14 After Christmas / Holiday General Tips & Shopping Tips

This is a great time to start thinking about the holidays for the following year while this is all fresh on your mind. Last year I wrote about 21 Tips & Tricks for Getting Organized After the Holidays and Organizing Christmas decorations. Below are some additional various tips and tricks:

Tips: 

1. Label each bag, bin and box so you know what is in them.
2. Make a list of all things you want to change for the previous year or things you want to remember. Did you want to purchase stamps earlier, ship items earlier, get certain decorations up by a certain time. Hire or outsource certain services, etc? What did you run out of? 
3. Sharpen your scissors.
4. Budget now for next year. How much did you spend this year? More or less than last year? In the new year set aside a little money each month so you do not feel as overwhelmed and stressed closer to the holidays.
5. Write thank you notes for gifts you received.
6. As you are putting new items away, donate items you know you no longer need, want or like. 

If you are shopping the day after Christmas here are some things to think about.

1. Make a list ahead of time of everything you are needing to avoid impulse purchases. For me this year I am looking for timers, more bike bags, various decorations, etc. 
2. Did you receive gift cards as a gift? USE them on sales for purchases you may be making if you can.
3. Only get supplies that you know you need. Did you run out of wrapping paper, tissue, gift card holders, etc.?
4. If you are thinking of getting new Christmas lights for indoor or outdoor, now is a great time. Hardware stores usually have them deeply discounted. 
5. If you buy new decorations, make sure you have the proper storage solutions to put them.
6. Shop early if you are looking for something specific or shop a couple of weeks later when discounts consistently get higher and higher.
7. Don't forget to shop drugstores and various hardware stores. 

ecomodernconcierge.com

The Ultimate Holiday Essentials Bag for Holiday Concierges and Professional Organizers

We help clients year round with all of their concierge and professional organizing needs, but we are experts in all things holiday related and it is one of our busiest times of year. We do everything from decorating to shopping to gift wrapping to getting organized before guests come and the list goes on and on and on. We are located in Houston, TX, so we often get a lot of requests. Below is a list of products and essentials we like to keep on hand during the holiday season for every little thing that we may need when it comes to decorating and random other little things.  We hope you find this list helpful. What are things that you like to keep on hand during the holiday season? You can shop all of these items on the Eco Modern Concierge Shop page as well. 

Gardening bag: This is the bag I currently use to store everything because it has lots of pockets. 

Gloves: A necessary to not cut your hands and arms up when decorating especially with live tress, garlands and wreaths.

Double sided tape: A gift wrapping essential.

Regular tape: Another gift wrapping essential.

Glue Dot roller: Perfect for gift wrapping and helping various things stay in place. 

Super sticky tape: Great for glitter wrapping paper or things that really need to be stuck down. 

Super glue: To fix broken items.

Scissors: I have talked about these scissors for a long time and really like them.

Fabric scissors: To only be used used on fabric. 

Velcro: Perfect to wrap cords and hold various things in place.

Command hooks in varying sizes: We use command hooks ALL the time with various holiday projects. We love using the small, regular, gold / silver, cord wraps, etc. 

Nails: You never know what you will need to nail down. They are great for hanging various things like garland, wreaths, etc. 

Tacks: We use tacks for all kinds of things like securing ribbon to windows, securing wreaths to doors, etc. We use various colors like white, green, silver and gold.

Floral wire: This is a MUST in our bag because we use it to tie garland on banisters, rails, hang wreaths, etc. We usually carry green and silver wire.

Zip ties: These are necessary for your holiday bag and we use them most often to tie garland to banisters and securing lots of garland parts together.

Clear twist ties: perfect to secure various things like bows on decor, gifts, etc.

Beaded flexible ties: I like that these have notches and you can use them for various things like lights, garland, etc.

Flexible twist ties: These come in green and white and perfect to secure cords or various things that need to stay together.

Twist ties: 

Garland ties: These green pine ties are also great for tying garland in various places. 

Fishing wire: Perfect for hanging things like wreaths when you don't want string to show from afar or to use to hang other decor items.

Banister clips: Great for securing various things to the banister

Wreath picks: These are wonderful to have on hand because they help fill in areas of wreaths & garland that have fallen off through the years, great to add to presents, etc. Here are pinecone picks and berry picks.

Mallet: We always keep a mallet on hand to secure nails, put stakes in the ground, fix things, etc.

Ornament hooks: You can get standard in expensive ones or we love these decorative ones we saw at Target this year that come in gold and silver. 

DW40: A necessary to have on hand always.

Batteries: A necessary to have on hand during the holidays because you never know what remote, decor item, toy, etc will need a battery.

Wreath suction hangers: Great when putting wreaths or hanging items on glass windows, doors and mirrors. They come in various weight holds 10lbs and 20lbs.

Wreath hangers: We keep these on hand because we never know when a client may need one.

Magnetic wreath hangers: These are wonderful for hanging wreath and other items. Please the magnets are usually pretty strong.

Slap bracelets: Helps keep wrapping paper and various ribbon rolls together. 

Beeswax lubricating compound: Great for using with scores, 

Stick um: Candle adhesive, which is great for keeping candles in place inside of holders.

Straightening iron: To unwrinkle ribbon and various holiday decor. 

Hot glue gun: Great for putting embellishments on presents, wreaths, garlands, and various other holiday decor. 

ecomodernconcierge.com

11 Holiday Decor Tips

Since I did the question thing on Instagram stories several people said they wanted holiday decor tips. Below are various holiday decor tips we have learned through the years. This is by no means all of them, but hopefully some of them can help you. 

1. If nothing else, get a remote for several of your lit decor items like Christmas trees, garland, etc. believe me it is a game changer and you don't have to go back and forth plugging and unplugging things. 
2. Pillows are one of the easiest ways to make things look festive.
3. Make a space look festive with light and candles.
4. Use dimmers.
5. Shop after holiday sales for some great deals.
6. If you are buying fake greenery invest in good quality ones. They last a lot longer and some items have a great warranty places. 
7. If you are going for a particular holiday theme, look in uncommon places for decor like estate sales, thrift stores, the dollar store, and shop after holiday sales like At Home, Hobby Lobby, Michaels, etc. 
8. Keep floral wire, zip ties and command hooks on hand. 
9. Use timers on your outdoor lights.
10. Outsource if you are overwhelmed or stressed.
11. Label and make a plan. When putting up &/or taking down holiday decorations have a plan where everything will go and be sure to label boxes accordingly.

ecomodernconcierge.com