Holiday Shopping Hacks From A Professional Organizer

The holidays can be stressful and so can the stress of shopping for gifts for your loved ones. This year, I came up with some great hacks using my professional organizer mind that seriously helped me shop a little smarter this year! Read a bit more on these ideas below:

Plan ahead. Brainstorm and ask people on your gifting list in late October or early November what is on their wishlist this year. If they say they don’t have a wish list, I suggest sitting down and doing a brainstorm of their interests. It could lead to a good idea on an item you want to get for them or an experience you want them to have. If you are totally stumped, I suggest doing a Google Search relating to the persons interests, like:

• Gifts for the homebody

• Gifts for the organizing expert

• Gifts for the sports fan

That should help you land upon some pretty unique and well thought out items!

Keep a good list of who and what. Add a note in your phone or paper notebook titled “Christmas gifts” and simply make a heading for each persons name with a nice bullet point list (so organized, you are!) of what items you will be gifting them. This note can also be used with some added dollar amounts to implement budgets or track spending. This is even a good list to run through when you are packing your car for a Christmas vacation and need to remember what gifts for who need to be packed.

Track items ordered and received. Add two different notes to your phone or paper notebook. One titled “gifts ordered” with a checkbox list of all the items you need to order. Check them off as you actually order or pick them up. Add a second note titled “gifts received” so you can actually keep track of what items you have in hand so you are in total control of what will be showing up at your doorstep.

A hack for quick and easy online shopping. Add items to your bookmarks on your computer early for any cyber week sales. This will ensure you can just run down your list of tabs and order with ease! You will save so much time clicking the link rather than having to search and find the items you had in mind.

These ideas are all ideas that I implemented this year and I have to say, it has been my most “organized” and stress free gift shopping year yet. I hope these organizing tips help you get into the holiday spirit in a simple and stress free way!