Unruly strings of Christmas lights, Christmas cookie crumbs under the sofa, bits of wrapping paper strewn about; some of these are uncontrollable realities of having family over for the holidays. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to reduce or eliminate holiday-related disorganization.

1) Practice the art of Furoshiki. The Japanese have created a wonderful way to wrap gifts beautifully and sustainably. Furoshiki is the art of wrapping parcels with reusable cloths. Translated, it means bath spread, or the cloth one would use to carry and spread under their bathing materials to the local bathhouse, a common practice in Japan. Today, people use beautiful cloths to wrap gifts like the ones shown below:

There are tons of tutorials online, and it will make your gifts more unique, and have the added bonus of the additional gift of a beautiful furoshiki!

2) Christmas lights were the bane of my father’s existence. Every year, I can remember him fighting with balls of tangled wires, completely baffled as to how this had happened. And while there are many excellent solutions to this problem, one of the simplest, cheapest ways to solve this problem is to cut 2” slits into opposite sides of a piece of cardboard and wrap the lights around it.

*Pro Tip: This works great for traveling with necklaces as well!* Who’s the person in your family who could use this tip?

3) Timing the family dinner was a regular struggle point for my mother. Getting everything out of the oven so that it all hit the table at once caused her so much stress! I helped her combat this by doing some pre-planning with her. We’d make a couple of the sides ahead of time, set the table the night before, and plan to bake the crescent rolls as the turkey was resting. By making these small changes, we were able to make the day MUCH less stressful.

Need more #Christmasprotips? Want help with a specific problem? Contact Theresa today!

And for 3 Tips on Eliminating Useless Gifts, click here!