When the holidays are coming up, there is nothing worse than coming home and thinking about work! Make this season fun by giving yourself one less thing to worry about. We have some tips for you to make your home feel like a holiday wonderland.
Discover your budget
If you haven’t already, setting a Christmas budget is vital! Knowing how much you’re going to spend in advance will save you the headache of last-minute transactions. Make a list of all your holiday activities, jot down all the associated costs you can think of, and find areas where you can save money. Remember, this is a time for family and friends, so there is no reason to overspend.
QPG Tip: Do your grocery shopping in advance
Skip the long lines and plan ahead. The grocery store is the last place you want to be during the holiday season. Prepare your menus ahead of time and try to buy your shopping list in advance. Bulk goods stores such as Costco are great if you’ve got a lot of mouths to feed.
Make a To Do List
Make a list of everything that needs to be done in order for your house to look perfect for Christmas. If there’s anything that seems like it won’t fit into your budget, then rethink whether or not it’s really worth doing at all.
Once you’ve got everything down on paper and crossed off, then you’ll know exactly what needs to be done in order for everything else around your house to go off without a hitch!
Declutter
Decluttering is the best way to get rid of the stuff that is not providing value to your home. You can declutter your entire home or just a specific room.
What do you need to declutter?
- Remove all unnecessary items from the house, such as books and magazines, and all other things that you don’t use anymore.
- Remove all clothes you don’t wear anymore. You can give them away or donate them to charity.
- Sort through your closets, drawers, and cabinets to take out things you no longer need and keep only what you will wear again.
- Create a storage area for these items so they can be put away easily whenever needed.
Decorate your main spaces
Decorate your main spaces with Christmas lights and other decorations to make them look like a winter wonderland! You can also add garland around doors, wreaths on door frames and even use tinsel around tree trunks so that it looks like it’s decorated for Christmas day. This is an easy way to put together an amazing holiday look without spending too much money on decorations.
Cook in advance
If the holiday season gets a bit hectic around your house, make sure you’re doing as much preparation as you can. Cook what you can in advance and keep all your recipe ingredients organised and ready to use. Allocating a dish to each family member can also help clear up pantry space before the big day.
Make a New Family Tradition
As your family grows and changes, it is important to keep the fun going and to cherish the time we have together. Task yourself with find ways that you can bring a new tradition into your family. Some ideas are: secret Santa, a family cricket match, a Christmas bake-off, ornament making, and pass the parcel.
Here at QPG, we’re well aware that the end of the year can be an extremely busy time of year for you and your family. We hope this guide makes things a little easier by helping to ease some stress and get a head start on any planned renovations.
On behalf of the team at QPG, we’d like to wish you a joyous Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We look forward to supporting your homeownership journey further in 2023.