Are you planning on doing some entertaining this holiday season? If so, you may have some home organization to take care of first. Don’t worry, you’re in good company. Many of us do not realize just how disorganized our homes are until we start planning to have guests over. That’s when things get interesting.
The point of this post is to help you better understand how to organize your home for holiday gatherings. But rather than offering specific tips, like getting rid of the clutter and cleaning the spare bedroom, you want to approach the topic from a more broad perspective. You want to discuss some of the more comprehensive goals of home organization.
The purpose for this approach is twofold. First, we really do want you to have a clean and organized home you can be proud of when your guests arrive. Second, learning the bigger picture of home organization will serve you well even when the holidays are long gone
Consider Your Usable Space
Organization, at every level, boils down to a single phrase: usable space. It doesn’t matter whether you are talking about holiday entertaining or making the best use of your closets. It all comes down to usable space.
Step back and try to envision what your holiday gatherings will look like. How many people are milling around, and what parts of your home are they using? Where will they be sitting, standing, and eating? If you can get a vision for how the space in your home will be used, you will have a better idea of what you need to do to prepare.
Preparing the space in one room might be a simple matter of rearranging the furniture to improve traffic flow. In another area of the house, you might have to actively de-clutter. Working with usable space really is a room-by-room exercise.
Consider Your Decorating Strategy
The most free and open space can feel cluttered if it is overwhelmed by decorations. So whether you’re decorating for the holidays or putting the house back together in January, consider your overall decorating strategy.
Decorations, knickknacks, and accessories should be complementary to the space in which they are found. So, for example, do not put an extremely large Christmas tree in a rather small room. The tree will overwhelm the space and make it uninviting.
Likewise, use larger pieces in bigger rooms and smaller pieces in cozier rooms. Balance the number of decorations and accessories with furniture pieces and accents. You don’t want your holiday decorations to outnumber every other item in a given space, or they become oppressive.
Consider Guest Comfort
Last but not least, consider the comfort of your guests as they move around your home. A big part of home organizing for the holidays is to create an environment in which guests feel comfortable enough to be themselves.
It is pretty standard for most of us to take our shoes off at home. So when guests come to your house, they are inevitably going to ask the question of whether they should remove their shoes. Don’t make it uncomfortable for them. Put a shoe rack by the door. When they ask, just smile and point to the rack.
Another thing to consider are your furnishings. Organize spaces in such a way as to promote sitting down and talking. Give people plenty of room to relax and enjoy one another’s company. Clean off the dining room table so it is an inviting conversation space. Remove the throw pillows from the couch so people aren’t apprehensive about sitting down.
The season for holiday entertaining is now upon us. Now is the time to start organizing your home in anticipation of your future guests. In doing so, remember the principles spelled out here. They will serve you well.