December 4, 2024 • 21 mins
In this episode, we tackle the stress that comes with the holiday season and explore proactive strategies to manage overwhelm. Instead of waiting for the inevitable meltdown, we’ll discuss how to build a plan that simplifies your responsibilities while ensuring your home stays functional and festive. From revisiting your personal holiday values to crafting a Minimum Upkeep Plan (MUP), you’ll walk away with practical tools to navigate the season with more joy and less chaos.
If you have the Holiday Headstart Playbook, grab it now to follow along. Don’t have it yet? Download it here.
Highlights from the episode:
[01:00] - Tradition Spotlight on Grinch Dinner
[09:43] - What a Minimum Upkeep Plan (MUP) is and why it’s essential during December
[13:54] - Cleaning styles: Beat-the-Buzzer, One-and-Done, and Bespoke Cleaning
[14:57] - Tools and pages in the Holiday Headstart Playbook to streamline your routines
[16:31] - This week’s Get A Headstart Tip for planning for Winter Break
[17:37] - What’s on our to-do lists this week
[18:49] - Our Nice Lists
Resources:
- Muslim man celebrates first Christmas
- Grinch Playlist
- Book Club Hotel
- MDesign Shower Caddy
- Grab The Holiday Headstart Playbook
- Take the Holiday Profile quiz
- Follow on Instagram @theholidayheadstart
- Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts!
If you enjoyed this episode, you'll love these too:
- Episode 4 - How to Craft Your Holiday Values For A More Meaningful Christmas Season
- Episode 7 - Unlock the Power of the 3 Cs: Your Ultimate Guide to Holiday Planning
Show Notes: https://www.secondstorywindow.net/hh-podcast/holiday-housekeeping-december-upkeep-plan/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Heidi (00:00):
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday
(00:06):
Headstart Podcast. Today, we aretalking about how to manage real
(00:55):
life in the middle of holidaylife, and sharing a get ahead
tip for handling winter break.
Emily (01:01):
Traditions are an important tool in building a
healthy, happy, connected life.This week, we're sharing one of
our favorite Decembertraditions, our Grinch dinner.
So Heidi, tell us about theGrinch dinner, especially
because this was all your ideaand you do all the work, so...
Heidi (01:17):
Yes, well, I basically started hosting this because I
wanted us to have a fun activityto do mid-December. But I
wouldn't say that we're likesuper Grinch fans.
Emily (01:28):
No, that's the funny thing. There's like Dr. Seuss
people. That's not us.
Heidi (01:32):
No, but I really just picked it because it was low
hanging fruit. There's so muchGrinch stuff available.
Emily (01:39):
So much Grinch stuff!
Heidi (01:41):
It was just easy. It was just easy to plan a fun night
without having to make it tooexhausting to come up with
stuff. So we keep the mealreally kid friendly, we do
breakfast for dinner, becausewho doesn't like breakfast for
dinner, and also because I canmake most of it in advance. If
you recall all of my woes overmy Grinch pancakes.
Emily (02:01):
But they're done now! Good job.
Heidi (02:04):
We're all ready to go. And then we do just bacon, make
a green punch, and then thoseGrinch fruit picks, maybe you've
seen that are like a greengrape, a slice of banana, a
strawberry, and then a littlemarshmallow on top. So it kind
of looks like a Grinch head anda Christmas hat. And now that
the kids are old enough, theycan, like, help assemble all of
(02:24):
that. So that's really nice.
Emily (02:26):
They're more interested in the assembling of them than
the eating of them.
Heidi (02:30):
Baby steps, I guess we'll take what we can get. And then I
get a Grinch themed craft kitfrom Oriental Trading to kind of
fill the time when we finishpreparing. Because, you know,
kids that are waiting around arekids that are causing problems.
We set the table with a limegreen tablecloth, and I got a
bunch of cute Grinch dishes,which may or may not have been
the impetus for having this mealin the first place. And then
(02:53):
after we eat, we play Grinchbingo, and we use those Hershey
Kisses that are grinchy asmarkers. And then we just watch
the old Grinch cartoon, becausethat's the shortest option. And
then we're done!
Emily (03:02):
And that's the true and original version of the Grinch.
Like, any other version is meh.
Heidi (03:08):
That's so, so true.
Emily (03:09):
I saw somebody do a poll on their stories the day, the
other day, asking, like, whatthe best version of the Grinch
was. And I can't believe howmany people said the newest
cartoon, the BenedictCumberbatch version? Like, it's
fine, but no, the originalversion is the only true
version.
Heidi (03:25):
It is so true. I didn't, yes, we have deep feelings about
this.
Emily (03:28):
Yes.
Heidi (03:30):
So it's fun, it's short. That's what you want on a crazy
December night, and when we gota fun Grinch Operation Game. So
we'll have to add that in thisyear.
Emily (03:40):
We'll see how it goes.
Heidi (03:42):
And then I made a Grinch playlist that I'm very proud of.
So we can play that while weprepare and eat and play our
games. It's really fun. I willput a link to the playlist in
the show notes, if you also needa Grinch themed playlist. It's
not just straight Grinch music,although I did incorporate, here
we go, songs from every Grinchversion of the movie and the
(04:05):
musical. So there's at least onesong from each of those.
Emily (04:08):
Everybody's represented here.
Heidi (04:09):
Yes. And then, if you listen, it kind of follows the
plot of like starting with theWho's and the more fun music,
and it gets a little darker andweirder, and then the happy
resolution at the end. I put alot of thought into it.
Emily (04:25):
Heidi is serious about her playlists.
Heidi (04:27):
I am. Nobody would notice or care, but it makes me really
happy.
Emily (04:32):
We'd love to hear about your favorite traditions. Come
join us on Instagram@theholidayheadstart.
Hey, look at us. We've made itto December. I'd say we're on
the downhill slide, but as youknow, we've still got a lot of
hill to climb ahead of us.
Heidi (04:49):
This time of year, I always think of a story that
went viral in 2020 and it justcracked me up. So three young
adult roommates in Canadaweren't traveling home, so they
decided to have their ownChristmas celebration. Two of
the roommates had grown up withChristmas, but everything was
new to their third roommate,Mohammed, and so he tweeted,
"Growing up my Muslim familynever celebrated Christmas. This
(05:11):
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 myroommates are teaching me how to
have my first proper Christmas.I am approaching this with
anthropological precision, and Iwould like to share my
observations. Observation one,Christmas is a part time job
(05:32):
that you have from mid Novemberto the end of December. It is an
entire production."
Emily (05:38):
It's true.
Heidi (05:39):
"From the outside looking in. Christmas always seemed
pretty simple. I always thoughtyou 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 upsome lights inside the house.
Oh, you want to sleep in on aSunday? Too bad. Go put up some
lights outside the house. Nextweekend? Nope. Every free moment
(06:01):
you have will be spent agonizingover the gifts you must buy."
And then he goes on to sharenine more insightful
observations about the quirks ofplanning for Christmas. I
especially like his breakdown ofkeeper ornaments versus filler
ornaments. And he gets his firstornament and won't spoil what it
is. It's very fun. There's alink to the full list in the
show notes if you want a sweet,funny read.
Emily (06:22):
I love it. Well, all of that is to say, welcome to your
part time job that you didn'tapply for. You're seasonal help,
it turns out.
Heidi (06:31):
And some of us might even be putting in full time hours
this time of year.
Emily (06:35):
Which leads to the question, how do you get it all
done?
Heidi (06:39):
And the answer, of course, is...you can't. Holiday
life on top of regular life istoo much. You would have to defy
the laws of physics to get itall done.
Emily (06:50):
So if you can't, or don't want to, defy the laws of
physics, but you'd still like tohave some time and energy left
to enjoy the holidays you'vebeen working so hard for, you're
going to have to drop somethings from your list.
Heidi (07:04):
If you're like me, what typically happens is that I
reach a point where theoverwhelm is running the show,
and I just throw up my hands anddrop everything that isn't
absolutely essential and maybe afew things that are, because I
just figure it's easier to dealwith a down-the-road-fallout
than an in-the-moment-meltdown.
Emily (07:22):
Sometimes that is all you can do. But since we know this
moment is coming, what if weaddress it proactively, instead
of having a big reaction in astressful moment?
Heidi (07:32):
And that is what we're going to talk about today. To
start with, let's revisit ourred noses, or the personal
foundations that we are using toguide us forward.
Emily (07:43):
If you have the Holiday Headstart Playbook, take a few
minutes to look over thosepages. What are your holiday
values? What is your purposestatement. And if you don't have
the Holiday Headstart Playbook,make sure to grab it from the
link in the show notes.
Heidi (07:57):
If you wrote some permission slips for yourself,
you might want to read overthose as well. One of my
permission slips that I comeback to a lot as things around
the holidays get hectic is mypermission slip number six (out
of 12) (08:10):
It is not about getting everything done perfectly. I do
what I can and release any guiltover not achieving my ideals or
Emily (08:19):
Yeah, there are no prizes for completing everything on our
completing every task.
list, so it's not worth it towear ourselves out trying to get
it all done. In Section 10 ofthe playbook, which is full of
all the To Do lists, there'salso a Let It Go list. This is
your To Don't list. What justisn't worth your time and energy
(08:39):
right now? Let loose your innerElsa and just let it go.
Heidi (08:44):
The first column in this list is for you to write down
everything that you are lettinggo of, and then the second
column is to record what you aregaining by not doing that task.
Emily (08:55):
If the benefits of skipping something outweigh the
benefits of doing it, it'sdefinitely not something you
should put any effort into.
Heidi (09:01):
This is true for things like dusting the bathroom light
fixtures or having a family campout under the Christmas tree, as
well as comparing my holidaydecorations to my cousins.
Emily (09:13):
Some things like comparison, we want to let go of
forever. Some things, like maybea family living room camp out,
we might just want to let go offor this year, but some things
like those dusty bathroomlights, may just need a little
pause, like a leave of absence.
Heidi (09:28):
So let's talk about how we can figure out which of our
tasks get a holiday leave ofabsence and which ones are
actually essential. Real lifedoesn't stop just because there
are gifts to wrap, so let's bestrategic about what we are
committing to.
Emily (09:43):
In section nine of the Holiday Headstart Playbook,
there are a whole bunch of pagesfor drafting your minimum upkeep
plan.
Heidi (09:51):
I like to call this a MUP.
Emily (09:53):
Oh, yeah. I mean, why not?
Heidi (09:56):
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 toGoogle.
Heidi (10:11):
You will! She's a cutie, but she seems like she could be
called MUP, and she's here tomake sure all of your essential
responsibilities are managed soyou have time for that part time
holiday-maker job you seem tohave landed.
Emily (10:24):
Your minimum upkeep plan is a list of the bare bones,
basic tasks needed to keep yourhouse running, and a simple
system for getting those tasksdone. In December, no one has
the time or energy to devote toa 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 youcan enjoy your holiday without
losing your mind over the messor 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 youwalked into someone else's house
and thought, hey, this is clean,what would that be like? And now
just apply that same filter toyour own house.
Emily (11:09):
For me, it's the floors and bathrooms are grime free,
and most importantly, theclutter is put away. But you may
have a totally differentstandard.
Heidi (11:19):
The next question to figure out is, what level of
clean is feasible, given therealities of your life at this
time of year. Maybe you are ableto do a whole house deep clean
before Christmas, or maybe abathroom 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, forpeople with kids or pets or jobs
or health concerns or a generaldislike of cleaning, that is
just not practical. So figureout what is manageable given
everything else that you'remanaging this month.
Heidi (11:51):
Next, let's take a look at your household upkeep tasks.
Mentally go room by room in yourhouse and list what is needed in
each room to maintain thatcomfort level of clean.
Emily (12:02):
Once you've written all the household tasks, we're going
to rank them as a one, two orthree. One tasks are non
negotiable. They absolutely haveto be done regularly. That's
your dishes, laundry, taking outthe trash, pet care and anything
else to make your house livableare all non negotiable. Two
tasks are things that wouldideally be done, but there
(12:24):
aren't huge negativeconsequences 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 haveit done, but it most likely
won't ruin anyone's holiday ifyour 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. Youcan get away with not wiping
down the fridge shelves orvacuuming 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 digitalversion and you add tasks to
your minimum upkeep plan, onceyou've numbered them, any tasks
that are numbered oneautomatically turn red, and this
is to help you be able toquickly 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 yourroutines for laundry, dishes,
pets or other responsibilitiesthat 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 thehousehold running, and which
tasks need to be done in themorning. So for example, maybe
you need to run the dishwasherbefore bed each night and then
unload it in the morning. Ormaybe you need to pack the kids
lunches after dinner and start aload of laundry after breakfast.
Emily (13:38):
Some of your One and Two tasks, your essential and ideal
tasks, have to be done daily, oralmost every day. But a lot of
them are likely done once ortwice a week. To make sure we're
managing those tasks as well,you'll likely need some
dedicated cleaning time duringthe week.
Heidi (13:54):
There are a lot of different cleaning schedules out
there, but the right one to useis whichever one works for you.
Emily (14:02):
Also consider what works best for the people you live
with. You shouldn't be the onlyperson 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 yourhouse is to do a beat the buzzer
clean. You could start a timerevery night for 15 minutes, and
then everyone cleans and tidiesas much as they can in that
time. Or maybe a one and doneclean works best for you, and
you have a set time to take careof all of the upkeep that needs
doing.
Emily (14:31):
You could also be a bespoke cleaner and have a
custom cleaning schedule foreach day. Or maybe you prefer to
go room by room and tackle aroom 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 agood idea to make sure that the
things that need to happen areactually happening.
look at that and get overwhelmed, because there's so
(15:02):
many. You just need the onesthat fit your cleaning style. So
if you are a beat the buzzercleaner or a one and done
cleaner, there's a sheet for youto list all of your One and Two
tasks so that you can make surethat you're taking care of
what's important. There's a pageto list tasks by room if you are
(15:22):
room by room cleaner, andthere's a week's worth of pages
to list tasks by day if you area 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 toadd the daily routine tasks like
dishes to the list, as well asany special tasks for that day.
And there's still more. There'sa week at a glance page for each
week in December, if you need tohave all your holiday tasks in
one place. And then there arefour December weekend planners,
(15:51):
because, as you know, weekendsin December are busy, busy,
busy. You've got to get theindoor and the outdoor lights
up. This way you can keep trackof all the places you need to be
and things that need to get doneduring your weekends.
Heidi (16:03):
So as we are headed into this craziest of months, take a
few minutes to reflect on what aclean house means to you, list
the tasks needed to keep yourhousehold running, and make a
simple plan for how to get itall done.
Emily (16:15):
And think how nice it would be to not have Clean the
House on your to do list rightbefore 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 wouldabsolutely love to hear them.
Please come share with us onInstagram @theholidayheadstart.
Emily (16:32):
Now it's time for a Get a Headstart Tip. Each week we
leave you with a smallactionable tip to help you get a
head start on your holiday plan.This week's Get a Headstart Tip
is, figure out how to handlewinter 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 happenduring that break. In the
Holiday Headstart Playbook,there is a page for your school
break, and this is in thecalendar and coordinating
section. This will help youfigure out if you need to
arrange childcare, maybe anyactivities you want to plan
while the kids are home, andwhat meals and snacks you need
(17:14):
to consider. The goal isn't toturn you into a cruise director
making every minute of the breaknonstop fun, but it's likely
that you also don't want kids tospend the next two weeks on
their devices. So this can be away to help you proactively
decide what that break shouldlook like.
Emily (17:31):
Oh, I love that. I need to get on this part of my
planner that I haven't done yet.
Now it's time for what we'reworking on this week as a way to
keep ourselves accountable andgive you some ideas of what you
can do in advance for your owncelebrations, 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 thedoing that's so tedious. Okay,
Emily, what's on your to dolist?
Emily (18:09):
Well, I also need to get my tree decorated. It is up, but
it is not decorated because Ihate the decorating part. So
that is, for sure, my big taskfor this week, and I'm also
trying to sort out some of thenon Christmas Day gifts that I
need to do, like forSinterklaas, which is coming up
for us soon, and the book floodlunch that we do. I'm just
(18:31):
trying to make sure I've got allof 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.
To wrap up the show, we aresharing our nice lists. Emily,
what made it on your nice listthis week?
Emily (18:53):
I'm putting the Book Club Hotel by Sara Morgan on my nice
list. I was looking for a newholiday rom com book to read,
and I started this one, and itturns out that is, that is not
what this is. This is not a romcom, but what it is, is a sweet
story about female friendshipsfor a trio of old college
roommates who are now turning40. And I was like, Oh, that's
(19:15):
funny, because I have a trio ofcollege roommates that have just
turned 40 that I talk to everyday. So it's a really fun read.
I probably wouldn't have set outto 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, goodto know.
Emily (19:48):
What's on your nice list, Heidi?
Well, I am putting the M Designshower caddy on my nice list.
Oh!
Heidi (19:50):
I think calling this a shower caddy is generous,
because it's not that big. Idon't know that you could fit
shampoo bottles in there, but Idid not buy it as a shower
caddy. So that worked out. Ibought it to use as my little
portable Christmas card station.It's got just a central divider
with a handle and then twostorage kind of buckets on
(20:13):
either side. I was looking forsomething 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 Ipicked that on purpose because I
wanted something that feltspecial, and it would also let
me kind of just pack it aroundthe house as I worked on my
cards. So I put my cards andenvelopes on one side, and then
I have stamps and pens andanything else on the other side.
I know really any containerwould work for this task, but it
(20:43):
genuinely makes me happy to havesomething so pretty for my
Christmas cards. So that's on mynice 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 beenmeaning 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, sotaking care of your house during
the holidays doesn't detract youfrom your more important
activities. And don't forget,this week's Get a Headstart Tip
to figure out your winter breakchild care.
Emily (21:13):
Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see
you here again next week. If youenjoyed this episode, it would
be so very helpful if you giveus a five star rating and review
on Apple podcasts as a newpodcast, we really need all of
the positive promo that we canget.
Hey there, friends. Welcome back to the Holiday
(00:06):
Headstart Podcast. Today, we aretalking about how to manage real
(00:55):
life in the middle of holidaylife, and sharing a get ahead
tip for handling winter break.
Emily (01:01):
Traditions are an important tool in building a
healthy, happy, connected life.This week, we're sharing one of
our favorite Decembertraditions, our Grinch dinner.
So Heidi, tell us about theGrinch dinner, especially
because this was all your ideaand you do all the work, so...
Heidi (01:17):
Yes, well, I basically started hosting this because I
wanted us to have a fun activityto do mid-December. But I
wouldn't say that we're likesuper Grinch fans.
Emily (01:28):
No, that's the funny thing. There's like Dr. Seuss
people. That's not us.
Heidi (01:32):
No, but I really just picked it because it was low
hanging fruit. There's so muchGrinch stuff available.
Emily (01:39):
So much Grinch stuff!
Heidi (01:41):
It was just easy. It was just easy to plan a fun night
without having to make it tooexhausting to come up with
stuff. So we keep the mealreally kid friendly, we do
breakfast for dinner, becausewho doesn't like breakfast for
dinner, and also because I canmake most of it in advance. If
you recall all of my woes overmy Grinch pancakes.
Emily (02:01):
But they're done now! Good job.
Heidi (02:04):
We're all ready to go. And then we do just bacon, make
a green punch, and then thoseGrinch fruit picks, maybe you've
seen that are like a greengrape, a slice of banana, a
strawberry, and then a littlemarshmallow on top. So it kind
of looks like a Grinch head anda Christmas hat. And now that
the kids are old enough, theycan, like, help assemble all of
(02:24):
that. So that's really nice.
Emily (02:26):
They're more interested in the assembling of them than
the eating of them.
Heidi (02:30):
Baby steps, I guess we'll take what we can get. And then I
get a Grinch themed craft kitfrom Oriental Trading to kind of
fill the time when we finishpreparing. Because, you know,
kids that are waiting around arekids that are causing problems.
We set the table with a limegreen tablecloth, and I got a
bunch of cute Grinch dishes,which may or may not have been
the impetus for having this mealin the first place. And then
(02:53):
after we eat, we play Grinchbingo, and we use those Hershey
Kisses that are grinchy asmarkers. And then we just watch
the old Grinch cartoon, becausethat's the shortest option. And
then we're done!
Emily (03:02):
And that's the true and original version of the Grinch.
Like, any other version is meh.
Heidi (03:08):
That's so, so true.
Emily (03:09):
I saw somebody do a poll on their stories the day, the
other day, asking, like, whatthe best version of the Grinch
was. And I can't believe howmany people said the newest
cartoon, the BenedictCumberbatch version? Like, it's
fine, but no, the originalversion is the only true
version.
Heidi (03:25):
It is so true. I didn't, yes, we have deep feelings about
this.
Emily (03:28):
Yes.
Heidi (03:30):
So it's fun, it's short. That's what you want on a crazy
December night, and when we gota fun Grinch Operation Game. So
we'll have to add that in thisyear.
Emily (03:40):
We'll see how it goes.
Heidi (03:42):
And then I made a Grinch playlist that I'm very proud of.
So we can play that while weprepare and eat and play our
games. It's really fun. I willput a link to the playlist in
the show notes, if you also needa Grinch themed playlist. It's
not just straight Grinch music,although I did incorporate, here
we go, songs from every Grinchversion of the movie and the
(04:05):
musical. So there's at least onesong from each of those.
Emily (04:08):
Everybody's represented here.
Heidi (04:09):
Yes. And then, if you listen, it kind of follows the
plot of like starting with theWho's and the more fun music,
and it gets a little darker andweirder, and then the happy
resolution at the end. I put alot of thought into it.
Emily (04:25):
Heidi is serious about her playlists.
Heidi (04:27):
I am. Nobody would notice or care, but it makes me really
happy.
Emily (04:32):
We'd love to hear about your favorite traditions. Come
join us on Instagram@theholidayheadstart.
Hey, look at us. We've made itto December. I'd say we're on
the downhill slide, but as youknow, we've still got a lot of
hill to climb ahead of us.
Heidi (04:49):
This time of year, I always think of a story that
went viral in 2020 and it justcracked me up. So three young
adult roommates in Canadaweren't traveling home, so they
decided to have their ownChristmas celebration. Two of
the roommates had grown up withChristmas, but everything was
new to their third roommate,Mohammed, and so he tweeted,
"Growing up my Muslim familynever celebrated Christmas. This
(05:11):
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 myroommates are teaching me how to
have my first proper Christmas.I am approaching this with
anthropological precision, and Iwould like to share my
observations. Observation one,Christmas is a part time job
(05:32):
that you have from mid Novemberto the end of December. It is an
entire production."
Emily (05:38):
It's true.
Heidi (05:39):
"From the outside looking in. Christmas always seemed
pretty simple. I always thoughtyou 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 upsome lights inside the house.
Oh, you want to sleep in on aSunday? Too bad. Go put up some
lights outside the house. Nextweekend? Nope. Every free moment
(06:01):
you have will be spent agonizingover the gifts you must buy."
And then he goes on to sharenine more insightful
observations about the quirks ofplanning for Christmas. I
especially like his breakdown ofkeeper ornaments versus filler
ornaments. And he gets his firstornament and won't spoil what it
is. It's very fun. There's alink to the full list in the
show notes if you want a sweet,funny read.
Emily (06:22):
I love it. Well, all of that is to say, welcome to your
part time job that you didn'tapply for. You're seasonal help,
it turns out.
Heidi (06:31):
And some of us might even be putting in full time hours
this time of year.
Emily (06:35):
Which leads to the question, how do you get it all
done?
Heidi (06:39):
And the answer, of course, is...you can't. Holiday
life on top of regular life istoo much. You would have to defy
the laws of physics to get itall done.
Emily (06:50):
So if you can't, or don't want to, defy the laws of
physics, but you'd still like tohave some time and energy left
to enjoy the holidays you'vebeen working so hard for, you're
going to have to drop somethings from your list.
Heidi (07:04):
If you're like me, what typically happens is that I
reach a point where theoverwhelm is running the show,
and I just throw up my hands anddrop everything that isn't
absolutely essential and maybe afew things that are, because I
just figure it's easier to dealwith a down-the-road-fallout
than an in-the-moment-meltdown.
Emily (07:22):
Sometimes that is all you can do. But since we know this
moment is coming, what if weaddress it proactively, instead
of having a big reaction in astressful moment?
Heidi (07:32):
And that is what we're going to talk about today. To
start with, let's revisit ourred noses, or the personal
foundations that we are using toguide us forward.
Emily (07:43):
If you have the Holiday Headstart Playbook, take a few
minutes to look over thosepages. What are your holiday
values? What is your purposestatement. And if you don't have
the Holiday Headstart Playbook,make sure to grab it from the
link in the show notes.
Heidi (07:57):
If you wrote some permission slips for yourself,
you might want to read overthose as well. One of my
permission slips that I comeback to a lot as things around
the holidays get hectic is mypermission slip number six (out
of 12) (08:10):
It is not about getting everything done perfectly. I do
what I can and release any guiltover not achieving my ideals or
Emily (08:19):
Yeah, there are no prizes for completing everything on our
completing every task.
list, so it's not worth it towear ourselves out trying to get
it all done. In Section 10 ofthe playbook, which is full of
all the To Do lists, there'salso a Let It Go list. This is
your To Don't list. What justisn't worth your time and energy
(08:39):
right now? Let loose your innerElsa and just let it go.
Heidi (08:44):
The first column in this list is for you to write down
everything that you are lettinggo of, and then the second
column is to record what you aregaining by not doing that task.
Emily (08:55):
If the benefits of skipping something outweigh the
benefits of doing it, it'sdefinitely not something you
should put any effort into.
Heidi (09:01):
This is true for things like dusting the bathroom light
fixtures or having a family campout under the Christmas tree, as
well as comparing my holidaydecorations to my cousins.
Emily (09:13):
Some things like comparison, we want to let go of
forever. Some things, like maybea family living room camp out,
we might just want to let go offor this year, but some things
like those dusty bathroomlights, may just need a little
pause, like a leave of absence.
Heidi (09:28):
So let's talk about how we can figure out which of our
tasks get a holiday leave ofabsence and which ones are
actually essential. Real lifedoesn't stop just because there
are gifts to wrap, so let's bestrategic about what we are
committing to.
Emily (09:43):
In section nine of the Holiday Headstart Playbook,
there are a whole bunch of pagesfor drafting your minimum upkeep
plan.
Heidi (09:51):
I like to call this a MUP.
Emily (09:53):
Oh, yeah. I mean, why not?
Heidi (09:56):
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 toGoogle.
Heidi (10:11):
You will! She's a cutie, but she seems like she could be
called MUP, and she's here tomake sure all of your essential
responsibilities are managed soyou have time for that part time
holiday-maker job you seem tohave landed.
Emily (10:24):
Your minimum upkeep plan is a list of the bare bones,
basic tasks needed to keep yourhouse running, and a simple
system for getting those tasksdone. In December, no one has
the time or energy to devote toa 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 youcan enjoy your holiday without
losing your mind over the messor 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 youwalked into someone else's house
and thought, hey, this is clean,what would that be like? And now
just apply that same filter toyour own house.
Emily (11:09):
For me, it's the floors and bathrooms are grime free,
and most importantly, theclutter is put away. But you may
have a totally differentstandard.
Heidi (11:19):
The next question to figure out is, what level of
clean is feasible, given therealities of your life at this
time of year. Maybe you are ableto do a whole house deep clean
before Christmas, or maybe abathroom 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, forpeople with kids or pets or jobs
or health concerns or a generaldislike of cleaning, that is
just not practical. So figureout what is manageable given
everything else that you'remanaging this month.
Heidi (11:51):
Next, let's take a look at your household upkeep tasks.
Mentally go room by room in yourhouse and list what is needed in
each room to maintain thatcomfort level of clean.
Emily (12:02):
Once you've written all the household tasks, we're going
to rank them as a one, two orthree. One tasks are non
negotiable. They absolutely haveto be done regularly. That's
your dishes, laundry, taking outthe trash, pet care and anything
else to make your house livableare all non negotiable. Two
tasks are things that wouldideally be done, but there
(12:24):
aren't huge negativeconsequences 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 haveit done, but it most likely
won't ruin anyone's holiday ifyour 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. Youcan get away with not wiping
down the fridge shelves orvacuuming 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 digitalversion and you add tasks to
your minimum upkeep plan, onceyou've numbered them, any tasks
that are numbered oneautomatically turn red, and this
is to help you be able toquickly 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 yourroutines for laundry, dishes,
pets or other responsibilitiesthat 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 thehousehold running, and which
tasks need to be done in themorning. So for example, maybe
you need to run the dishwasherbefore bed each night and then
unload it in the morning. Ormaybe you need to pack the kids
lunches after dinner and start aload of laundry after breakfast.
Emily (13:38):
Some of your One and Two tasks, your essential and ideal
tasks, have to be done daily, oralmost every day. But a lot of
them are likely done once ortwice a week. To make sure we're
managing those tasks as well,you'll likely need some
dedicated cleaning time duringthe week.
Heidi (13:54):
There are a lot of different cleaning schedules out
there, but the right one to useis whichever one works for you.
Emily (14:02):
Also consider what works best for the people you live
with. You shouldn't be the onlyperson 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 yourhouse is to do a beat the buzzer
clean. You could start a timerevery night for 15 minutes, and
then everyone cleans and tidiesas much as they can in that
time. Or maybe a one and doneclean works best for you, and
you have a set time to take careof all of the upkeep that needs
doing.
Emily (14:31):
You could also be a bespoke cleaner and have a
custom cleaning schedule foreach day. Or maybe you prefer to
go room by room and tackle aroom 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 agood idea to make sure that the
things that need to happen areactually happening.
look at that and get overwhelmed, because there's so
(15:02):
many. You just need the onesthat fit your cleaning style. So
if you are a beat the buzzercleaner or a one and done
cleaner, there's a sheet for youto list all of your One and Two
tasks so that you can make surethat you're taking care of
what's important. There's a pageto list tasks by room if you are
(15:22):
room by room cleaner, andthere's a week's worth of pages
to list tasks by day if you area 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 toadd the daily routine tasks like
dishes to the list, as well asany special tasks for that day.
And there's still more. There'sa week at a glance page for each
week in December, if you need tohave all your holiday tasks in
one place. And then there arefour December weekend planners,
(15:51):
because, as you know, weekendsin December are busy, busy,
busy. You've got to get theindoor and the outdoor lights
up. This way you can keep trackof all the places you need to be
and things that need to get doneduring your weekends.
Heidi (16:03):
So as we are headed into this craziest of months, take a
few minutes to reflect on what aclean house means to you, list
the tasks needed to keep yourhousehold running, and make a
simple plan for how to get itall done.
Emily (16:15):
And think how nice it would be to not have Clean the
House on your to do list rightbefore 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 wouldabsolutely love to hear them.
Please come share with us onInstagram @theholidayheadstart.
Emily (16:32):
Now it's time for a Get a Headstart Tip. Each week we
leave you with a smallactionable tip to help you get a
head start on your holiday plan.This week's Get a Headstart Tip
is, figure out how to handlewinter 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 happenduring that break. In the
Holiday Headstart Playbook,there is a page for your school
break, and this is in thecalendar and coordinating
section. This will help youfigure out if you need to
arrange childcare, maybe anyactivities you want to plan
while the kids are home, andwhat meals and snacks you need
(17:14):
to consider. The goal isn't toturn you into a cruise director
making every minute of the breaknonstop fun, but it's likely
that you also don't want kids tospend the next two weeks on
their devices. So this can be away to help you proactively
decide what that break shouldlook like.
Emily (17:31):
Oh, I love that. I need to get on this part of my
planner that I haven't done yet.
Now it's time for what we'reworking on this week as a way to
keep ourselves accountable andgive you some ideas of what you
can do in advance for your owncelebrations, 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 thedoing that's so tedious. Okay,
Emily, what's on your to dolist?
Emily (18:09):
Well, I also need to get my tree decorated. It is up, but
it is not decorated because Ihate the decorating part. So
that is, for sure, my big taskfor this week, and I'm also
trying to sort out some of thenon Christmas Day gifts that I
need to do, like forSinterklaas, which is coming up
for us soon, and the book floodlunch that we do. I'm just
(18:31):
trying to make sure I've got allof 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.
To wrap up the show, we aresharing our nice lists. Emily,
what made it on your nice listthis week?
Emily (18:53):
I'm putting the Book Club Hotel by Sara Morgan on my nice
list. I was looking for a newholiday rom com book to read,
and I started this one, and itturns out that is, that is not
what this is. This is not a romcom, but what it is, is a sweet
story about female friendshipsfor a trio of old college
roommates who are now turning40. And I was like, Oh, that's
(19:15):
funny, because I have a trio ofcollege roommates that have just
turned 40 that I talk to everyday. So it's a really fun read.
I probably wouldn't have set outto 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, goodto know.
Emily (19:48):
What's on your nice list, Heidi?
Well, I am putting the M Designshower caddy on my nice list.
Oh!
Heidi (19:50):
I think calling this a shower caddy is generous,
because it's not that big. Idon't know that you could fit
shampoo bottles in there, but Idid not buy it as a shower
caddy. So that worked out. Ibought it to use as my little
portable Christmas card station.It's got just a central divider
with a handle and then twostorage kind of buckets on
(20:13):
either side. I was looking forsomething 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 Ipicked that on purpose because I
wanted something that feltspecial, and it would also let
me kind of just pack it aroundthe house as I worked on my
cards. So I put my cards andenvelopes on one side, and then
I have stamps and pens andanything else on the other side.
I know really any containerwould work for this task, but it
(20:43):
genuinely makes me happy to havesomething so pretty for my
Christmas cards. So that's on mynice 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 beenmeaning 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, sotaking care of your house during
the holidays doesn't detract youfrom your more important
activities. And don't forget,this week's Get a Headstart Tip
to figure out your winter breakchild care.
Emily (21:13):
Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope to see
you here again next week. If youenjoyed this episode, it would
be so very helpful if you giveus a five star rating and review
on Apple podcasts as a newpodcast, we really need all of
the positive promo that we canget.
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