Man I can without any doubt or reservation say that we just had the best Christmas of our lives so far. I just can’t stop smiling about it. And actually the best part is that I don’t have the Christmas hangover at all! I’m such a Type-A planner that I usually avoid the Christmas hangover for the most part – SO MUCH TO PLAN AND PREPARE AND SET FOR THE NEW YEAR! But this year it’s not only that which helped me avoid the Christmas hangover. It’s also that I really feel we did this Christmas so right. I have no regrets. I don’t wish we’d done anything different. We went balls out crazy for like 4 days straight, enjoying every single second, so I felt tired satisfaction when Saturday morning peeked through our blinds.

It also helps that this guy doesn’t have to go back for another week.

I think for myself and a lot of people this week between the holidays is often dead time. We sit around playing with our presents, eating a ton of food, and just generally taking it easy. And that’s great! I have just found that too much of that often makes the New Year dawn a little too bright, cold, and hard to deal with. I really like to welcome the New Year with fresh perspective and open arms.

This isn’t a resolutions post – that’s to come later. This is simply a list of my favorite things to do the last week of the year so that 2016 comes in crispy, delicious, and exciting. Like a fresh can of Diet Coke. Now, we all know that I won’t get ALL of these things done. But Danica is nothing if not a walking, loudly talking, list of To-Dos that will get 80% accomplished.

How to Prep for the New  Year!

• Goodbye, Christmas! Waving goodbye to this the most storied of holidays is hard for a lot of people. But I really think it’s essential. Take a few days if you must, but say goodbye.
  • Take down all of your decorations. Inventory/ditch the stuff you really don’t like or use. Hit up the after Christmas clearance sales if you want! Then stow everything carefully away.
  • Open up, assemble, and complete all of your presents/toys/gifts. Put batteries in everything. Register all of the warranties. *Most Importantly – Find every new thing a home within your home. This is what I’m awful at doing, but I’m trying to improve.
  • Get all of your returns, exchanges, and gift cards in order before the New Year, if possible. I can’t tell you how many times my stuff has sat in a corner, doing no good to anyone. This year especially I have a plan for this week to take care of all the returns and exchanges right away. I also keep a list of all the gift cards we receive so I can remember and make a plan to use them – even if it’s going to be weeks and months down the road – so they don’t get forgotten.
• Ditch your junk
  • All of the Christmas Carnage, even if it takes 2 trash days or a trip to the dump. Get rid of it ASAP.
  • The Beard and I have been tackling each room one at a time, looking for things that don’t have “homes.” We’ve also been trying to go through old boxes, drawers, random corners, etc., to get rid of junk. We have a LOT of clutter and throwing things away is so cathartic to me! The Beard is a low-grade hoarder so it’s harder for him, but we’re workin on it.
  • A huge project we’re taking on this week while he’s home is emptying the fridge and our pantry. We’re gonna pull everything out, throw away expired items, really assess what we’re storing, and throw away everything that we know we won’t use – NO MATTER HOW COOL OR EXPENSIVE OR TINY IT MAY BE. Then we’re gonna scrub out the fridge and pantry, refill everything in a more organized, accessible way, and make a big, fresh shopping list.
• Tackle your beauty products!
  • Be honest with yourself. Does that lip color really look good on you? Have you ever even worn that blush? Again, I like to pull everything out and make a complete mess of my bathroom. I sort everything into categories and then brutally decimate the entire collection.
    • If it’s your second purchase of the product (meaning you’ve emptied one before and gone back for another) it’s a true love. Put all of those back first. They’re keepers.
    • If you’ve used it and liked it in the last week, put it back too.
    • If it’s brand new or a sample you haven’t used yet, put it back… but in an upfront container. Use it in the next week, or throw it away.
    • If you like it but it’s seasonal, like a bright summery color. Put it back, but in a compartment in the back to pull out in the appropriate season.
    • Look at everything else. Do a little makeover if you need to remember what the products look like. If you’re like me you’ll find one or two that are like “Oh I DO like that!” so put those in the Use-It-In-The-Next-Week section. For most of them, though, I’m like “…. pass.” and then I can toss them. Be brutal.
  • Make an inventory and shopping list. If you’ve been using that mascara for more than 3 months it’s time for a new one. You’ve been digging bronzer out of the edges of the compact? Get a new one. Do you not have a single eyebrow product? It’s time to head to Sephora.
  • Clean your makeup brushes, remove the hair from your hairbrushes and combs, and wipe down all of your drawers and containers.
• Purge your closet – basically do the same process as your makeup.
  • Pull EVERYTHING out of the closet (and make sure all/most of your laundry is done and out there). I mean it. It’s a game-changer.
  • Make categories: tees, sweaters, blazers, blouses, etc.
  • If it’s stained, doesn’t fit, or you’re not sure how you got it just throw it in the purge pile immediately. Don’t stop to think about it.
  • If there are seasonal things which you could store elsewhere (a spare bedroom closet, for example) make sure you LOVE the items, then move them there. I finally moved all my coats and heavy jackets to the coat closet downstairs and it freed up so much space!
  • Go through the piles by category. I like to ask myself “If I had to get rid of ONE of these, which would it be?” If it’s an easy decision I ditch it. Most of the time I end up getting rid of 2-3 items per pile.
  • When you LOVE something… but you don’t wear it – a true tragedy. I’ve gotten to a point where it isn’t hard for me to give these to my little sisters. They end up wearing and loving them more than I do, I’ve found. I usually put these in a separate pile in my closet, hanging on to them for a month or two. If I still haven’t worn them the next time I clean my closet then I can say goodbye.
  • Hang everything back up/put it in drawers according to category and convenience. You can also try the “backwards hanger trick” where you put all of your clothes on the racks with the hanger backwards, then turn them around once they’ve been worn. In a few months you can see which items simply aren’t being used and ditch them.
  • Donate what can be donated, throw everything else away, and don’t feel bad!
  • Again, the funnest part, make a shopping list! Maybe you realized you don’t have a nice black pencil skirt, or that plain white tee you love is looking a little worse for wear and you might need a replacement. Go shopping!
• Deep Clean. BOOOOOOO. But it is necessary. With The Beard home we can get a lot more done in less time. Having a fresh clean house is just the best.
• Take the cars to a full-service carwash to clean the inside and outside. Worth it.
• Get your $$$$ together! We sat down on Sunday night and went over all of our finances together. We talked about our financial goals for this year, made a plan to save certain amounts of money for different purchases and trips, reorganized our budget, and prioritized eliminating our debt (we should be completely debt-free by April WOOT).
• Reflect. This is probably my favorite part of this week. As much crap as I talk on the stupid slideshows and flipagrams… I do like to make and watch my own. It just fills me with such gratitude, and sometimes some guilt and regret. I try to use that to create the picture in my head of what I want the New Year to be.
  • Make ALL of the stupid collages and flipagrams. Go back through your pictures, social media posts, journal entries. Welcome all of the feels of 2015.
  • Write it all down. I’m so bad at journaling, but I’m always good about writing down my feelings at the end of the year. I want to remember it all.
  • Make a chatbook! I did this for the first time last year and it took me approximately 5 minutes and $8 to make a “yearbook” of sorts straight from my Instagram.
• Plan. I LOVE setting up a virgin planner. I fill in holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, paydays, General Conference, anything I can think of. I also love to sift through all 1,000 New Years Resolutions posts on Pinterest and think about what I want to change/do/be in the new year. Now is the time to create the life you want! I love it! It’s better than a Red Bull!

I mean, and we’re also “cleaning out” our Netflix queue. And our Christmas candy haul. That’s an important part of this.

What else do you guys do to prep for the new year? You know I always gotta be adding to my lists! 2015 was so perfect I could just kiss it right on the mouth. 2016 I am real excited for you too, buddy.