Miscellaneous Holiday Tips

As we aren’t that far away from the holidays, I thought some of you may find the following miscellaneous tips helpful. These are just a collection of some of the random things I’ve found helpful that always seem to happen to me around this time of year, when I’m least expecting it. Hopefully, they will help you out too!

• Grocery Shop Early – It never fails, my holiday grocery shopping usually gets put off until the last minute and I wind up shopping with all the other crazy procrastinators out there. However, there have been a few times when I’ve actually ventured out of the house super early to do my holiday grocery shopping. I have to tell you, that is absolutely, without-a-doubt the best time to go grocery shopping right before the holidays. It will take will power as you will need to be up and out the door by 6 a.m., but I promise it will totally be worth it when you are back home, with the groceries put away before 8 a.m. – after experiencing hardly any wait to check out!
• Use this Homemade Recipe for Unexpected Spills, Stains and Smells – This is one I discovered a few years ago the day before Christmas dinner with my family…at my house. My dog for whatever reason decided to jump up on my bed and relieve herself on it at the precise time when the sheets and mattress protector were both in the wash! As if that wasn’t bad enough, the mattress was only a week old and I was going to have a house full of guests the next day – some of whom were staying at my house. A quick search on google saved the day! So, if you ever have something similar happen like this, all you need to do is soak up the spill as best you can (however, this also works on dried spills) and spray a 75/25 mixture of vinegar and Listerine on the area. Make sure it’s saturated, then sprinkle baking soda all over the wet area and rub it in. Next, place a towel over it and let it dry. Once dry, vacuum it up and check it out! The vinegar helps remove the stain while the Listerine and baking soda work together to lift the offensive smell. It works on anything from carpet to mattresses to couches!
• Atomatic Timers are Awesome! For years, my husband and I put up Christmas lights and manually turned them on and off. Not that that’s a bad thing, but there would honestly be days when we would forget to turn them off. Talk about wasting energy! Then, my dad introduced us to automatic timers for the Christmas lights. Simply amazing! If you haven’t tried using holiday timers for your Christmas lights (indoors and outdoors) give it a try. I predict you will love them. They will make your life so much easier. You won’t have to worry about turning on the lights or when to turn them off – they will manage it all for you, giving you time to worry about the more important things surrounding the holidays.

Okay, so those are my top miscellaneous tips for the holidays. I hope that you have found them to be helpful as I know how crazy the holidays can get sometimes, especially when the kids get involved. Please share any additional tips that you feel we would benefit from during this time of year!