Holiday Housekeeping: How a December Upkeep Plan Will Save Your Sanity [Episode 13]

Heidi  0:00

Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday Headstart Podcast. Today, we are talking about how to manage real life in the middle of holiday life, and sharing a get ahead tip for handling winter break.

 

Emily  1:01

Traditions are an important tool in building a healthy, happy, connected life. This week, we’re sharing one of our favorite December traditions, our Grinch dinner. So Heidi, tell us about the Grinch dinner, especially because this was all your idea and you do all the work, so…

 

Heidi  1:17

Yes, well, I basically started hosting this because I wanted us to have a fun activity to do mid-December. But I wouldn’t say that we’re like super Grinch fans.

 

Emily  1:28

No, that’s the funny thing. There’s like Dr. Seuss people. That’s not us.

 

Heidi  1:32

No, but I really just picked it because it was low hanging fruit. There’s so much Grinch stuff available.

 

Emily  1:39

So much Grinch stuff!

 

Heidi  1:41

It was just easy. It was just easy to plan a fun night without having to make it too exhausting to come up with stuff. So we keep the meal really kid friendly, we do breakfast for dinner, because who doesn’t like breakfast for dinner, and also because I can make most of it in advance. If you recall all of my woes over my Grinch pancakes.

 

Emily  2:01

But they’re done now! Good job.

 

Heidi  2:04

We’re all ready to go. And then we do just bacon, make a green punch, and then those Grinch fruit picks, maybe you’ve seen that are like a green grape, a slice of banana, a strawberry, and then a little marshmallow on top. So it kind of looks like a Grinch head and a Christmas hat. And now that the kids are old enough, they can, like, help assemble all of that. So that’s really nice.

 

Emily  2:26

They’re more interested in the assembling of them than the eating of them.

 

Heidi  2:30

Baby steps, I guess we’ll take what we can get. And then I get a Grinch themed craft kit from Oriental Trading to kind of fill the time when we finish preparing. Because, you know, kids that are waiting around are kids that are causing problems. We set the table with a lime green tablecloth, and I got a bunch of cute Grinch dishes, which may or may not have been the impetus for having this meal in the first place. And then after we eat, we play Grinch bingo, and we use those Hershey Kisses that are grinchy as markers. And then we just watch the old Grinch cartoon, because that’s the shortest option. And then we’re done!

 

Emily  3:02

And that’s the true and original version of the Grinch. Like, any other version is meh.

 

Heidi  3:08

That’s so, so true.

 

Emily  3:09

I saw somebody do a poll on their stories the day, the other day, asking, like, what the best version of the Grinch was. And I can’t believe how many people said the newest cartoon, the Benedict Cumberbatch version? Like, it’s fine, but no, the original version is the only true version.

 

Heidi  3:25

It is so true. I didn’t, yes, we have deep feelings about this.

 

Emily  3:28

Yes.

 

Heidi  3:30

So it’s fun, it’s short. That’s what you want on a crazy December night, and when we got a fun Grinch Operation Game. So we’ll have to add that in this year.

 

Emily  3:40

We’ll see how it goes.

 

Heidi  3:42

And then I made a Grinch playlist that I’m very proud of. So we can play that while we prepare and eat and play our games. It’s really fun. I will put a link to the playlist in the show notes, if you also need a Grinch themed playlist. It’s not just straight Grinch music, although I did incorporate, here we go, songs from every Grinch version of the movie and the musical. So there’s at least one song from each of those.

 

Emily  4:08

Everybody’s represented here.

 

Heidi  4:09

Yes. And then, if you listen, it kind of follows the plot of like starting with the Who’s and the more fun music, and it gets a little darker and weirder, and then the happy resolution at the end. I put a lot of thought into it.

 

Emily  4:25

Heidi is serious about her playlists.

 

Heidi  4:27

I am. Nobody would notice or care, but it makes me really happy.

 

Emily  4:32

We’d love to hear about your favorite traditions. Come join us on Instagram @theholidayheadstart.

 

Emily  4:39

Hey, look at us. We’ve made it to December. I’d say we’re on the downhill slide, but as you know, we’ve still got a lot of hill to climb ahead of us.

 

Heidi  4:49

This time of year, I always think of a story that went viral in 2020 and it just cracked me up. So three young adult roommates in Canada weren’t traveling home, so they decided to have their own Christmas celebration. Two of the roommates had grown up with Christmas, but everything was new to their third roommate, Mohammed, and so he tweeted, “Growing up my Muslim family never celebrated Christmas. This year, with the ongoing pandemic, I had to make the tough decision not to go home for the holidays, because it simply isn’t safe. The silver lining is that my roommates are teaching me how to have my first proper Christmas. I am approaching this with anthropological precision, and I would like to share my observations. Observation one, Christmas is a part time job that you have from mid November to the end of December. It is an entire production.”

 

Emily  5:38

It’s true.

 

Heidi  5:39

“From the outside looking in. Christmas always seemed pretty simple. I always thought you put up a tree and then gave gifts to family. This is a lie. Do you want to sleep in on a Saturday? Too bad. Go put up some lights inside the house. Oh, you want to sleep in on a Sunday? Too bad. Go put up some lights outside the house. Next weekend? Nope. Every free moment you have will be spent agonizing over the gifts you must buy.” And then he goes on to share nine more insightful observations about the quirks of planning for Christmas. I especially like his breakdown of keeper ornaments versus filler ornaments. And he gets his first ornament and won’t spoil what it is. It’s very fun. There’s a link to the full list in the show notes if you want a sweet, funny read.

 

Emily  6:22

I love it. Well, all of that is to say, welcome to your part time job that you didn’t apply for. You’re seasonal help, it turns out.

 

Heidi  6:31

And some of us might even be putting in full time hours this time of year.

 

Emily  6:35

Which leads to the question, how do you get it all done?

 

Heidi  6:39

And the answer, of course, is…you can’t. Holiday life on top of regular life is too much. You would have to defy the laws of physics to get it all done.

 

Emily  6:50

So if you can’t, or don’t want to, defy the laws of physics, but you’d still like to have some time and energy left to enjoy the holidays you’ve been working so hard for, you’re going to have to drop some things from your list.

 

Heidi  7:04

If you’re like me, what typically happens is that I reach a point where the overwhelm is running the show, and I just throw up my hands and drop everything that isn’t absolutely essential and maybe a few things that are, because I just figure it’s easier to deal with a down-the-road-fallout than an in-the-moment-meltdown.

 

Emily  7:22

Sometimes that is all you can do. But since we know this moment is coming, what if we address it proactively, instead of having a big reaction in a stressful moment?

 

Heidi  7:32

And that is what we’re going to talk about today. To start with, let’s revisit our red noses, or the personal foundations that we are using to guide us forward.

 

Emily  7:43

If you have the Holiday Headstart Playbook, take a few minutes to look over those pages. What are your holiday values? What is your purpose statement. And if you don’t have the Holiday Headstart Playbook, make sure to grab it from the link in the show notes.

 

Heidi  7:57

If you wrote some permission slips for yourself, you might want to read over those as well. One of my permission slips that I come back to a lot as things around the holidays get hectic is my permission slip number six (out of 12): It is not about getting everything done perfectly. I do what I can and release any guilt over not achieving my ideals or completing every task.

 

Emily  8:19

Yeah, there are no prizes for completing everything on our list, so it’s not worth it to wear ourselves out trying to get it all done. In Section 10 of the playbook, which is full of all the To Do lists, there’s also a Let It Go list. This is your To Don’t list. What just isn’t worth your time and energy right now? Let loose your inner Elsa and just let it go.

 

Heidi  8:44

The first column in this list is for you to write down everything that you are letting go of, and then the second column is to record what you are gaining by not doing that task.

 

Emily  8:55

If the benefits of skipping something outweigh the benefits of doing it, it’s definitely not something you should put any effort into.

 

Heidi  9:01

This is true for things like dusting the bathroom light fixtures or having a family camp out under the Christmas tree, as well as comparing my holiday decorations to my cousins.

 

Emily  9:13

Some things like comparison, we want to let go of forever. Some things, like maybe a family living room camp out, we might just want to let go of for this year, but some things like those dusty bathroom lights, may just need a little pause, like a leave of absence.

 

Heidi  9:28

So let’s talk about how we can figure out which of our tasks get a holiday leave of absence and which ones are actually essential. Real life doesn’t stop just because there are gifts to wrap, so let’s be strategic about what we are committing to.

 

Emily  9:43

In section nine of the Holiday Headstart Playbook, there are a whole bunch of pages for drafting your minimum upkeep plan.

 

Heidi  9:51

I like to call this a MUP.

 

Emily  9:53

Oh, yeah. I mean, why not?

 

Heidi  9:56

I picture, okay, this is a deep cut, but I picture Carol Burnett’s Char Woman character, if you’re old enough to know what I’m even talking about.

 

Emily  10:06

I am old enough, but I’m not sure I do know what you’re talking about. I’m gonna have to Google.

 

Heidi  10:11

You will! She’s a cutie, but she seems like she could be called MUP, and she’s here to make sure all of your essential responsibilities are managed so you have time for that part time holiday-maker job you seem to have landed.

 

Emily  10:24

Your minimum upkeep plan is a list of the bare bones, basic tasks needed to keep your house running, and a simple system for getting those tasks done. In December, no one has the time or energy to devote to a whole house, deep clean.

 

Heidi  10:39

So our goal is to craft a plan to make sure the minimum chores are covered. That way you can enjoy your holiday without losing your mind over the mess or having to spend all of your time cleaning.

 

Emily  10:51

The first thing we need to figure out is, what is your definition of a clean home?

 

Heidi  10:56

Just a word of warning. Don’t get into a perfection spiral on this. Consider if you walked into someone else’s house and thought, hey, this is clean, what would that be like? And now just apply that same filter to your own house.

 

Emily  11:09

For me, it’s the floors and bathrooms are grime free, and most importantly, the clutter is put away. But you may have a totally different standard.

 

Heidi  11:19

The next question to figure out is, what level of clean is feasible, given the realities of your life at this time of year. Maybe you are able to do a whole house deep clean before Christmas, or maybe a bathroom wipe down and a quick vacuum are all you can manage.

 

Emily  11:35

As nice as it would be to have white glove level cleanliness every day, for people with kids or pets or jobs or health concerns or a general dislike of cleaning, that is just not practical. So figure out what is manageable given everything else that you’re managing this month.

 

Heidi  11:51

Next, let’s take a look at your household upkeep tasks. Mentally go room by room in your house and list what is needed in each room to maintain that comfort level of clean.

 

Emily  12:02

Once you’ve written all the household tasks, we’re going to rank them as a one, two or three. One tasks are non negotiable. They absolutely have to be done regularly. That’s your dishes, laundry, taking out the trash, pet care and anything else to make your house livable are all non negotiable. Two tasks are things that would ideally be done, but there aren’t huge negative consequences if you skip them for a bit.

 

Heidi  12:27

Think of these as tasks like dusting the living room. Sure, it would be nice to have it done, but it most likely won’t ruin anyone’s holiday if your TV is a little dusty.

 

Emily  12:37

And that brings us to our Three tasks. These are tasks that are okay to skip for now. We’re giving them a leave of absence for the holidays. You can get away with not wiping down the fridge shelves or vacuuming your lampshades for a while.

 

Heidi  12:50

There is a handy feature in the playbook that I am proud of. If you are using the digital version and you add tasks to your minimum upkeep plan, once you’ve numbered them, any tasks that are numbered one automatically turn red, and this is to help you be able to quickly identify which of your tasks are most important

 

Emily  13:08

Once you’ve ranked all your tasks. The next question is, how can you maintain your routines for laundry, dishes, pets or other responsibilities that don’t take a break for the holidays?

 

Heidi  13:18

To help with that, consider which tasks need to be done in the evening to keep the household running, and which tasks need to be done in the morning. So for example, maybe you need to run the dishwasher before bed each night and then unload it in the morning. Or maybe you need to pack the kids lunches after dinner and start a load of laundry after breakfast.

 

Emily  13:38

Some of your One and Two tasks, your essential and ideal tasks, have to be done daily, or almost every day. But a lot of them are likely done once or twice a week. To make sure we’re managing those tasks as well, you’ll likely need some dedicated cleaning time during the week.

 

Heidi  13:54

There are a lot of different cleaning schedules out there, but the right one to use is whichever one works for you.

 

Emily  14:02

Also consider what works best for the people you live with. You shouldn’t be the only person managing the upkeep of a home that you share with others.

 

Heidi  14:10

Yeah, that’s probably a whole other episode, though. Maybe what works best in your house is to do a beat the buzzer clean. You could start a timer every night for 15 minutes, and then everyone cleans and tidies as much as they can in that time. Or maybe a one and done clean works best for you, and you have a set time to take care of all of the upkeep that needs doing.

 

Emily  14:30

You could also be a bespoke cleaner and have a custom cleaning schedule for each day. Or maybe you prefer to go room by room and tackle a room at a time.

 

Heidi  14:40

Or maybe you are a hybrid of those models, or maybe none of them match your style at all. But however you choose to work on your household tasks, it’s a good idea to make sure that the things that need to happen are actually happening.

 

Emily  14:53

And let me guess, we need another list for that?

 

Heidi  14:54

We always need another list. You. In the playbook, there are several different types of lists depending on your cleaning style. So don’t look at that and get overwhelmed, because there’s so many. You just need the ones that fit your cleaning style. So if you are a beat the buzzer cleaner or a one and done cleaner, there’s a sheet for you to list all of your One and Two tasks so that you can make sure that you’re taking care of what’s important. There’s a page to list tasks by room if you are room by room cleaner, and there’s a week’s worth of pages to list tasks by day if you are a bespoke cleaner and want a whole week routine.

 

Emily  15:30

But that’s not all. There’s also a list for each day of the week that allows you to add the daily routine tasks like dishes to the list, as well as any special tasks for that day. And there’s still more. There’s a week at a glance page for each week in December, if you need to have all your holiday tasks in one place. And then there are four December weekend planners, because, as you know, weekends in December are busy, busy, busy. You’ve got to get the indoor and the outdoor lights up. This way you can keep track of all the places you need to be and things that need to get done during your weekends.

 

Heidi  16:03

So as we are headed into this craziest of months, take a few minutes to reflect on what a clean house means to you, list the tasks needed to keep your household running, and make a simple plan for how to get it all done.

 

Emily  16:15

And think how nice it would be to not have Clean the House on your to do list right before 20 people are coming over for your holiday party.

 

Heidi  16:22

Do you have any tips for managing household tasks during the holidays? We would absolutely love to hear them. Please come share with us on Instagram @theholidayheadstart.

 

Emily  16:32

Now it’s time for a Get a Headstart Tip. Each week we leave you with a small actionable tip to help you get a head start on your holiday plan. This week’s Get a Headstart Tip is, figure out how to handle winter break. Tell us more about it, Heidi.

 

Heidi  16:47

Well, if you’ve got school aged kids who have a break in a few weeks…

 

Emily  16:50

I do!

 

Heidi  16:53

This is for you! Well take a few minutes now to figure out what you want to have happen during that break. In the Holiday Headstart Playbook, there is a page for your school break, and this is in the calendar and coordinating section. This will help you figure out if you need to arrange childcare, maybe any activities you want to plan while the kids are home, and what meals and snacks you need to consider. The goal isn’t to turn you into a cruise director making every minute of the break nonstop fun, but it’s likely that you also don’t want kids to spend the next two weeks on their devices. So this can be a way to help you proactively decide what that break should look like.

 

Emily  17:31

Oh, I love that. I need to get on this part of my planner that I haven’t done yet.

 

Emily  17:37

Now it’s time for what we’re working on this week as a way to keep ourselves accountable and give you some ideas of what you can do in advance for your own celebrations, we’re sharing what we’re working on this week. Heidi, what’s on your to do list?

 

Heidi  17:49

I need to get my tree decorated. I hate the process, but I love the result.

 

Emily  17:55

Well, and your tree is gorgeous, but it has a lot of layers of beautiful ornaments, so it’s a lot of work.

 

Heidi  18:01

I do, I’m my own worst enemy, but I love it so much when it’s done. It’s just the doing that’s so tedious. Okay, Emily, what’s on your to do list?

 

Emily  18:09

Well, I also need to get my tree decorated. It is up, but it is not decorated because I hate the decorating part. So that is, for sure, my big task for this week, and I’m also trying to sort out some of the non Christmas Day gifts that I need to do, like for Sinterklaas, which is coming up for us soon, and the book flood lunch that we do. I’m just trying to make sure I’ve got all of those bases covered.

 

Heidi  18:33

Yeah, we really do have a lot of non Christmas Day gifts that we do in December.

 

Emily  18:38

Listen, this is our Super Bowl. We go hard in December, okay?

 

Heidi  18:44

Yep, yes, we do, yes, we do. Take no prisoners.

 

Heidi  18:49

To wrap up the show, we are sharing our nice lists. Emily, what made it on your nice list this week?

 

Emily  18:53

I’m putting the Book Club Hotel by Sara Morgan on my nice list. I was looking for a new holiday rom com book to read, and I started this one, and it turns out that is, that is not what this is. This is not a rom com, but what it is, is a sweet story about female friendships for a trio of old college roommates who are now turning 40. And I was like, Oh, that’s funny, because I have a trio of college roommates that have just turned 40 that I talk to every day. So it’s a really fun read. I probably wouldn’t have set out to read this, but now that I have read it, I was like, Oh, well, that was lovely, and it’s a nice, easy read for December.

 

Heidi  19:30

I read two of Sara Morgan’s last December, and I just thought the same thing. They’re very lovely. There’s romance in the book, but it’s, but I wouldn’t say that they’re romances. It’s more about like, building connections and relationships.

 

Emily  19:42

That’s a good description.

 

Heidi  19:43

I’ll have to check this one out. I’ve loved the other ones I’ve read of hers, so, good to know.

 

Emily  19:48

What’s on your nice list, Heidi?

 

Emily  19:49

Well, I am putting the M Design shower caddy on my nice list.

 

Emily  19:50

Oh!

 

Heidi  19:50

I think calling this a shower caddy is generous, because it’s not that big. I don’t know that you could fit shampoo bottles in there, but I did not buy it as a shower caddy. So that worked out. I bought it to use as my little portable Christmas card station. It’s got just a central divider with a handle and then two storage kind of buckets on either side. I was looking for something red for Christmas, but the closest they had was pink. So I got the pink Caddy with a rose gold handle.

 

Emily  20:21

Ooh.

 

Heidi  20:22

If you have used M Design products before, you know that they are really well made. And I picked that on purpose because I wanted something that felt special, and it would also let me kind of just pack it around the house as I worked on my cards. So I put my cards and envelopes on one side, and then I have stamps and pens and anything else on the other side. I know really any container would work for this task, but it genuinely makes me happy to have something so pretty for my Christmas cards. So that’s on my nice list, and I will put a link to it in the show notes.

 

Emily  20:50

Sometimes just having a special tool makes a task so much more fun. And I’ve been meaning to do this, so I’m gonna have to grab one of these too.

 

Heidi  20:57

Yes, do that. That’s it for today’s episode. Make your minimum upkeep plan now, so taking care of your house during the holidays doesn’t detract you from your more important activities. And don’t forget, this week’s Get a Headstart Tip to figure out your winter break child care.

 

Emily  21:13

Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see you here again next week. If you enjoyed this episode, it would be so very helpful if you give us a five star rating and review on Apple podcasts as a new podcast, we really need all of the positive promo that we can get.