Linda Secrist & Associates is the top selling team in luxury homes in the SLC Market. They have received countless awards over the past 20 years, including “Sales Team of The Year” for over 10 years including 2019! Linda Secrist is #54 in the top 100 Agents in the World in luxury residential real estate. If you’re searching for homes in Sandy, Salt Lake, Cottonwood Heights, Millcreek, Draper, South Jordan, Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington or anywhere in northern Utah, Linda Secrist & Associates are the real estate agents to call. If you’re buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to text or call us at 801-455-9999!
60 Holiday Hacks, Shortcuts, and Time-Savers You’ll Be Amazed You Lived Without
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Traditions have always underscored the holiday season. It’s a time of routines, when the same people gather in the same place at the same time, and everyone welcomes the chance to act out familiar expectations. That’s why this year is so strange. Without the semblance of the same ol’ same ol’, how can it really feel like the holidays?
Perhaps the best way to celebrate the 2020 holiday season is to carry out traditions as simply as possible. Instead of lamenting the loss of a big party, embrace the warm intimacy of a small one or a virtual one. Rather than arranging a buffet on an oversized table, parcel beloved dishes into personalized deliveries. And speaking of sending things to go, ship a handful of presents in thoughtful (and ingenious) ways—even if it’s ordinarily a short trip away. This year, festivities need to be more light than bright, and there’s something exciting about figuring out how to make it work without losing all the fun.
To help with this paired-down plan, try these 60 holiday hacks that cover everything from wrapping tips and shipping times to decoration tricks and gift ideas, to get you from Thanksgiving all the way to the New Year. Every suggestion is designed to either be a time-saving creative outlet or a source of easy comfort, blending the best of brand-new twists with perennial must-haves. Read on to see how you can capitalize on the holiday spirit by keeping simplicity in mind.
Genius gift wrapping hacks
If your wrapping paper is a bit too small to properly cover your gift, turn the gift diagonally on the paper for some extra room. It’s a holiday miracle!
An inside-out paper grocery bag makes for a great recycled wrapping sheet, which also happens to be fashionably neutral. Add a ribbon and a sprig of lavender or evergreen for a minimalist finish.
Use a bread clip on the end of your tape roll to help you easily find the edge. Nobody likes a tape Grinch.
Instead of buying tags, get a tag maker—now you’ll never run out.
A toilet paper or a paper towel tube can help wrapping paper from unraveling when not in use. To see it work, cut a slit in the empty tube and slip it around the wrapping paper roll.
Use a pants hanger or paper towel holder to organize ribbons in one easy-to-see stack. Color-block the ribbons if you want to make them pretty to look at as you work.
Are you using mason jars to conceal your presents? Dress them for the part by wrapping faux greenery around the lids.
For those who are short on storage space, a garment bag can be used to corral wrapping paper in one clearly-defined place.
Print out photos of loved ones as tags for their presents. Better yet, make them all childhood images, and older relatives are sure to smile.
Dress up plain butcher paper by drawing stars or snowflakes on it with white marker. You’ll save on buying wrapping paper for different occasions and it’s the perfect mindless task to take on while bingeing Netflix.
The secret to a pro-looking wrap job: Line up the seams of wrapping paper at or close to the bottom of the box, and tape along the edge. This creates a clean line so that the present looks perfect.
If you’re not good at wrapping presents but you still want to do it, matte sheets are the most forgiving to any imperfections. Also invest in or recycle square gift boxes to make for an easy square canvas. You got this.
For those loved ones who like vintage finds, wrap a present in a thrift-store bandana or scarf and add a brooch to one side. The receiver just got three presents in one.
If you don’t have a box to wrap an oddly-shaped gift in, never fear. Cut a piece of cardboard slightly larger than the base of the gift, and place it at the center of thick wrapping paper. Gather the wrapping paper a few inches above the top of the gift, and secure it with ribbon.
Care to know how to make tissue paper look its best? Lay a rectangle sheet of tissue paper flat on a surface, and then place one hand underneath it and the other pinching the center. Lift the tissue paper and make sure its edges are pointed down, and then do a light swirling motion in the air—almost like a magician—up and down to create a bouquet of even points. With the base still gathered in one hand, fix all the points so that they’re perfect, and place the base in the gift bag.
Linda Secrist & Associates is the top selling team in luxury homes in the SLC Market. They have received countless awards over the past 20 years, including “Sales Team of The Year” for over 10 years including 2019! Linda Secrist is #54 in the top 100 Agents in the World in luxury residential real estate. If you’re searching for homes in Sandy, Salt Lake, Cottonwood Heights, Millcreek, Draper, South Jordan, Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington or anywhere in northern Utah, Linda Secrist & Associates are the real estate agents to call. If you’re buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to text or call us at 801-455-9999!
6 Expert-Approved Tips That Will Help You Downsize Before Moving
Moving is a hassle, to put it bluntly. But moving with boxes and boxes full of excess stuff you know you won’t ever use again? Now that’s just unnecessary.
Before you start packing, you’ll want to start purging. Here are six expert-backed steps to help you start downsizing ahead of a move.
Step 1: Make time
Moving is completely exhausting and, after house- or apartment-hunting, signing all the paperwork, and getting everything lined up to move, you might be tempted to just throw your entire house into a box, figuratively speaking, and deal with it when you unpack at the new place. This is a bad idea because it means you have to deal with your unwanted belongings twice. Instead, carve out some time to downsize ahead of your move—in the simplest terms, decide what to keep, what to sell, and what to donate. “Never move anything you don’t need to,” says Laura Smith, owner of All Star Cleaning Services in Fort Collins, Colorado. “All purging should be done before packing.”
Step 2: Divide and conquer
Instead of frantically running around to different rooms of your house, tossing this shirt and that kitchen pot into the donation pile, work through your belongings by category. You’ll be able to downsize more effectively when you’re dealing with just one group of similar items at a time, Smith says. “With clothing, pull every single thing out of your closet and every single drawer at once,” she says. “It is easy to lose sight of volume until it is all in front of you.”
Step 3: Consider your lifestyle
If you’re downsizing, you’re probably making some sort of lifestyle change. This means it’s time to re-evaluate the “new you,” which extends to your belongings. “If you used to entertain often but don’t anticipate that happening in the future, you could probably let go of many of your entertaining items,” says Robyn Reynolds, a Los Angeles-based professional organizer who owns Organize2Harmonize.
Step 4: Deal with furniture
Yes, your furniture looks great in your current home. But moving means a totally new layout, with wildly different room shapes and sizes. The furniture (and other decor) that works in your existing house may not work in your new house, plain and simple, Reynolds says. Do some measuring and some research ahead of time so that you can make thoughtful choices about selling or donating your existing furniture, then finding new items.
Step 5: Make a plan
If you’re going to donate all of your unwanted items to a nonprofit, you can skip this step and head straight to the drop-off/donation center. But if you’re on the fence about exactly what to do with your old stuff, it’s important to make a plan—and make one early. Organizing a garage sale doesn’t happen overnight, and selling items on Facebook Marketplace, Nextdoor, and Craigslist can take a while, so be sure to get started as soon as possible.
Another pandemic-inspired idea? Throw a reverse housewarming party on Zoom, says Laura McHolm, co-founder of NorthStar Moving. “Set aside your unwanted items and share them with friends and family on Zoom to see if someone else would like them,” she says. “This is a great way to reunite with friends, find your unwanted things a good home, and declutter for your move all at the same time.”
Step 6: Keep it going
In an ideal world, you will have gone through every single item in your house, deftly deciding what to keep, sell, or donate. But that’s probably just not possible, and that’s OK. Once you get all moved into your new home, keep the downsizing spirit alive by constantly evaluating what you brought with you. “Any boxes not unpacked within the first week go to the basement or garage,” Smith says. “If I don’t get to them by the end of the month, they probably shouldn’t have made it through the pre-packing purge and can go straight to Goodwill.”
Linda Secrist & Associates is the top selling team in luxury homes in the SLC Market. They have received countless awards over the past 20 years, including “Sales Team of The Year” for over 10 years including 2019! Linda Secrist is #54 in the top 100 Agents in the World in luxury residential real estate. If you’re searching for homes in Sandy, Salt Lake, Cottonwood Heights, Millcreek, Draper, South Jordan, Bountiful, Centerville, Farmington or anywhere in northern Utah, Linda Secrist & Associates are the real estate agents to call. If you’re buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to text or call us at 801-455-9999!
