Week Nine at the Holiday Grand Plan, Pantry Week, finds us still in the kitchen. We’re cleaning, organizing and preparing for holiday cooking.
This week, we focus on food storage, the pantry and any additional closets. Taking time to declutter, deep-clean and organize these storage areas will pay off when holiday baking begins.
Holiday prep chores this week see us begin to address Christmas cards, continue to work on holiday gifts, and start thinking about Thanksgiving dinner.
Ready? Let’s get organized with Pantry Week in the Holiday Grand Plan!
Holiday Prep
- Make one batch of Holiday Goodies.
- Make one extra meal for freezer again labeled HOLIDAY MEAL.
- Buy two canned food items from menus (get 2 of each item, one to use and one to donate to food drive).
- Buy 1/8th of TO BUY gifts. Save all receipts, note return policy before buying. Ask for gift boxes.
- Wrap and label packages. If needing to ship, get some shipping boxes now and store packages in them.
- Work at least 1 hour a day on homemade gifts.
- Start addressing Christmas cards and writing Christmas letter.
- Find family photo suitable for inclusion with Christmas card.
- Involve the whole family. Do not seal cards yet, keep them in a box in alphabetical order, as you think of things that you want to say to them pull out the card and add a note.
- Send invitations for Thanksgiving.
- Prepare for special needs-extra beds, babies?
- Buy extra batteries (check gifts).
- Order turkey.
Cleaning/Organizing Area: Pantry and Closets
Pantry: Use same method as for the cabinets. don’t forget to wipe down while empty. Try to combine duplicate boxes of things to throw out that which you haven’t and probably won’t use.
When this is done, you will probably want to dust any appropriate items, vacuum from ceiling to floor, including vents/ a/c ducts, clean any windows, and sweep & wash the kitchen floor (I always do that last!) As far as I’m concerned this is probably one of the hardest rooms in the house. If you have tile on your counters or table, this is a good time to spray them down and clean and reseal the grout.
Be ruthless! Go through every drawer, cabinet, counter. Did you take time to do all that work and sell yourself short? Did your Mama tell you a job worth doing is worth doing well??? Well go ahead an “git”: make that kitchen shine. Go through the spices and the cookbooks again. I know there are things you still really need to do.