself not to go down that road again.
What did she learn? Here are some tips to get you through the holidays unfrazzled.
* Set up a gift-wrapping station. It can be a table in a remote room or just a corner, but put everything you need for wrapping there. A clean wastebasket can corral rolls of wrapping paper. A tote bag can hold scissors, tape, pens and gift tags. A spindle paper towel holder is great for spools of ribbon.
"Instead of struggling with those disposable tape dispensers that take two hands to use, get a desk dispenser or one that goes on your wrist. That frees up a hand," Schofield said.
* For small gifts, Schofield suggests buying 30-inch rolls of wrapping paper and cutting them in half, making two rolls that will fit into aluminum foil and plastic wrap boxes or any box with a built-in cutter.
"Then it's easy to pull out what you need and you don't even need scissors to cut the paper," she said.
* "If you have nosy children as I did, instead of putting their names on the tags assign each child a secret number and put that on it. They'll have no idea which are theirs until you open them," she said.
* Talk to your family. Find out what's happening at school, at work, so you know exactly what's going on, and don't get surprised one evening when your child says they need an angel costume the next night for a play," Schofield said.
* Store your decorations the way you decorate. Put everything for the kitchen in one box, those for the living room in another. Then, when you decorate, do it piecemeal, one box at a time. "That's really all the time we have anyway. Few can take a day to do it," she said.
* If you're making gifts, mass produce one thing. "It takes less time to do five of one thing than five different things," Schofield said.
* Use your waiting time to work on small projects, map out shopping trips and make plans. "Waiting time is vital this time of year," she said.
* After the holidays, plan for next year. Shop the after-Christmas sales for things you know you'll need like paper, ribbons, plates and napkins.
"Then what I do, is in the back of my monthly planner for the next year, write a list of what I have and where I put it so I don't have to go out on a search and rescue mission when I need it," Schofield said.
A garment bag can be used to store wrapping paper until the next year and it won't get dog-eared and ripped.
* Update your notebook. Check your gift list and add any new relatives or friends you'll want to include next year.
Write down what baked items the family really enjoyed, what decorations or ornaments you'd like to add or change.
* Finally, as you're putting away your decorations, if something's worn or tacky, get rid of it. "I met a lady recently who had 30 boxes of Christmas stuff, and it is just 'stuff' because how could you possibly know what you have?" Schofield said.
What: Get Organized Workshop with Deniece Schofield
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Wednesday; 10 a.m. to noon Thursday
Cost: $20 per person at the door, no reservations required
Where: Quality Inn, 7901 W. Quinault Ave., across from Columbia Center mall, Kennewick
Topics: How to find more space without throwing away everything; hundreds of ideas on organizing; time management and how to corral all the floating scraps of paper. Both seminars are the same.
More information: 800-835-8463; denieceschofield.com
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