Get a Head Start on Holiday Shopping

This year make your holiday shopping safe and organized. It may not even be Halloween yet but it’s never too early to start making your purchases – especially this year.

With health and safety and the top of everyone’s minds, shopping early will help you avoid major crowds. Online shopping is also sure to be popular this year, so in order to make sure your packages arrive on time – whether it’s from the store or to send to family and friends out of town – it’s important to make your purchases now. 

Start by thinking of all the people you need to buy for. This way, as you come across things when you go out or browse online, you can start to keep track of gift ideas and how much items cost. Making a list and checking off items you purchase as you go will help you remember what you bought and who you bought for. Budget tracking is much easier this way too – by constantly updating your purchases and what you’re spending, you can make sure you don’t break the bank over the holidays. 

While you’re shopping, it’s important to stay organized and methodical. Keep all the gifts you purchase in one area of your home. Designate a spare closet, a bin under your bed, or a rarely-used cupboard to make sure everything is kept together.

When possible, consider giving gifts that will limit contact or handling by multiple people. For example, consider having items shipped directly to your recipients. To make this even easier, try planning for gifts that won’t create clutter. Not only will it help your loved ones from accumulating items they don’t need, it will make giving gifts much easier and safer like sending gift certificates or unique subscriptions over email.

Holiday shopping requires starting early, creating a plan, and sticking to it. With snow already on the ground, it isn’t hard to get motivated to start your shopping early!

The Home Edit: Our Top Picks

At Calm Order, we like to organize our homes with products that are functional and stylish. Whether it’s bins or hangers, we want these products to add value to your home, not clutter. When people think of organizing products, they often think of boring and utilitarian spacers and shelves – but being organized doesn’t mean people have to sacrifice the look of their home! Sometimes the opposite can also happen. People purchase organizers that look nice but aren’t practical. If it is beautiful but doesn’t function, what is the point of using it? That’s why Calm Order is a fan of using effective and beautiful products featured on the The Home Edit.

The Home Edit, like Calm Order, is passionate about organizing and creating organized spaces that are practical and fashionable. Stepping into a new space and seeing its potential is what our team at Calm Order gets excited about every time we start a new project. We want to make sure that space is organized with the right solutions. The products featured at The Home Edit match our love of design and functionality and implement practices that Calm Order has used since the very beginning (especially when it comes to labels and colour coordinating)!

Here are just a few of our favourite items featured on The Home Edit that we love to use for our projects:

Turntables

These organizers are perfect for so many different spaces – from desks to children’s colouring tables to bathroom vanities, these containers can organize a variety of items. The clear plastic material makes it easy to colour coordinate items. At Calm Order, we love to organize items by colour. Not only does it make it easy to find items, but it adds fun, vibrancy and style to a space.

Inter-design cabinet bins

These bins are the perfect fit for every space. With a variety of sizes to choose from, there are options for any cupboard or cabinet. Their square and rectangular shapes ensure that no space is lost on angles or weird corners. They are easy to use and their clear design make it quick to spot what is inside. Our team always recommends adding customized labels to the outside of these bins to make it even easier to determine what is in each bin.

Modular bamboo inserts

These drawer inserts are the perfect way to organize loose items like cutlery, makeup, writing utensils and more. They are customizable and changeable, so they can work in a variety of spaces. Moving or renovating? No problem! These drawer inserts can be easily taken out and used somewhere else. Not only do they look beautiful, but they make drawers and all their contents look clean and clutter free.

These simple items are the perfect blend of functionality and style – whatever the space, they are sure to add style and order!

Stay Productive While Working at Home

For many, working from home is still the reality and it isn’t likely to change anytime soon. Respect yourself and your time by creating a productive working environment in your home. Whether it’s in a home office, your dining room table, or living room couch, you can be efficient and organized with these simple tips.

Stick to the Routine

Routine is an important aspect of working from home. Not having to commute or dress formally may seem like a good reason to sleep in a start a bit later – but it can help contribute to lower productivity. While you don’t necessarily have to stick to the exact routine you would normally have if going into the office (especially for people with very long commutes), set a standard time to wake up, and give yourself plenty of time to eat a decent breakfast, get dressed (even if it’s not in business attire) and get organized at your workstation so you are prepared and ready to face whatever comes during your work day. A routine can help put you in the right frame of mind and set the tone for the rest of your day by making sure you are energized and focused to accomplish your tasks for the day.

Prepare in Advance

Having access to a home kitchen can make meals and snacks easier to prepare last minute. However, putting meals together still requires a lot of time, and can take out a large chunk of your at-home workday if you still have to get lunch prepared, put together a couple of snacks, and then start on supper. Instead, prepare your meals and snacks ahead of time just like you would if you were going into the office for work. Have a healthy snack section set up in your refrigerator or kitchen pantry so you can easily grab a snack mid-morning or afternoon for a quick energy boost. Have carrots or celery sticks washed and cut so they’re ready to eat and set aside some granola bars or trail mixes in a designated spot in your cupboard so they’re easy to find. For lunches, set aside leftovers or put together a healthy wrap, salad or bowl the night before or even in the morning before you start working. When lunch time comes around, you don’t have to worry about making food from scratch and can get back to work on time after enjoying a relaxing break.

Take a Break

Don’t be afraid to take time for a quick break while you’re working. In your usual office setting, there is usual time for a coffee break in the morning, or other moments where you can take a break from working and help relax and refocus your mind. At home, this might be hard to do but try setting different times throughout the day to do this. It doesn’t have to be for a long period of time, just a couple of minutes where you could go to the kitchen to get a snack, or even do a quick task around the house like put away some dishes or fold some laundry. Taking a step back from what you are working on can help with your productivity and motivation and give your mind the break it needs after working for a long period of time.

Organize Your Workstation

How you organize your workspace is also a key element of staying productive during your workday. Not everyone has the space to set-up a designated home office, but wherever your workstation is, make sure it is as organized and clutter-free as your work office should be. When we are surrounded by clutter (like stacks of papers, office supplies, books or other materials) it can be hard to stay focused on our computers or the task at hand. Important files can be difficult to access because they can be lost in piles of paperwork on your desk or in a drawer.

To set-up an organized workspace, start by making sure your work surface is clean and tidy. You only need to have out the essentials, like your computer or laptop, a pad of paper and a pen, and something to drink. Only pull out other items or paperwork as needed. Go through any drawers or cabinets you might have in your space to store your other office items and get rid of anything that you don’t actually need. You don’t necessarily need to throw everything out, but it might be better stored in another location. For those you don’t have a designated office space, consider using a rolling cart or carry-bag to store your work items so they can easily be accessed and packed away wherever you are and prevent the rest of your home from being cluttered with your work materials.

Separation is Key

It is important to make sure you continue to have a healthy work/life balance even when you’re working from home full-time. This can be hard to do, especially if you don’t have a designated workspace, as you don’t have any separation from where you work and relax. To help keep your work and home life separate even in the same physical space, try implementing some steps into your routine to help get your mind focused at the start of the day and relaxed once you are done. For example, you can take a quick walk in the morning and after work to mimic your usual office commute and signal a separation to your working schedule. You can use alarms to signal the start and beginning of your workday so you aren’t tempted to keep working late when you should be relaxing. You can even try taking yourself to a different room in your house for a period of time after working to change your surroundings and help you get out of your working mindset.

Working from home is different for everyone and is constantly evolving as people slowly start to go back in or make changes to their situation based on the rest of their family’s needs as well. However, you can take some small steps to make sure you stay as productive and organized as possible, whatever your situation may be.