Archive for ‘Holidays’ Category

Meet Your Organizing Elves: The Pros Who Help Get Your Life in Order

Posted on: December 15th, 2025 by Julie Bestry | 10 Comments

Recently, at the end of a session, my client joked that I was her own Santa’s elf. We laughed, but her description is not that far from the truth.

YOU AND SANTA BOTH NEED ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT

Santa’s elves (and Mrs. Claus and the reindeer, of course) help keep Santa from becoming overwhelmed. After all, Santa is basically running a multi-national corporation.

Certainly, he has to control the means of production for his factory. Can you imagine how much paperwork (and how many computer files) it takes to source, order, acquire, and unpack the resources before the toyshop starts making the toys?

But our friend Kris Kringle also manages a customer base of upward of two billion children (the current number of the world’s newborns through fourteen-year-olds), not even counting all the people for whom the magic of the holidays involves believing in Santa. I’m sure, at some point in the late 20th-century, Santa had to learn how to manage a computer database and CRM system to keep straight not only who was on the nice vs. naughty lists, but track them as their behavior meandered from one to the other and back again. 

Due to non-compete clauses, nobody’s ever ascertained whether Santa has only one sleigh or a huge fleet with one for each of the 24 time zones to which he delivers. Nonetheless, keeping up with the vehicle maintenance and registration requirements in 195 nations must be quite the task! 

 
Time management is a huge headache, too. Not only do those requests for toys and bikes and little red wagons (and all the modern digital doodads) need to be filled, wrapped, and packed onto the sleigh, but timing all of these deliveries in one night, with no respite for bad weather or reindeer infighting, has to be wearying.

It’s a good thing Santa has his elves. 

My clients often feel the same oppressive weights upon them, even if they don’t necessarily have the same international fame as the guy in the big red suit. Whether you need to deal with organizing and productivity pitfalls at home or at work, in your computer or your kitchen, your closet or your warehouse, there are professionals who can give you support.

Perhaps between preparing for Thanksgiving and the winter holidays, entertaining company, trying to make headway on languishing projects with end-of-year deadlines, and figuring out how to make space for everything coming in (to your home, to your schedule, and to your life), you have realized that you could use a little elf-like magic as you go into next year.

Today’s post is a chance for you to get to know all of the organizational (and organizing-adjacent) experts who can help you reduce overwhelm, coach your decision-making, and bring subject-matter expertise to help you overcome obstacles (whether tangible, temporal, or cognitive) so you can be your best self.

(Heh. Maybe that should be my holiday marketing campaign: I’ll be my best elf so you can be your best self.)

PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZERS AND PRODUCTIVITY SPECIALISTS

We professional organizers and productivity gurus didn’t all start out and orderly elves. Paper Doll was a television executive. Many, many of my colleagues were teachers. Some were attorneys, social workers, hoteliers, accountants, designers, and so many other types of professionals.

Sometimes, we felt like we were on the Island of Misfit Toys, but almost as if by holiday magic, we all found where we truly belong. And yes, we know that not all elves are always so lucky to find their fit right away.

 

NAPO

Longtime readers of Paper Doll are already familiar with the concept of professional organizers, but many people are surprised by the variety of services we provide.

If you think a professional organizer is just about moving the stuff around, I’ve got a surprise for you. As I tell my clients, “Housekeeping is about the stuff; professional organizing is about the person who owns (and uses, and maintains) the stuff.”

Housekeeping is about the stuff; professional organizing is about the person who owns (and uses, and maintains) the stuff. Share on X

Among the professionals in the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO), there are plenty of generalists. In just the past few weeks, I’ve:

  • helped a client pare down a collection of family photos and slides ranging from the late 1800s to the 1970s
  • organized holiday charitable requests, identified the client’s philanthropic priorities, and oversaw the donation process
  • supported a client with cognitive decline to maintain daily productivity
  • decluttered and downsized: cleaning supplies in kitchen cabinets, books and décor from bookshelves, a wardrobe that largely no longer served a client’s physique or style, and more
  • assisted clients in accessing funds by searching for unclaimed property, organizing supporting documentation for class action suits, and submitting claims for health insurance
  • reworked a client’s overly-ambitious December schedule so that she actually had time to enjoy the holidays. 
  

Although I do specialize in paper and information management and productivity coaching, my in-person clients seek my help for solving all manner of organizing-related mysteries and kerfuffles in their lives, and it’s the same for my colleagues.

Some professional organizers specialize in particular types of clients:

  • people with chronic disorganization or hoarding disorders
  • individuals with brain-based conditions ranging from ADHD and autism to traumatic brain injuries to dementia
  • people with physical disabilities
  • seniors
  • new parents
  • children
  • older students
  • solopreneurs and small business professionals

Others in our field focus on particular types of spaces for downsizing, clutter control, and organizing in:

  • kitchens
  • closets
  • living spaces (main and guest bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms)
  • home offices
  • playrooms
  • basements
  • attics
  • storage units
  • work spaces (like professional kitchens, law offices, physicians offices, science labs, theaters, etc.)

We also specialist in particularly kinds of services that cross the “who” and “where” categories, like:

  • time management coaching
  • paper management
  • digital organizing
  • organizing and managing photographs and memorabilia
  • financial organizing, including bill-paying, budgeting assistance, and bookkeeping
  • estate management
  • medical history management
  • household management
  • eco-organizing
  • home inventorying 
  • home staging
  • yard/garage/estate sale management
  • packing and unpacking for moves
  • space planning and design

This doesn’t even begin to take into account the services some professional organizers provide to businesses, including: business automation, corporate operations, event planning, records management, technology training, and more.

Basically, are overwhelmed by it, exhausted by it, stymied by it? Do you “just” need someone to come in and do it (or teach you how to do it — or how to do it better)? If it takes less time and you can focus on what’s important to you — then organizing and productivity specialists can help.

To find a professional organizer, visit the NAPO directory directly, or navigate from NAPO’s front page to the Find a Pro menu at the top. Search geographically or within a radius from your zip code, pick the business and/or residential specialties in which you need assistance, and review the list of my colleagues provided.

And don’t forget, much of the work we do with and for our clients can be done virtually, so you can pick that option from the specialty drop-down if you’re open to getting help from afar.

NAPO members represent thousands of separate professionals, coming together to gain continuing education and support one another so that we can support our clients.

  
Certification, Certificates, and Skills

When the NAPO directory provides you with names to peruse, you may see some additional notes.

Certified Professional Organizers (CPOs) are those of us who have attained credentials reflecting specific standards. That originally included 1500 hours (now 1000 hours) of paid client-centric work prior to sitting for a comprehensive exam (among other requirements), adhering to the BCPO Code of Ethics for Certified Professional Organizers, and obtaining continuing education in a variety of subjects during a three-year certification period.

For more about certification, you can check out the “What is a Certified Professional Organizer” tab here on my website, including my article, In Checkbooks And Underwear Drawers: What Certified Professional Organizers Offer Our Clients.

Specialist Certificates — In addition to the deep and wide subject matter expertise needed for certification, NAPO members may also hold certificates in specialized subjects, including: 

  • Brain-based conditions
  • Household management
  • Life transitions

  • Move management and home staging
  • Residential Organizing
  • Team productivity
  • Work productivity

Institute for Challenging Disorganization

Founded in 1990 by my colleague Judith Kolberg and originally called the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization, the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) has as its mission to provide organizing professionals and the public with education and helpful strategies, and conduct research, regarding chronic disorganization.

Membership in NAPO and subscribership in ICD often overlap, and professionals in our field may obtain a variety of ICD specialist certificates related to chronic disorganization, hoarding disorders, and other related conditions.

Other Organizing and Productivity Associations

There are helpful organizing elves everywhere!

Outside of the United States, there’s an ever-growing universe of organizing and productivity professionals.

For our colleagues to the north, Professional Organizers in Canada (POC) has a similar search engine to NAPO’s. At their Find An Organizer page, you can specify services areas and specialties as well as languages spoken. (You didn’t think Santa’s elves spoke only English, right?)

NAPO, ICD, and POC do not stand alone. We have colleagues around the world as part of the International Federation of Professional Organizing Associations, including:

Several times a month, I am asked by friends, former classmates, clients, and random acquaintances to provide referrals and recommendations for professional organizers to help people’s loved ones, whether across the continent or across the world. It’s heartening to know that I have colleagues in so many places, ready to help those who are seeking a little more space or serenity. 

OTHER ORGANIZING-RELATED PROFESSIONAL ELVES

In addition to ICD and POC, and the National Association of Black Professional Organizers (NABPO) referenced above, NAPO has other affiliate organizations.

Daily Money Managers

Santa has to deal with financial transactions in 180 different worldwide currencies. Your finances may not be so complex, but whatever your needs, whether to help Grandma keep up with her retirement investments or to just make sure the bills get paid on time, the American Association of Daily Money Managers (AADMM) has financial organizing professionals to assist you.

Daily Money Managers (DMM) offer a wide variety of personal financial services to individuals and families, and manages financial tasks including bill-paying and oversight, budgeting, and record keeping. Some serve as fiduciaries for clients who are incapacitated. 

Aging/Geriatric Care Professionals 

Santa and Mrs. C. aren’t exactly spring chickens, and like all of us, may someday need support.

The professionals in Aging Life Care Association (ALCA) specialize in aging and disability issues while ensuring client “safety, continuity, and dignity.” As experts in health and human services, they can assist and advocate for families caring for older adult relatives or individuals with disabilities. They can partner with professional organizers and senior move managers whenever clients and their families are going through major life transitions — whether they’re downsizing so family members can age in place or to help them relocate to other living situations. 

Photo Organizers

Many NAPO professional organizers are comfortable helping their clients organize their photos or find solutions for digitizing them. But The Photo Managers (formerly the Association of Personal Photo Organizers) use their passion for photo collections and personal storytelling to assist clients with culling, organizing, and digitizing photos, as well converting older media to newer formats and sharing pictures.

OTHER MONEY ELVES

Every year, I learn about new types of professionals who can help me help my clients overcome the obstacles that clutter their daily lives. These include:

Claims Assistance Professionals

As I discussed in Organize and Lower Your Medical Bills: Spot Errors, Negotiate Costs, and Save Money, there are a variety of medical billing specialists, medical cost advocates, and patient advocates. In addition, if you’re drowning in medical claim paperwork that makes no sense, or you’re getting the runaround from the insurance company, you may want to reach out to a claims assistance professionals through The Alliance of Claims Assistance Professionals.

Financial Advisors

Knowing what to do with your money can be confusing, and it’s scary to wonder whether the advice you’re being given is good for you, or just good for an advisor taking a percentage of what you earn.

Before considering hiring a financial advisor, talk to the elves in your life: your family members, friends, and colleagues who seem to handle their dollars with sense. I am neither a fiduciary nor a money maven, but I do recommend that if you’re seeking help with building your financial future, you should find a fee-only financial planner. That’s someone you pay a flat fee, rather than a percentage, to provide you with advice.

The National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) is a great first start. You can also find Certified Financial Planners via the location search at PlannerSearch.org.  

Appraisers

A professional organizer can help you divide the wheat from the chaff when you’re figuring out what to donate and what to keep; we’ll hold your hands when we tell you that your collection of mini Beanie Babies you got at McDonalds will not fund your retirement. We may help you research the provenance and potential value of what you own. But no organizing professional is going to tell you for certain whether that piece of furniture or jewelry or coin collection is worth. For that, you need an appraiser. 

An art appraiser is not a stamp appraiser; fields of specialty range from wine to textiles, furniture to musical instruments, coins to fine art to books. Start with an accredited appraisal association like:

to find the experts that can help you understand the value of your property and make wise decisions regarding what to do with what you own.

Certified Divorce Financial Analyst 

Paper Doll hopes you never have to deal with a divorce (unless it’s something that will make your life better). However, I’ve worked with enough clients going through the divorce process to know that attorneys don’t have the bandwidth to deal with some of the intricacies of the financial situation.

Certified Divorce Financial Analysts are professionals who can help you figure out the complex financial aspects of your divorce. This may help you secure an equitable share of marital assets in order to plan your financial future. 

If you or someone you know needs support in this area, start with the Institute for Divorce Financial Analysts. 

OTHER HOUSE ELVES

When you hear house elves, you probably think of Harry Potter. As a GenXer who grew up near Canada, I start daydreaming about house hippos.

But I digress.

In addition to the residential professional organizer services covered by NAPO and her sister organizations, there is some crossover into home relocation specialties.

Senior Move Managers  

The National Association of Senior and Specialty Move Managers is made up of relocation specialists. They’re focused on strategies for helping older adults (and their families) with the relocation process, including downsizing, as well as packing and unpacking, and assisting with logistics.

Home Stagers

In the olden days, when you wanted to sell your house, you hired a real estate agent. They told you to clean the house and pop a sheet of cookies in the oven to make things smell nice. Over the last few decades, however, home staging — literally staging your home to make it possible for prospective buyers to imagine themselves living there — has become a big deal.

Staging can involve removing objects that are overly personal or reflect particular belief systems, subtracting or adding furniture or décor to create a particular aesthetic, and generally working to show a house off in the best light.

As with senior move managers, you will likely find some crossover between NAPO/IFPOA professionals, but to find a home stager in your area, start with the Real Estate Staging Association and the America Society of Home Stagers and Redesigners.

Obviously, your organization and productivity needs are complicated, and by talking about elves, I am not entirely making light of anyone’s struggles.

Sometimes you just need a handy-person to help you lift and carry things to the attic or out to the curb; however, most of the time, a professional organizer or productivity specialist is the ideal person to guide you through the myriad decisions to make to move your life in the direction you want.

And when the real obstacles are not the things, but ourselves, and special services are needed, their are ADHD coaches, life coaches — even decision-making coaches — and mental health professionals!

Today’s post is a reminder that whatever is causing clutter in your space, your schedule, your finances, or your mind, you’re not alone. Reaching out to experts is a gift you can give a loved one — or yourself.

I suspect Santa would approve.

Paper Doll Organizes Snoop-Proof Ways To Hide, Label, and Wrap Holiday Gifts

Posted on: December 8th, 2025 by Julie Bestry | 12 Comments

With only a week until Hanukkah and 2-1/2 weeks until Christmas, we’re in the home stretch of the holiday season.

It’s possible you’re the kind of person who bought all your presents over the summer, wrapped and labeled them, and stored them in your secret hiding place months ago. (It’s also possible now you’re wondering why you can’t recall where that secret hiding place might be.)

Or maybe you haven’t even started buying gifts yet.

Either way, how are you going to keep the gifts a surprise until unwrapping time? How are you going to keep the kids (and the grownups who act like kids) from finding the gifts, poking at them, shaking them, and generally behaving like the gang on Friends.

 
ORGANIZE YOUR HOLIDAY GIFT HIDING PLACES

Very often, I find that the best place to keep gifts, wrapped or otherwise, from the prying eyes of tiny humans and others with insatiable curiosity is in an old suitcase. People may in cabinets and closets, but nobody looks in those cheerless valises in the basement, the ones that are faux leather and lack wheels and haven’t been used in 40+ years.

Yes, as a professional organizer, I encourage people to donate or recycle things that they don’t use, but quietly repurposing that blue vinyl-and-cardboard suitcase circa 1978 counts as recycling!

Develop a Variety of Hiding Places for Gifts

Obviously, if you’ll be traveling for the holidays and using all of the suitcases at your disposal, you may need a bevy of secret-stash solutions:

  • Hidden in plain sight — Would your kids (or your spouse) actually show any interest in prying up the lid of a Bankers Box labeled “2015 Tax Receipts,” “college textbooks,” or something similarly boring? Probably not. (Piling other stuff on top of those couldn’t hurt.) If you’re the only one in your house who cooks, a small wrapped gift or two hidden in the back of a kitchen cabinet, inside a rarely-used fondue pot, may be just what you need to stymie the sneaky searchers.
  • In a decoy household container — A similar idea, depending on the size of the gifts you want to hide, is using a decoy box may be just the ticket. Check your own storage spaces or ask your friends if they have boxes that were used for vacuums, TVs, or other medium-to-large appliances. A box labeled “seasonal décor” may suffice, unless someone else in your home is really eager to start decorating without your assistance. 
  • Masquerading as kitchen equipment — The people who are most likely to sneak around and try to find their gifts are probably not looking in the Crock-Pot. A bread maker or ice cream machine may serve similarly. If you’ve got small-to-medium-sized gifts and unused, lidded pots and pans, this may work. Just don’t put a gift inside kitchen equipment and then gift that kitchen item as a gift and then let your wacky boss throw a hissy fit and turn the Secret Santa into a Yankee Gift Swap. (If you know, you know.)
  
  • At your friends’ and neighbors’ houses — One solution is just to trade storage. Take your wrapped gifts in boxes or lidded tubs to your cousin’s, co-worker’s, or BFF’s place, and return with hers. You can even tell your family not to bother snooping because you’ve made this trade. (Note: if your kids and their kids are friends, one may spy on the other’s behalf.)
  • In trunk of your car — Obviously, this works in only two situations, when you normally have an incredibly tidy trunk (with ample room to store a gift-filled box labeled “work project”) or if you normally have a predictably packed and untidy trunk (in which case you’ll need to hollow it out and hide gifts underneath the faux facade of mess. (Do not mark any boxes as “donations” or someone may unhelpfully deliver all your holiday gifts to charity!)
  • Cardboarded up — Store all your wrapped, labeled gifts in the million Amazon and Chewy boxes you already have laying around your house. You can just stack them in the corner until you’re ready to put them under the tree or at people’s place settings, and then open the big cardboard boxes.

Photo courtesy of Kimberley Purcell

  • Up in the attic — The upside is that children and pets generally can’t get up to the attic on their own. The downside? It’s probably not that easy for you to get up there, either. Also, it’s probably dusty, there may be “critters,” and there’s almost certainly temperature and humidity variations throughout the year. Keep that in mind if you’re storing any gifts that are sensitive to those kinds of changes, and store the gifts in a tightly lidded tub. 
  • Inside old purses and backpacks — This is a riff on the old suitcase approach, but may be easier to access. If a shelf of your closet has all of your handbags, messenger bags, no longer used diaper bags, computer cases, or backpacks, load them up with wrapped gifts, as long as they’ll fit without scuffing the wrapping or stretching the container too much.
  • In guest room — This is a good option assuming a) you won’t have guests between now and gift-giving time or b) the storage space in your guest room is ample enough to hide the kids’ things, at least, in drawers or closets, or under the bed. 
  • In the guest bathroom — Sandwich wrapped flat gifts between guest towels; there’s almost no reason those box-shakers will be thinking to peek between the layers of towels. Consider it a fabric lasagna of secrecy.
  • Laundry hamper — Let’s face it; nobody is enthusiastic about doing laundry. Your kids aren’t about to suddenly volunteer to take the laundry to your room to the washer/dryer, even to please Santa. Note: the humidity in a laundry room may be unfriendly to your wrapping paper, so try keep gifts well protected in the hamper or basket, perhaps covered by an old blanked or comforter.
  • Inside board game boxes — Do you have board games that nobody has played since the Eisenhower administration? You have two options. You could just jettison the contents and replace it all with someone’s (or a bunch of someone’s) small gifts. Or, you could turn some of the gifts into surprises, if your family is more loosey-goosey with the gift exchange present exchange: put a LEGO mini-fig in with the Monopoly tokens or a gift card in your old game of Life, and then suggest a game.
  • Hiding inside trash bags — Big, black trash bags or leaf bags, especially if you have an attic, or garage, or basement with a variety of things already obscured by bags, may be the ticket. The problem? If there’s anyone who ever visits your house trying to be “helpful,” they may assume it’s trash and toss it out. You may want to warn your spouse, in-laws, or houseguests.
  • Inside other holiday decorations — If you’ve got a hollow ceramic tree, a Santa cookie jar in which nobody expects to find actual cookies, or a Nutcracker the size of a Buick, gifts can wait within.
  • Up, up, and away, or down among the dust bunnies — Let’s face it, you may not need to be creative at all. If everyone in your household is staring at screens all the time, just hiding gifts in a nondescript box at the top of any closet may work just fine. Similarly, if you’ve got a dust ruffle hiding the area underneath your bed (or the guest bedroom bed), and you don’t have pets or tiny humans at the crawling age, sliding things under the bed will work. 
  • At the office, with a caveat — If you have a home office that’s off-limits to the rest of the household, or if you have decent private storage at your place of work, you’ve got additional hiding places for your gifts. However, if the gifts aren’t at home, they may not be covered by your homeowner’s insurance, so think twice before stashing something pricey that could get stolen or damaged if it’s at your workplace.

Wherever you hide the gifts, make a plan for when you’re going to pull them out of their hiding places, especially if it involves climbing up, wiggling down, or matching schedules with someone else.

Make a Treasure Map for Hidden Holiday Gifts

The key to hiding your gifts without making you crazy or ruining the holidays? Make a list of each person’s gift, what it is, and where you’ve hidden it.

Whether it’s hand-written or digital, hide it from prying eyes. On the computer or in the cloud, give it an innocuous name, as long as it’s one that you will remember. With a paper copy, keep it in your wallet, or tidy it away among the holiday bills — anywhere your average household member won’t think to look. 

 

In professional organizing, we often point out that if you have so many things, or so much clutter, that you can’t find what you own, it’s as if you don’t even after it. This is just as true for gifts you’ve stashed so safely that you’ve hidden them from yourself.

Try Some Sneaky Gift Labeling Tricks

If your storage is at a premium and you have to keep wrapped gifts out and on display — and this trick works once you’re ready to put the gifts under the tree — fake the name tags. Instead of Grandma, Dad, Aunt Jen, etc., use celebrity names but don’t match the names to the personality of the recipient. So, Dad gets Taylor Swift’s present, Uncle Joe’s gift says Dolly Parton, and the baby gets a gift labeled for Keanu Reeves.

Of course, you could pick any category group. Choose board games, and label different gifts as Scrabble, Monopoly, and Cards Against Humanity. Label your gifts with the names of different countries, cities, rides at Disney World, movie superheroes, or whatever suits your fancy. 

If your family isn’t inclined toward whimsy, you can just number the gifts. The key is that you really should know whose gift is whose before the unwrapping begins.

As with gift hiding spots, make yourself a cheat sheet matching real names to “gift” names.

GET WRAPPING SAVVY

Paper Doll is terrible at wrapping any gifts that don’t come in perfectly rectangular shapes. All the way back in NAPO2014: It’s a Wrap! Organizing Your Wrapping Supplies with Wrap It!, I told a story of my wrapping failures (and shared this adorable photo of a now thirty-something) opening a stuff lion I’d wrapped so badly that only a two-year-old could look at it with any affection.

Many years ago, I offered up some alternatives for people with wrapping skill deficits. This was early enough in my blogging years that the formatting of the posts lacks some panache, but I stand by the efficacy of the solutions:

It’s a Wrap! Wrapping Paper Alternatives, Furoshiki & Frogs (2008)

Paper Doll Wraps Up the Holidays and Makes It All Stick (Part 1) (2011)

Paper Doll Wraps Up Some Alternatives to Wrapping Paper (Part 2) (2011)

Still, I’m obviously not the only person who has trouble wrapping presents when there’s no perfect box, as there are videos all over YouTube and social media, offering up guidelines for ensuring that enough wrapping paper (or a reasonable facsimile) prevents your gift from being naked.  For example, That Practical Mom has a short video with great gift-wrapping tricks:

The coolest trick, to my mind, is turning gifts diagonally when you don’t have quite enough wrapping paper.

By the way, if you care, Popular Mechanics has a feature on the math behind the diagonal wrapping hack. 

WRAPPING & PACKING & SHIPPING, OH MY!

Finally, while I’m my logistical skills as a professional organizer are pretty top-notch, I’m definitely not an expert at wrapping and packing gifts. I generally buy gifts online and have them sent directly to recipients and then just warn them the day that the shipper says they’re arriving so they don’t spoil the surprise by opening them to early. Otherwise, I usually put presents in gift bags topped by an excessive amount of tissue paper and call it a day.

Luckily, Quill developed and Visualistan has shared this infographic to walk you through each of these holiday headaches. Isn’t this better than getting wrapped up in cellophane and ending up with a million mismatched and weirdly cut bits of wrapping paper? (That’s always so disorganized!)

Gift wrapping, packing, and shipping hacks to save money and make your life easier #infographicYou can also find more infographics at Visualistan.

THINK BEYOND TANGIBLE GIFTS

Of course, the best gifts don’t necessarily need to be wrapped or shipped. 

Over the years, I’ve written many holiday posts focused on giving gifts of experiences. It’s a lot easier to wrap, label, and hide gift cards and certificates for experiences than big, awkward, stuff-lions!

  • adventures — like the NASCAR Racing Experience or an afternoon in an escape room)
  • entertainment (tickets to sporting events, museum exhibits, concerts, theater events, six months of Netflix or Hulu, or a year of Amazon Prime)
  • practicality — think gift certificates for car washes or an auto club membership like AAA
  • consumables — consider homemade yummies or one-time or subscription-based foods. Alternatively, give the opportunity to look forward to meals out with gift certificates to restaurants or coffee houses.
  • organization and productivity — whether it’s a gift for a loved one, or a gift for yourself, opt for some delight and peace of mind with a session, or package of sessions, with a professional organizer (like Paper Doll), either in person or virtually.

For a more in-depth look at gifts of experience, you may want to review Paper Doll on Clutter-Free Gifts and How to Make Gift Cards Make Sense, which also harkens back to older Paper Doll posts on experiential gifts.

It may feel early in December, but the days pass quickly. Whether you’ll be celebrating Hanukkah starting this Sunday night, December 14th, or have ten more days after that for your Christmas Eve festivities, whether you’re celebrating Festivus, or Yule, or the Solstice, I wish you joy (and organization) through the end of this year, and into 2026.

Organize Your Way Out of the Winter Doldrums

Posted on: December 16th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 16 Comments

Sigh. the musical Annie may be right that “The Sun’ll Come Out Tomorrow,” but the sun never came out yesterday.

Granted, it was a rainy day, but in addition to the dark, dreariness of the day, and the too-swift passing of a December Sunday, the sun went down without my noticing because it really never seemed to come up. As I may have alluded to in Organize Your Sleep When the Clocks Change and Beyond, I’m not much of a fan of Standard Time. I like lots of sunshine, and particularly want long, light evenings to run errands and move about in the world.

We’re in a darker, gloomier time of the year here in the Northern Hemisphere. That, combined with the wonkiness of the end of the year, makes this a weird time. Some folks are delighting in preparing for the holidays, getting ready to entertain and celebrate, but over and over, I’m hearing from friends and clients alike that they aren’t quite “feeling it,” or at least not yet.

A few people have asked, having jokingly, if there are ways to organize yourself out of feeling out of sorts at the end of the year. I think there are.

This is the final “normal” week of the year. Next week is Christmas and the start of Hanukkah, and the week after, is New Year’s. While many folks are (or will be) with family and celebrating, there are many who are feeling a walking-through-molasses sluggishness at this time of year. Half their co-workers are out of the office, and while some clients are expecting attention, there’s a widespread, tacit understanding that nobody is starting anything new for the next 2 1/2 weeks.

So, if you’re in your annual happy place, please feel free to skip this week’s post. But if you’re grumbling about the dark and the cold, about another year over and about the “meh” of it all, I have some suggestions.

COPING WITH THE “BASEMENT WEEKS” OF THE YEAR

These weeks aren’t just the bottom of the year. They can feel dark, cold, even soggy. There’s a hurry-up feeling just before the holidays and, for most, a drop-off in delight between the holidays and again at the start of the year.  

But winter really can be the most wonderful time of the year if you have the right mindset, according Kari Leibowitz, PhD., a Stanford-trained psychologist. She’s written a book on how to improve mental health by changing how you think about the winter months.

Leibowitz moved to Tromsø, Norway, above the Arctic Circle, to live for a year. For two entire months, the sun doesn’t rise in Tromsø! You’d think everyone there would be crabby and stabby during that time, but she found that the community approached the season with a chipper mentality. She similarly explored places on earth with “some of the coldest, darkest, longest and most intense winters, and discovered the power of “wintertime mindset”— viewing the season as full of opportunity and wonder.” 

To help those of us (who can at least feel grateful that we’re not above the Arctic Circle) starting to struggle with finding inspiration this time of year, Leibowitz wrote How to Winter: Harness Your Mindset to Thrive on Cold, Dark, or Difficult Days.

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Get Psyched for Winter

Liebowitz says that changing our mindsets about winter is key. Apparently, we tend to psych ourselves out, adopting a mindset that assumes that winter will be grim, so it feels that way. I get it. As a professional organizer, I’ve seen how often people expect that organizing will be boring and that they’ll be grumpy, so when they do it on their own, it is. They’re surprised when a professional organizer comes in and treats the experience as hopeful and (dare I say it?) entertaining?

As an organizer, I approach working with a new client, or even a new session, by focusing on the possibilities of finding delight. I see myself, in partnership with a client, as an explorer, a detective, an anthropologist, and more. Because I expect fun, I will (generally) find it (and get to share it with the client).

Confirmation bias is the tendency to look for, and interpret, new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories. If you expect winter to be misery-inducing, you’ll find signs of it everywhere.

Easier said that done? Maybe not. Instead of seeing winter as two potentially fun (but possibly disappointing) weeks followed by months of darkness, we can look for ways to see winter, as a whole, as fun.

Create a Winter Wonderland in Your Space

I’m sure you’ve heard about hygge. A few years ago, books about hygge, the Danish approach to winter coziness, was all the rage. (If you need an introduction, The New Yorker‘s 2016 piece, The Year of Hygge, the Danish Obsession with Getting Cozy, is a great place to start.)

Western articles about hygge tend to focus on the physical atmosphere. Every single piece will reference candles. The Danes are very big on candles being comforting. Personally, I worry about candles getting knocked over. If you have pets and tiny humans, consider safe alternatives to lit candles, like fairly lights or tiny, flickering LED tea lights.

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If you have a fireplace and don’t have to worry about kids or creatures in close proximity, consider making a ritual out of lighting a nightly fire to increase the cozy atmosphere.

There’s no official hygge-ness to it, but I think it’s wise to create a winter beverage station. Think about the coffee stations you see in bed & breakfast venues and boutique hotel lobbies. Consider investing in a cute tray and a variety of teas, coffees, mulled ciders, and hot chocolates. Buy a few tiny bottles of flavoring syrups, or fill a glass canister with mini-marshmallows. Whether you’re working from home or recovering from exposure to a snowy day, your daily beverage experience can be a ritual for emotional, as well as physical, warmth.

If you’re up for some “scentsational” improvements, extend the scents of the holiday season and use essential oils like cinnamon, pine, or citrus. (Generally, I prefer unscented products, but am obsessed with buying citrus-scented foaming hand soaps. Even before COVID, I was in the habit of washing my hands as soon as I came in from the outside world — you never know what supermarket shelf had germs! — and those citrusy, foamy bubbles and warm water are a great transition when you first come in out of the cold.)

Increase comfort in various places in your house. Plush blankets are soft, warm, and nurturing. The weather outside may be frightful, but you can feel snuggly the whole day (and night) long.

Fellow GenXers may recall how cozy it was to wear leg-warmers in the 1980s, both inside and outside. You might think leg-warmers disappeared when Jane Fonda workout videos did, but they’re still available in a variety of styles and colors.

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It’s not necessarily hygge to use them this way, but on a day where you need a lift, dance around your house to a TikTok video and pretend you’re an extra in an episode of Fame.

 

Organize Your Winter to Embrace Hygge Attitudes

In addition to the physical comforts that can improve your mood in the winter, there are hygge-related attitudes (irrespective of holidays) that can give you some uplift when you’re struggling against the (literal or figurative) darkness.

  • Be present — It’s so easy to get caught up in the news and crummy things happening halfway around the world or just elsewhere near you, but miss the small treasures in your own life. Be present in the moment by stepping back from technology. For more reasons and inspiration, read my post, Celebrate the Global Day of Unplugging.
  • Add pleasure rituals to each day — You can counteract the glumness of winter by adding little treats to your day (and to the days of everyone around you). Call a friend to come over and hang out while you bake cookies. Of course, winter treats don’t have to be caloric. Come home after a work day to glory in a bubble bath. Try skincare rituals that may have seemed like silly luxuries before, like a face- or full-body sheet mask.
  • Create a cadence to the week with personal and social rituals — Rituals added to the ebb and flow of your week can make the winter pass more quickly. For the next few months, try having a standing date with friends, whether it’s a low-effort Sunday dinner (rotating houses), board-game afternoon, or a movie night. Consider pancake/waffle breakfasts on Saturday with the kids and experiment with different types recipes or shapes. The key is that you don’t have to go out in the winter weather (though you could) to have something to look forward to each week that’s not a big production, but that will lift your spirits. 
  • Practice gratitude — Hey, at least you don’t live above the Arctic Circle. At least we don’t live in horse and buggy days and have to get our drinking/cleaning/bathing water from the river. At least there’s Zoom and Door Dash and electricity. Be thankful for small mercies, for loving friends, or for whatever you don’t have that you don’t want. Journal, write gratitude lists, or write notes to the people to and for whom you are grateful! Imagine how getting such a note could brighten their winter days!
  • Volunteer — If you’re having trouble even feeling grateful, consider volunteering with a local charity, at a shelter (for unhoused persons, for victims of domestic violence, for animals looking for their forever homes, etc.). 
  • Practice mindfulness — The Polish website Prze Kroj’s Mindfulness Exercises for a Cold Day provides a variety of approaches to reframing the thoughts we have about the stagnation of these dark days (“Oh, no, another year is ending and I still haven’t written my novel!”) and offers ideas for positive reinforcement and self-awareness. 

Behave “As If” and Upgrade Your Winter Activities

I will never ski. I ice skate maybe once every fifteen years. You know how some people are “at one” with nature? I am at two with nature.

But Leibowitz found that the folks of Tromsø found ways to spend their winters living more closely in sync with nature, adapting to the seasons by giving in and taking cues from our animal friends. Perhaps we need not hibernate, but that hygge coziness (resting more, slowing down) apparently blends nicely in concert with Thumper and Bambi (playing outside).

So, following Leibowitz’s advice that we act as if we were outdoorsy folks, we could:

  • Take an energizing walk when the sun is out. (You may recall from the Organize Your Sleep When the Clocks Change and Beyond that getting daylight helps reset the body clock so our insides know that it’s time to go night-night.)
  • If you’re not me, try a winter sport or activity that’s less about competition and more about having fun: ice skating, sledding, skiing (downhill or cross-country), snowshoeing, tubing, tobogganing. etc.
  • You don’t have to be athletic. You and the neighbor kids (or the cute neighbor guy, if your life imitates a Hallmark movie) can make a snowman or build a snow fort.

Love and Other Indoor Sports

Of course, you don’t have to go outside. Leibowitz recommends the dark winter months are ideal for engaging in “low-arousal positive activities,” — activities that give us a warm glow rather than ruddy faces and iced-lung wheezes.

If you’d like to explore an activity that makes the winter brighter or cozier but without having to put on your shoes, winter is a great time to organize your hobby exposure. 

  • Take up a craft or hobby. Give yourself permission to be terrible at knitting or painting. Nobody needs to know.
  • Explore an online class (live or recorded) to learn how to do something (cook, take better photographs, do those viral social media dances) or just to know something (about the Holy Roman Empire, or what are the other parts of a cell, because all you remember is that mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, and there must be more to it).
  • Take up an indoor physical activity. Every January, people sign up for gym memberships as part of New Year’s resolutions. They go a few times and their motivation peters out. Don’t let winter beat you up or guilt you out. Try an online exercise class. There’s a reason why Yoga with Adriene is a perennial favorite, even with those of us with wonky balance and no flexibility. Adriene and her doggie offer a comforting yoga practice, and you don’t have to switch out of your jammies and into Spandex. (Though you might want to try out the aforementioned leg-warmers!)

 

Conversely, go the reverse route. Instead of trying something new, reinvigorate yourself with the love of something old.

From my late twenties and through my thirties (and beyond), I had a favorite regional band, The Floating Men. They weren’t MTV-famous, but I attended their small- and medium-sized venue concerts in various cities where I lived (or traveled to) and always felt immense joy as we all (The Floatilla) sang along and danced with revelry.

The band stopped playing gigs as their grownup careers got in the way, but last year, they announced they were going to start performing again. There wouldn’t be shows every few weeks, but there would be a show in Nashville and I was jazzed! But it sold out in moments. They added a second show. It sold out right away again. I shrugged and figured I’d just comfort myself with the CDs that have sustained me for decades.

I was surprised and delighted when they announced a show here in Chattanooga, and I managed to get tickets; that show, too, had sold out quickly and a second night was added, and as frugal as I am, I arranged to go to that show, too. I’ve been listening to the band’s music for a long time, but in the months since I bought the ticket, I listen much more often, singing out loud and dancing around the house. I’m remembering the concerts, but also the joy of hearing the music for the first time, or introducing it to others. Sometimes, recalling old loves can kindle new sparks.

What old loves can you bring back into your life? (No, don’t call your ex.)

  • Re-read books that brings you joy or comfort — I re-read all the Jane Austen novels almost every year. (This winter, I’m considering a movie marathon over weeks, watching every movie based on an Austen novel.)
  • Listen to music from your youth — Listen to your tangible music formats or go to Spotify, but pretend it’s your senior year of high school or college and play what thrilled you back then. If it’s Squeeze’s Singles – 45’s and Under, let me know in the comments and we can sing Tempted together over Zoom.
  • Re-binge your favorite shows from way back — Chances are good that there are shows you loved back before there were DVRs (or even VCRs). Watch them again, and maybe share the love with a partner, friend, or kid who never experienced the show the first time through. (I’m ready for a Buffy the Vampire Slayer rewatch.)
  • Listen to podcasts that review the stuff you loved — I’m a sucker for podcasts where fans talk about TV shows, but also where actors talk about the shows they were in, and each show focuses on one episode. I loved The West Wing Weekly when there was a new episode every week, and my plan is to start listening to I Am All In, Scott (Luke Danes) Patterson’s Gilmore Girls podcast.

And as long as I’m talking about Gilmore Girls, have you seen the new Walmart commercial with the cast?

 

 

Unlike some of the rest of us, Lorelai loves winter. If you’re a fan, you know how happy she gets when she can smell snow.

The point of all of this is that you can use the darkness of winter as permission to slow down, rest, and rebuild for a coming spring. Soon enough, we’ll be talking about all you want to accomplish for the new year. Until then, maybe reinvigorate yourself gently?

A PERSPECTIVE TO HELP YOURSELF LET GO

I was captivated by Graham Allcott’s Rev Up for the Week newsletter from 11/10/24, and what he had to say on the topic of Winter and Re-emergence. 

As we feel the pull of winter, everything around us is dying back, getting ready to hibernate, preparing to go fallow. There will be another spring. Things will grow again. Things will feel brighter and calmer and more optimistic than they do right now. Winter is a season from which fresh hope and growth can emerge, but its bleakness needs to be processed to be overcome, not denied.

The same is true in our lives and at work. It’s easy to get excited about a new thing, but often much harder to let go of what doesn’t serve us anymore, or recognise that someone (maybe even ourselves!) is in the wrong place or doing the wrong things. Sometimes our great ideas are the wrong ones in that moment.

Graham invited readers to really ponder winter — how this feels like the end, how everything out there (and inside us) may feel like it is lying fallow. For weeks now, my mind keeps echoing how he wrote that this feels like a counter-intuitive and at odds with our usual experience of productivity as creating, of moving things toward the end zone. He wrote,

And yet, sometimes, things need to retreat. Sometimes we have to cut it all back to make space for the new growth. An important part of any creative process is the letting go – for every new thing created, there’ll be other great ideas that never see the light of day.

As I referenced throughout my series on toxic productivity, seeing our value entirely in terms of what we do or create denies vital parts of our humanity. If this cold, dark, sluggish time of year makes you feel worse about yourself because it makes productivity harder, I invite you to revisit that series:

Toxic Productivity In the Workplace and What Comes Next

Toxic Productivity Part 2: How to Change Your Mindset

Toxic Productivity Part 3: Get Off the To-Do List Hamster Wheel 

Toxic Productivity, Part 4: Find the Flip Side of Productivity Hacks

Toxic Productivity Part 5: Technology and a Hungry Ghost

In Graham’s newsletter, he provided a series of questions to help explore our inner workings during these dark days, particularly as we approach the hubbub of celebrating the incoming year. I invite you to look at his whole list, but the questions that I keep finding myself returning to, over and over, are:

  • Where am I putting time and energy that no longer nourishes me?
  • What are the projects, processes and habits that I need to let go of?
  • Are there meetings, events or commitments that I (or we) can un-make?
  • How can I soften, rest and be kinder to myself in the coming weeks?

ONE FINAL BRIGHT SPOT

This Saturday, December 21st, is the first day of Winter. Are you thinking, “Geez, it’s not even officially winter yet?”

But guess what? It’s also the Winter Solstice. It’s the day of the year with the least sunlight (here in the Northern hemisphere). Why is that good? Because every single day after (and particularly, up until Daylight Saving Time returns on Sunday, March 9, 2025), we will start getting more daylight.

By Friday, December 27th, we’ll have four more minutes of daylight that we’ll have this Friday!

Baby steps, I know. But as we organize our attitudes, isn’t appreciating small, cozy treats (like a few more moments of natural light each day) one way to do it? Celebrate the Winter Solstice by lighting a few candles and getting back to nature, or take guidance for a more robust celebration from these articles:

6 Ways to Celebrate the Winter Solstice (Sparks ABA)

7 Winter Solstice Celebrations From Around the World (Britannica)

Winter Solstice & Ways to Celebrate (Way of Belonging)

25 Facts About the Winter Solstice, the Shortest Day of the Year (Mental Floss)

You can also watch the festivities of the sunrise of the Winter Solstice 2024 around the world, live on YouTube. For example, you can see sunrise at Stonehenge in the UK. It’ll be at 4:21 a.m. local time, so you can watch it before you go to bed on Friday night.

 
Similarly, the Republic of Ireland will broadcast the Winter Solstice from inside the ancient passage tomb at 5200-year-old Newgrange. You’ll be able to see it on the Office of Public Works YouTube page.

Whatever your relationship to winter, I hope you’ll focus on the positive things that are coming.

Let’s raise a cup of hot cocoa (or, y’know, even a mug of nothing but mini-marshmallows) and I’ll see you next time.

Organize Your Holiday Gift-Giving With Social Science Research

Posted on: December 9th, 2024 by Julie Bestry | 16 Comments

It’s that time!

Every December, my professional organizing colleagues and I write blog posts about giving (and asking for) clutter-free gifts, experiential gifts, and gifts that that help you be more organized.

The years I’ve written about consumable gifts, I’ve made myself so hungry that I’ve stopped blogging halfway through to eat close approximations of whatever I’ve researched. And I’ve coveted experiential gifts of practicality, adventure, education, and pampering. I still want the Petite Cheese Storage Vault that I wrote about in Paper Doll’s Holiday Gift List: Warm Their Hearts and Fill Their Tummies. 

Apparently it no longer exists, though Cheese Grotto™ seems to have a nice approximation! 

But recently, I’ve been reading some scientific research that may help organize and improve the gift-giving process and reduce some of the (emotional and financial) stress around gift-giving.

HABITUATION AND THE DELIGHT OF GIVING

I’m reading Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There, by Tali Sharot and Cass R Sunstein. 

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The book is focused on helping us appreciate habituation, the way we are less and less delighted by things — from tangible items to our homes to our relationships — as we get used to them, and how we can change our behaviors (take breaks from our spaces, our habits, social media, and our habitual ways of living) to “resparkle” and appreciate our lives more.

The authors even quote economist Tibor Scitovsky’s classic, The Joyless Economy: The Psychology of Human Satisfaction, explaining that “pleasure results from incomplete and intermittent satisfaction of desires.”

In other words, things are more fun when we do them intermittently, rather than constantly. It’s one reason why we get delight from giving and getting gifts at the holidays. Goodies are nice, but we’d probably get bored, or at least habituated, if we got gifts every day. (OK, yes, I’m sure we’d all like to test that theory out.) 

Early in the book, Sharot and Sunstein talk about the values of happiness (however you define it) and having a meaningful purpose are key to enjoying life, but that we tend to habituate to both happiness (new jobs with new salaries or new relationships) and meaning.

As an example, you might enjoy bingeing a TV show, which isn’t particularly meaningful, and the ROJI (return-on-joy-investment, in my own silly coinage) will wear off; conversely, you may invest your time in volunteering, which is fulfilling and purposeful, but you may not be particularly happy if the effort is laborious or wearying. (Why is it that good deeds can be both uplifting and exhausting?)

The authors note that one exception is the joy and meaning that comes from raising children, and they posit that we habituate much more slowly to the “satisfaction” that results from doing things for (or giving things to) others.

They evaluated and built on the social science research of Ed O’Brien and Samatha Kassirer in People Are Slow to Adapt to the Warm Glow of Giving in the journal Psychological Science, and found that if individuals were offered a $5 treat day after day for five days, the sense of joy wore off quickly.

However, when people were given (or “won”) similar funds to spend on others, day after day, while the delight they experienced did lessen somewhat, over the course of the week, they habituated to the “warm glow of giving” much more slowly. Per Sharot and Sunstein, giving “provides a greater sense of meaning than getting” and according to O’Brien and Kassirer, this is because focusing on the act of giving is inked to feelings of social connection, and by extension, value.

This doesn’t mean that you’re always going to feel great about giving your sister-in-law a gift that you know from past experience she will return. However, from an organizational perspective, keeping this concept in mind might help you avoid procrastinating on getting that “difficult” gift.

For example, when you’re dealing with the hubbub of the holiday season and are perhaps feeling dubious about the prospect of shopping or giving the “right” gift, or are even wondering if your efforts will be for naught because the other person won’t be getting you a gift that is as nice or that takes as much effort as you’re putting in, take a breath.

Gift-giving isn’t obligatory, and you need not go into debt for the holiday season. But it’s also not so that you’ll get a gift of equal value and effort. (I mean, it can be, but it shouldn’t be. Let’s organize ourselves out of these habits and attitudes.)

If you are giving gifts, and the shopping and the lists and the traffic are all giving you a headache, pause. Go have a hot cocoa (or whatever overly frothy Starbucksian beverage is your fave) and think about the fact that you’re going to get more sustained joy out of giving gifts that you might think.

Cocoa photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash

Give yourself kudos and let yourself feel some delight with the knowledge that science says gift-giving is good for you.

WHAT SCIENCE SAYS ABOUT GOOD GIFT-GIVING

Did you know there’s serious research into what goes into giving a good gift? In fact, there’s a lot of it.

In the Society for Consumer Psychology Journal, Julian Givi and his team reviewed more than 160 published research papers on the topic and reported on their findings in An Integrative Review of Gift-Giving Research in Consumer Behavior and Marketing. (If you’re into reading social science research, there are links to the source material at the end of their abstract, and you can read some of the papers through Google Scholar. However, social science research tends to be a little dry, and you might nod off into your egg nog.)

Why understand the science of good gift-giving if we know the mere fact that giving gifts makes us happy?

To start with, a lot of gifts end up in the landfill. According to one estimate in 2017, five billion pounds of gift returns ended up in the landfill! And an updated 2020 estimate placed that figure at 2.6 million tons, and yes, this is just counting the United States. If we give better gifts (and here’s a one of many plugs for experiential gifts, that don’t take take up space anywhere, let alone a landfill), we’ll be kinder to the environment.

Experiential Gifts for the Win!

Every year, I sing the praises of experiential gift-giving. For example, here’s what I said last year, in Paper Doll on Clutter-Free Gifts and How to Make Gift Cards Make Sense:

The social-psychological research is sound — experiential gifts are both more memorable and more satisfying.

Memorable

With rare exceptions of special surprises and greatly anticipated gifts, we tend not to remember the tangible stuff we get. (This also means we often don’t remember the gifts we’ve bestowed on others; my organizing clients and I have discussed how we’ve received quite a few “repeats” from well-intentioned loved ones.)

Tangible gifts rarely take us out of the way we live; they fit into the lives we already lead. We may be changing what we’re wearing or how we’re cooking or what we’re playing with because the new gift varies the activity (as an accessory), but experiential gifts are uniquely different from how we spend our everyday lives. Participating in an experience changes our cognitive and physical lives in a few ways.

Part of the fun is anticipatory. When we get a tangible gift, we unwrap it and then…what? Maybe we’ll use it, maybe we’ll put it away until we think of wearing it or using it (or attempt reading the manual to learn how to use it). But when we get a gift of an experience, from the time we receive the gift card or certificate or gift announcement, we begin anticipating everything it involves. We research and get a sense of what might happen. Our imaginations take the gift we receive and add flourishes to what has been given to us.

When we get a gift of an experience, we begin anticipating everything it involves. We research and get a sense of what might happen. Our imaginations take the gift we receive and add flourishes to what has been given to us. Share on X

Give someone a gift that allows them the excitement of anticipating the experience on top of the experience itself and it will be a gift that delights on the holiday, during the intervening period until the experience, and then later in retrospect in the relived and shared memories of the experience. Whoohoo! Now compare that to a sweater or a gadget (if your recipient hasn’t specifically asked for a sweater or that gadget) and you can see how an experiential gift is more nuanced and layered.

Uniquely Satisfying

Experiential gifts are unique. Human beings are social animals and even when we don’t intend to be, we are competitive. We log onto social media, see what our co-workers or our exes’ new partners got for gifts and we compare. Even if we loved our gifts before we logged on, if they got a fancier upgrade or a snootier brand, our holiday cheer is just a bit tarnished. Even if our tangible thing is somewhat superior, the excitement doesn’t last. 

However, we don’t compare experiences in the same way. Even if we both went to the same escape room or to Las Vegas or on a cruise, the variables — who we’re with, the weather, our moods, etc. — are going to be so different that there’s no valid comparison. Our experiences are unique to us.

But guess what, it’s not just me saying that!

In reporting on his research review, Givi said that the published papers he looked at found several interesting things about experiential gifts.

What a Girl (or a Guy) Wants

First, as much as we professional organizers have tried to persuade you that experiences are the way to go, gift-givers like giving material gifts but recipients really want gift of experiences. In “Remember me, will you?”: Overusing Material Gifts for Interpersonal Memory Management, researchers found: 

Givers are more likely than recipients to consider the memory consequences of gift options, as givers intuitively use material gifts as interpersonal mnemonic devices to facilitate the recipient’s retrieval of giver-related memories. As such, this preference discrepancy occurs in various stages of developing relationships but is mitigated in very close relationships.

In other words, “Hey, mom, remember when I got you that expensive hair dryer made by the people who made your vacuum cleaner?”

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We’re often focused on trying to make sure our recipients remember not just the gift (which, as I’ve already suggested above, is less likely with tangible things than experiences) but remember that we were the ones who gave it. I mean, I don’t want to say we’re being manipulative when we do that, but there’s obviously some ego involved. Are we buying love? Are we jockeying for position in the family hierarchy relative (no pun intended) to our siblings? Are we trying to get our in-laws to stop referring to us by our significant other’s ex’es name?

Personally, I suspect that if you give your Aunt Sylvia a gift certificate for a massage or Gramps a National Parks pass, they’re going to remember where the gift originated from a lot more than they would with a fuzzy sweater or a book about World War II.

Don’t Focus on the Face!

Second, not only do we not give people what they want (leaving aside the people — usually teens — who are very specific about what they want), but research says that we tend to give people what will yield a more (visibly) positive reaction than one what will actually satisfy them!

In The Smile-Seeking Hypothesis: How Immediate Affective Reactions Motivate and Reward Gift Giving, researchers found (through six (!) studies) that people put a lot of effort into giving gifts based on what they anticipate the recipient’s reaction will be, “independently (and even in spite of) anticipated recipient satisfaction.”

(When the first of my friends had a child, I put way too much effort into imagining how they’d react when opening the gift. Given my terrible job trying to wrap a stuffed lion, I suspect the emotion was pure relief that the gift was finally uncovered!)

If you’re dealing with a five-year-old, the “affective reactions” and their feelings about their Barbie or video game will likely be the same, but adults mask their true feelings and give socially-acceptable reactions to gifts. (Think about how moms and dads made a huge show of getting misshapen clay ashtrays as gifts even if they didn’t smoke, or how fancy-pants successful young adults in Hallmark movies give their parents expensive but impersonal gifts when the parents just want their kids home for the holidays on their reindeer milk farm.)

One other intriguing thing: this “reaction-maximizing preference” where givers focus on reaction rather than recipient satisfaction was lessened when the gift wouldn’t be opened in the presence of the giver. 

Apparently, we try to psychoanalyze our recipients and figure out what’s going to make them make us feel good about what we gave them. If we’re not going to be there to see their faces, especially in this era where almost nobody sends thank you notes, we don’t fret as much about their reactions.

Maybe this explains why we’re less likely to give experiential gifts? There’s a ritual involved in unwrapping a gift and showing it off to all in attendance, and you can’t really do that to the same effect with a gift certificate, theater tickets, or a fancy reservation.

We don’t know that’s what we’re doing, so it’s not like we’re monsters, but maybe now that we know, we can reign in this behavior? (If nothing else, you can share this post with your significant other so that when your whole family is exchanging gifts and you get something wildly inappropriate that you know you’re supposed to gush over, you can tug on your ear Carol Burnett-style to share an understanding of the ridiculousness of the situation.)

Build Stronger Connections

Third, Givi found another reason for giving gifts of experiences that I’ve never touched on in all the years I’ve written about this topic. He notes that in Experiential Gifts Foster Stronger Social Relationships Than Material Gifts in the Journal of Consumer Research, Cindy Chan and Cassie Mogilner found that, as the title notes:

…experiential gifts produce greater improvements in relationship strength than material gifts, regardless of whether the gift giver and recipient consume the gift together. The relationship improvements that recipients derive from experiential gifts stem from the intensity of emotion that is evoked when they consume the gifts, rather than when the gifts are received. Giving experiential gifts is thus identified as a highly effective form of prosocial spending.

Which is all a dry, academic, social science-y way of saying that when you give someone an experiential gift — even if they’re not going to be having the experience with you — it strengthens the bonds between you.

And further, the Big Wow of emotion doesn’t come at the moment when you tell someone that you’ve bought them tickets to Hamilton (though they’ll likely be super-psyched) or a year’s supply of car washes; it comes when they’re all dressed up and humming “The Room Where It Happens” or driving through the car wash without having to open their wallet.

 

Other Findings About Gift Giving

Skip the novelty gifts — Once again, gift-givers are focused on the moment the gift gets unwrapped.

I get it. You see something cute or funny or outrageous and want to see your giftee’s expression when they see they got Big Mouth Billy talking bass, but aside from the fact that it’ll be one of the first things their eventual professional organizer will be helping them let go of, recipients are focused more on the long-term utility of a tangible (non-consumable) gift. 

 

Skip grand but meaningless gestures — Similarly, a gift that evinces shock, surprise, or humor isn’t as big a draw as things that are useful. If your recipient has an Amazon wish list, look at it and select a gift from it. (If you must do something that reflects your personality, make that a stocking stuffer or night 7 Hanukkah gift.)

Rethink gift cards — As I wrote about last year, gift cards give people flexibility. Yes, there are some negative connotations surrounding gift cards among the Silent Generation and older Boomers. But the younger people are, the happier they are likely to be if they get a gift card that reflects their tastes. (Still, unless they asked for it, don’t give your spouse a gift card as their main gift. Figure out what they really want.) 

If you give a Dungeons & Dragons dungeon-master a gift certificate to her favorite game store or a fashionistas gift cards to their favorite clothing shops, letting them pick out what’s perfect for them, you’ve ensure that the thought does, indeed, count, and the thought is that you know them well enough to guess, at least generally, and care enough not to impose your own tastes. 

Don’t be afraid to be sentimental — Researchers (such as in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) have found that people tend to avoid giving sentimental gifts because they may seem schmaltzy or fear they will miss the mark. A candle or a picture frame may seem safe, but is “safe” the way you want to go when giving a gift to someone you love? I think not.

And again, as with experiential gifts, sentimental gifts have a value that keeps you off the hedonic treadmill.

You remember the hedonic treadmill, right? As I wrote in Toxic Productivity Part 2: How to Change Your Mindset, 

In the famous story of Diderot’s dressing gown, the French philosopher was gifted a fancy robe to replace a tatty one. As Diderot got used to his new dressing gown, he came to see his sense of self as defined by its finery. He felt dissatisfaction with his older possessions and began of spiral of 18th century keeping-up-with-the-Joneses consumerism, replacing the perfectly good items associated with his old life and going into debt to keep up with the identity of the new. 

Just as experiences are unique and uniquely satisfying, sentimental gifts that recall (and reinvigorate) personal relationships — gifts like photo books, albums, family recipe collections, and anything that evokes memories — are unique to those involved. You don’t habituate to sentimental gifts the way you do to an air fryer or bathrobe.

So, to wrap it up:

  • Remember that gift-giving will make you feel good.
  • Take your ego out of gift-giving and focus on the recipient’s needs and tastes.
  • Give gifts of experience because they’re meaningful, recipients like them, and it’ll bring you closer together.
  • Don’t focus on the big reveal (when they unwrap the gift) or your recipient’s social-norm-induced reaction.
  • Think about what they asked for, what you know about their tastes, and what will make them really happy.

RECAPPING THE BEST OF PAPER DOLL’S GIFT-GIVING ADVICE

If you need some inspiration for what to get the people in your life this holiday season, I invite you to explore some of my posts over the last few years.

Paper Doll on Clutter-Free Gifts and How to Make Gift Cards Make Sense

Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Clutter-Free Experiential Gifts: Adventure, Practicality & Pampering (Note: this is one of my of all of my holiday posts over the last 17 years.)

Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Clutter-Free Experiential Gifts: Educational

MORE GOOD ADVICE FROM MY COLLEAGUES

Collectively, my colleagues have written too many stellar posts on giving great clutter-free, experiential, or organizing-themed gifts over the years for me to name them all. However, I think you’ll enjoy taking a peek at these recent posts:

Great Organizing and Productivity Gifts for 2024 from Seana Turner of The Seana Method is chock-full of gifts that — if you are set on giving someone something to unwrap — will solve organizational problems without screaming “I’m practical and boring!” (I’m partial to the rechargeable lamp and the cool yoga storage tube.)

Tons of No-Clutter Gifts for the Holidays from Sabrina Quairoli of Sabrina’s Organizing focuses on consumable gifts (so, yummy!), memberships, and charitable donations, as well as her Sabrina’s take on experiential gifts with days/evenings out and lessons.

Plus, The Spruce interviewed three professional organizers for their 5 Holiday Gifts That Will Only Make Your Home More Cluttered, According to Organizers, and I have to say I agree.

That said, I have to admit that I’m a sucker for coffee mugs with messages or images that delight. Several years ago, my colleague Dr. Regina Lark gave me a coffee mug with a funny (though naughtily unprintable in a “family” blog) message that delights me each morning that it comes up in my rug rotation. Also, I really like my Mr. Rogers mug. (His sweater changes colors when you pour in a hot beverage!)

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Again, this is where knowing your recipient is important! 

As this post goes to press, you’ve got about two and a half weeks until Christmas and the start of Hanukkah. I hope today’s post and the links to past advice will help you find delight in giving.

Recapping Paper Doll’s 2023 Posts — Which Were Your Favorites?

Posted on: December 25th, 2023 by Julie Bestry | 5 Comments

With one week left in 2023, have you taken time yet to review your year?

For the December Productivity and Organizing Blog Carnival, Janet Barclay asked us to identify our best blog posts of 2023, and I had a tough time.

“Best” is subjective, and Janet let us have free reign as to which post fit. Some bloggers chose their most popular posts in terms of readership; others, the ones that garnered the most comments. Some of my blogging colleagues picked their most personal posts, while others selected what they felt would have the most impact on people’s lives.

The problem is that picking just one means leaving the others behind, and I wrote forty-two posts this year! Eventually, I narrowed the selection to half a dozen posts, and then turned to colleagues and friends who were almost evenly split, bringing me no closer to a solution. In the end, I picked Paper Doll On Understanding and Conquering Procrastination because it served as the foundation for so many other posts, but also because I’d been lucky enough to find some great visuals, like this one from Poorly Drawn Lines:

 

Beauty, like clutter, is in the eye of the beholder. To that end, here’s a recap of everything we’ve discussed in 2023, with a few updates and tweaks along the way. My personal favorites are in bold, but I’d love to know which ones resonated the most with you during the year!

ORGANIZE YOUR INSPIRATION

After uploading last week’s post, Toss Old Socks, Pack Away 2023, and Adjust Your Attitude for 2024, I got to thinking about all the different ways we can take our word, phrase, or song of the year and keep it in the forefront of our minds.

I’d reviewed the traditional methods (vision boards, posted signs, turning the song into your wakeup alarm), but felt like there needed to be something that stayed with you, independent of your location. Only being reminded of your goal to be a leader when you’re standing in front of your fridge doesn’t really help you in your 1-to-1 meetings at work. (I mean, unless you’re the Queen of the Condiments or King of the Crisper Drawer.)

Only being reminded of your goal to be a leader when you're standing in front of your fridge doesn't really help you in your 1-to-1 meetings at work. (I mean, unless you're the Queen of the Condiments or King of the Crisper Drawer.) Share on X

Serendipitously, within minutes of thinking about this, an ad came across one of my social media pages. (Normally, I ignore ads, but this one had me thinking maybe “serendipity” would be a good theme word for some year!) The ad was for Conscious Ink, an online temporary tattoo retailer specifically for creating body art to help you mindfully connect with your themes and messages to yourself, disrupt negative self-talk, and promote the healthy habits you’re trying to embrace!

As Conscious Ink’s About page explains, if you want to keep something top of the mind, why not try something that keeps it “top of the body?” Whether body art is your thing or you haven’t experimented since your Minnie Mouse temporary tattoo at summer camp <mumble mumble> years ago, this is a neat trick!

There’s even research as to how a temporary tattoo can support permanent emotional and cognitive transformation and improve mindfulness and focus on things that uplift one’s higher self. And that’s the point of a theme word, phrase, or song, to keep you focused on what you want rather than what you allow to drag you down! Manifest what you want your life to be.

Conscious Ink’s temporary tattoos use non-toxic, cosmetic-grade, FDA-certified, vegan inks. Each one lasts 3-7 days, depending on where you apply it, your skin type and activity level, and (I suspect) how many life-affirming, stress-reducing bubble baths you take. Categories include mindset, health and wellness, spiritual/nature, relationships, parenting, celebratory, and those related to social causes. Prices seem to hover at around $10 for a three-pack and $25 for a 10-pack. There’s even a Good Karma Guarantee to make sure you’re satisfied.

Whether you go with Conscious Ink (which is designed for this uplifting purpose) or seek an alternative or custom-designed temporary tattoo (through vendors like Momentary Ink or independent Etsy shops), it only makes sense if you place it somewhere you can see it often. 

After all, if you place a temporary tattoo reminder to stand up for yourself on your tushy, it probably won’t remind you of much. For most of us of a certain age, putting it at our wrists, covered (when we prefer) by our cuffs, will give us the most serene “om” for our buck.

If you place a temporary tattoo reminder to stand up for yourself on your tushy, it probably won't remind you of much. Share on X

Along the same lines as my advice on adjusting your attitude for 2024, you may want to consult Gretchen Rubin’s Tips for Your “24 for 2024” List. Rubin and her sister/podcast co-host always have an inspring Happier Trifecta: a year-numbered theme, along with with a challenge and a list.

PRODUCTIVITY AND TIME MANAGEMENT

This was a big year for productivity discussion. I’m a firm believer that keeping your space and resources organized is key to being productive. However, it’s hard to keep the world around you organized when outside influences prevent you from being efficient (doing things well) and effective (doing the right things).

We continue to see the value of body doubling, whether through friendly hang-outs, co-working (virtually or in person), or professional organizing services, whether you want to conquer garden-variety procrastination or get special support for ADHD.

Partnering for Success

Paper Doll Sees Double: Body Doubling for Productivity (I almost submitted this post to the carnival. Accountability and motivation for the win!)

Paper Doll Shares 8 Virtual Co-Working Sites to AmpUp Your Productivity

If you’d like to explore the body doubling or co-working experience, friend-of-the-blog Deb Lee of D. Allison Lee is offering a no-cost, two-hour Action Day event on Tuesday, January 9, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

This event is designed for her clients and subscribers, but after a cheery holiday conversation, Deb said it was OK to let my readers know about the opportunity. 

Deb describes an Action Day as “personal training for your productivity muscles!”

An Action Day (especially as Deb runs them) is a stellar way to narrow your focus and start taking action on your goals. (And what better time than at the start of the new year?) You’ll get to connect with others who are also working on goals and habits with the support of Deb, a productivity coach I admire and adore.

Just bring your top two or three priorities, and you can conquer anything, like:

  • organize your workspace
  • write your book outline
  • clean up your digital files
  • test a new productivity app
  • send out client proposals
  • anything! 

You’ll videoconference with a small, select group via Zoom. Share your goal and tasks, work for the bulk of the two hours, and then take time to debrief and share your successes! 

Moving Yourself Forward

Getting anything done involves figuring out what you have to do, knowing what’s kept you from getting started, making it easy for you to begin, and celebrating even the smallest wins. These next three posts were where the magic happened this year!

Paper Doll On Understanding and Conquering Procrastination (This is the post I submitted to the Productivity & Organizing Carnival.)

Frogs, Tomatoes, and Bees: Time Techniques to Get Things Done

Use the Rule of 3 to Improve Your Productivity

Dealing with the Pokey Times

If you’re overwhelmed by all you’ve got going on during late December and early January, you can skip onward. However, if your workplace closes down during the holidays, or your professional and personal lives just feel like they’re kind of in a slump right now, you may find some inspiration in two pieces I wrote for the summer slowdown.

The weather outside may be frightful (unless you’re reading from Australia), but if you are looking for ideas to pump you up when everyone is in a post-shopping/meal/travel haze, these posts may stir your motivation:

Organize Your Summer So It Doesn’t Disappear So Quickly

Use Your Heart, Head, and Hands to Organize During the Slow Times

Try To Do It All (And Knowing When to Step Away)

Maybe you did your annual review and found that you’re feeling burned out. If so, you are not alone. It’s easy for your groove to turn into a rut, and for all of your drive to accomplish come crashing down because you never take your foot off the gas all year!

If you missed these posts earlier need a second shot at embracing the importance of variety, small breaks, and actual vacations, here’s your chance to read some of my absolute favorite posts of the year:

Paper Doll Says: Don’t Get Stuck in a Rut — Take Big Leaps (Be sure to watch the diving board video!)

Was baby Paper Doll burned out? In a rut? Just pooped?

Take a Break — How Breaks Improve Health and Productivity

Take a Break for Productivity — The International Perspective (This is the post that introduced the Swedish convivial snack break, fika!)

If you had any doubts about what I said about the importance of taking breaks in your day to refresh your body, your brain, or your spirit, a new report just a few weeks ago confirms that we need that late afternoon break if we don’t want our productivity to turn to mush! And the more we push ourselves beyond work hours, the greater our decrease in productivity!

If you’re desperately in need of a full break, but are suffering from decision fatigue and don’t have the energy to begin planning a whole vacation, there are options to make it easier for you. In the BBC’s piece, Why 2024 May Be the Year of Surprise Travel, you may find some rousing options.

Need a little inspiration to spend your holiday gift money on experiences rather than tzotchkes? Check out Time Out’s 24 Best Things to Do in the World in 2024 to envision where you could take long breaks to refresh yourself. Those vintage trains in Italy are calling to me, but perhaps you’d prefer the immersive “Dream Circus” in Sydney, Australia, or Montréal en Lumière’s 25th anniversary?

(Never mind, I know. Everyone wants to go on the Taylor Swift cruise from Miami to the Bahamas. Just come back with good stories instead of memento clutter, OK?)

TOOLS AND IDEAS FOR GREATER PRODUCTIVITY

Sometimes, rereading my own posts reminds me how many nifty things there are to share with you, and how many are still to be discovered. 

Paper Doll Helps You Find Your Ideal Analog Habit Tracker — So many people have requested a follow-up covering digital habit trackers, so watch for that in 2024.

Paper Doll Presents 4 Stellar Organizing & Productivity Resources 

Paper Doll Shares Presidential Wisdom on Productivity — From the Eisenhower Matrix to Jefferson’s design for the swivel chair, from limiting wardrobe options to understanding the difference between being busy and being productive, we’ve had presidents who have known how to get more (of the right things) done. With an election year in 2024, I’d love a debate question on the candidate’s best tips for staying organized and productive!

Surprising Productivity Advice & the 2023 Task Management & Time Blocking Summit

Highlights from the 2023 Task Management & Time Blocking Summit

3 Simple But Powerful Productivity Resources — Right in Your Browser Tab — The offering that got the most attention this year was definitely Goblin.Tools. I’m sure that as we head into 2024 and beyond, I’ll be sharing more resources that make use of artificial intelligence.

Let’s just remember that we always need to give precedence to our own intelligence, in the same way we can’t follow GPS to the letter if it directs us to drive in to a lake. In fact, like all organizing and productivity guidance, remember what I said way back in 2020 in The Truth About Celebrity Organizers, Magic Wands, and the Reality of Professional Organizing: there is no magic wand.

AI and other solutions, tangible or digital, and even professional organizers, can make things easier, but the only way to get the life you want is to embrace making positive behavioral changes. 

RESOURCES FOR ORGANIZING YOUR WORK AND TRAVEL SPACE

Privacy in Your Home Office: From Reality to Fantasy — It’s interesting to see that privacy, and not just in home offices but in communal workspaces, has become a priority again. Check out this recent New York Times piece, As Offices Workers Make Their Return, So Does the Lowly Cubicle.

Paper Doll Refreshes Your Paper Organizing Solutions

Paper Doll Organizes Temporary Papers and Explores Third Spaces — Do you have systems for dealing with your “temporary papers,” the ones that you don’t need to file away but aren’t triggering an immediate action? 

Paper Doll Organizes Your Space, Money, and Well-Being While Traveling

Paper Doll is Clearly Organized — Translucent Tools for Getting it Together

Paper Doll Explores New & Nifty Office and School Supplies

Organize Your Desktop with Your Perfect Desk Pad

No matter where I go in 2024, be assured that I will be keeping my eyes open for solutions for keeping your paper and work supplies organized.

My Thanksgiving weekend shopping trips brought me a variety of intriguing options. At Kohl’s, I saw 30 Watt‘s Face Plant, a way to keep your eyeglasses handy while refreshing the air around you (and keeping you perky) with greenery. The 5.5″ x 6″ x 5.25″ ceramic planter holds a plant, gives you a place to rest your glasses (so you won’t misplace them under piles of paper on your desk), and is dry erase marker-friendly! (It’s currently on sale for under $14.)

A stop at IKEA in Atlanta was so productive for organizing tools that you’ll be seeing posts with nifty names like Övning (for tidying a child’s desk accessories and creating privacy), Kugsfors (wall-mounted shelves with tablet stands for keeping books and iPads visible while working), Bekant (sit/stand desks) and more.

ORGANIZING YOUR FINANCIAL & LEGAL LIFE

Not everything in the organizing and productivity world is fun to look at, and that’s especially true of all the financial and legal documents that help you sleep soundly at night. Still, Paper Doll kept you aware of how to understand and protect your money, your identity, and your legacy.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t created your Apple Legacy Contact and your Google Inactive Account Manager, why the heck not? Use the power of body doubling up above, grab a partner, and get your digital life in order!

Lost & Found: Recover Unclaimed Money, Property, and Savings Bonds

Paper Doll’s Ultimate Guide to Legally Changing Your Name

Paper Doll Explains Digital Social Legacy Account Management

How to Create Your Apple & Google Legacy Contacts

Paper Doll Explains Your Health Insurance Explanation of Benefits

DEALING WITH EMERGENCIES AND STRESSFUL SITUATIONS

Sometimes, I write a post I wish I’d been able to read earlier (like the one on preventing and recovering from a car theft). Other times, like when a friend had a health emergency, or when Paper Mommy had her fall in November, I’m glad the posts already exist. If you missed these the first time around, please be sure to read, share, and bookmark them; think of them as an insurance policy, and let’s hope you won’t need them.

How to Organize Support for Patients and Families in Need 

Organize to Prevent (or Recover From) a Car Theft

Paper Doll Organizes You To Prepare for an Emergency

GRAB BACK OF INTERVIEWS, UPDATES, AND PHILOSOPHY

Paper Doll Interviews Motivational Wordsmith Kara Cutruzzula

You already know how beloved my friend Kara Cutruzzula‘s Brass Ring Daily newsletter and Do It Today podcast are at Paper Doll HQ.

After having read and enjoyed Kara’s Do It For Yourself — A Motivational Journal and her follow-up, Do It Today — A Motivational Journal (Start Before Your Ready), I had no doubt that I’d be jumping on her third when it was released in September.

If you haven’t already picked up Do It Or Don’t — A Boundary-Creating Journal, use that Amazon money you almost certainly got this holiday season!

One of the Paper Doll themes for 2024 will focus on setting (and maintaining) better boundaries to accomplish more of what’s meaningful, and I’ve got multi-color tape flags sticking out of Kara’s book from all the chapters to share her bounty with you.

What’s in a Name? “Addressing” Organizing and Productivity

Paper Doll Suggests What to Watch to Get More Organized and Productive — As we head into the new year, I’ll be keeping my eyes open for podcasts, webinars, and TV shows to help you keep your space organized, your time productive, your finances orderly, and your life joyous. Readers have been sending in YouTube and TikTok videos that inspire them, so please feel free to share programming that you’d like to see profiled on Paper Doll‘s pages. 

Paper Doll on How to Celebrate Organizing and Productivity with Friends

Paper Doll and Friends Cross an Ocean for Fine Productivity Conversations

From in-person get togethers with frolleagues (what my accountability partner Dr. Melissa Gratias calls those special folks who are both friends and colleagues) to Friday night professional organizer Zooms, accountability calls, and Mastermind group collaborations, this has been a great year for staying connected and sharing the benefits of those conversations with you.

I also loved guesting on so many fun podcasts related to organizing, productivity, technology, and more. If there’s someone you’d like to hear me debate or banter with, let me know!

SEASONAL POSTS

Spooky Clutter: Fears that Keep You from Getting Organized 

Paper Doll’s Thanksgiving Week Organizing and Productivity Buffet

Paper Doll De-Stresses Your December

Paper Doll on Clutter-Free Gifts and How to Make Gift Cards Make Sense

Are you stressed out because you haven’t gotten someone a gift yet? Maybe a good start would be to help an overwhelmed special someone take my advice about going on a travel break. Consider gift certificates for something like Get Your Guide, with opportunities to get guided tours of locally-vetted, expertly-curated sporting, nature, cultural, and food experiences. With 118,000 experiences in 150 countries, pick a multiple of $50 or set your own amount, and your recipient can pick the domestic or international travel experience that fits best.

If you know your recipient will be traveling by rail, consider a gift card for Amtrak or ViaRail in North America. Eurail doesn’t sell gift cards, but you can pay for a pass, or buy a gift card for a rail pass for more than a dozen specific European train lines. And if you’d like to help someone organize vacation serenity and secure a bundle of travel attractions for a given city, try TurboPass in Europe or City Pass and The Sightseeing Pass in North America.

HERE’S TO A MORE ORGANIZED AND PRODUCTIVE 2024

Whether you’ll be spending the next few days reading, traveling, or doing your annual review, I hope this last week of 2023 is a happy and healthy one.

To send you off for a cozy week, I’d like to share a Whamagaddon– and Mariah–free, retro 100-minute holiday playlist from the late 1930s through the early 1960s. It’s somehow easier to dismantle the tree and write thank-you notes to Guy Lombardo. (My favorite clocks in at 52:42 with “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”)

Please let me know your favorite Paper Doll posts from this year, and I’ll meet you back here in 2024!

 

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