Entertaining This Holiday? Tips to Help
This holiday season, many people will choose to entertain at home in an effort to save money, but may not know where to begin! A recent study conducted by BISSELL Homecare, Inc. revealed that the average American woman spends eight hours preparing her home for guests during fall and winter holidays. To reduce the hours spent preparing and make more time for celebrating, Donna Smallin, organizing and cleaning guru and author of “The One-Minute Cleaner,” offers her best “entertaining essentials” — tips and ideas for entertaining at any time of year.
“Party hosts often try to accomplish too much and end up being so stressed that they can’t enjoy their own party,” says Smallin. “My advice is for hosts to get organized from the very beginning and reduce the amount of time they spend preparing for entertaining so they can spend more time enjoying themselves.”
Here are some of Smallin’s best tips:
– Plan ahead. Make a list of things that need doing before guests arrive — everything from dusting to decorating the tree. Ask family members to choose the tasks they wouldn’t mind doing. Assign the tasks no one likes doing. Then schedule a time to get the job done together as a family.
– Declutter. Keep in mind that “less is more,” especially at the holidays. Now is a good time to donate some of your kids’ old toys and games — and some of your own stuff.
– Clean where it counts. Do a little bit each day to make the process more manageable. Focus your efforts on high traffic areas: kitchen, bathrooms, living rooms and family rooms.
– In the family room and other high traffic areas, nothing freshens up a room like clean carpet and rugs. A great way to clean them yourself is with a carpet cleaner such as the new BISSELL PROdry®. The nice thing about using the PROdry carpet cleaner is that you a get professional quality clean, but carpet and area rugs will be dry in just 30 minutes.
– Simplify gift-giving. Consider giving edible gifts or gift certificates rather than packaged goods. The last thing most of us need is more stuff!
– Host a party that practically cleans up after itself. Look for one-pot and crock pot recipes or make it a potluck party and send guests home with the leftovers.
Donna’s final tip: “The more you entertain, the easier it gets!”
For more of Donna’s great tips for easy entertaining, visit www.quickholidaycleanup.com.
Popularity: 6% [?]
Welcome back!
