HOT For The Holidays! is a three-week holiday blitz focused on looking great, feeling fantastic, and planning the best holiday season ever. It’s like having your own personal trainer, nutritionist, party planner, and support group in one.
There’s no sense in spending your holidays feeling over budget and overweight, feeling under-prepared and under pressure, feeling like there’s got to be a better way. Our “HOT for the Holidays!” class will incorporate Marilu Henner’s Total Health Makeover® principles to prepare YOU for YOUR holiday season. You’ll get tips for preparing your body, your home, your meals and MORE. You’ll establish routines that will help you look and feel your best throughout your holiday season. You’ll learn how to celebrate and have fun – with no remorse.
Our Members tell us that it’s so much easier to succeed with the support of online classmates and the THM Coaches. Why not get that support while you prepare to be your B.E.S.T. – and your hottest! – this holiday season?
Classes at Marilu.com are free to all Members.
Not a Member? Join today!
Pretend you’re going to move to the other side of town. Go through your living space and throw out everything that is not worth bringing with you – or not worth packing, even. It makes us feel secure to carry a lot of the old with us until we set up in the new, but there’s nothing like packing and moving into a new space to remind you of what’s important in your life.
We tend to keep certain sentimental artifacts because we’re afraid we’ll forget the memories attached to them without being able to hold onto or see something tangible. Eventually, however, these items take up space and become clutter.
In keeping with today’s theme of clutter control (“Say NO to Clutter!”), try this tip * Photograph everything you shouldn’t keep but don’t want to forget. This works especially well for your kids’ three-dimensional projects (science fair, dioramas, models of anything, etc.) from school or Scouts or camp. It’s so much easier to store a photo album.
Think of your clutter like an old ex-boyfriend – a photo or two is all you really need.
As we head into colder weather, it’s the perfect time to take a good hard look at your coat closet.
What are you hiding in there? Could you play “one of things is not like the others; one of these things doesn’t belong” in your coat closet? Find the right home for things that have migrated into the closet over the last year.
Sometimes the coat closet is the logical place for things that seem not to belong – a card table or vacuum cleaner or luggage or sports equipment. It depends on your home, the available closet and storage space, and the way you live. Make sure you have space for the oddball things you’ve designated for your coat closet.
Warm weather coats can be moved to the less accessible areas of the closet, or to storage. Be sure to wash everything, or have cleaned, before storing it during its off-season.
Cold weather outerwear includes a lot of extras – mittens, gloves, hats, scarves, shawls, boots, umbrellas. Our favorite storage system for the mittens, gloves, scarves, hats and shawls is one of those hanging shelf organizers, sold for shoes (narrow) and sweaters (wider). They hang from the rod, but give you shelving almost to the floor. Assign a shelf per person, or store all like things on a shelf (mittens on one, gloves on another, etc.).
Add hooks for umbrellas – on the door or on the side wall of the closet.
Our favorite place for boots is on a boot tray – a rubber tray with raised edges, so the wet mess boots leave behind is always contained. We like the boot tray by the door, but it works just as well inside the closet.
Make sure the cold weather coats are clean, in good repair and ready for use.
Add extra hangars for guests’ coats. Get nice sturdy hangars for the coat closet – we like wooden ones – to take the weight of heavy coats and to help hold the shape of the coats.
Tote bags seem to procreate in closets. Check yours. Do they need to be laundered or wiped clean? Is the coat closet the best place for your grocery bags (or do they belong in your car, where you’ll remember to use them)? If you have too many bags in good condition, check around for organizations that could use them. We’ve heard of libraries, schools, churches, and charity groups reusing donated bags.
Clean the closet while you’re decluttering it. Vacuum the floor, baseboard, and shelves. Dust the walls and ceiling. Wipe down the door. If you’re really ambitious, give the closet a fresh coat of paint inside. (Remember, there’s no rule about what color it has to be – if you want it a fun, bright color, now’s the time!)
There’s nothing worse than a long weekend (or even a short weekend) of resentful faces because it’s time to clean the house or yard. So make it fun for everyone, and remember to plan lots of free time and play time, too.
Here are some ideas to make cleaning into a game.
How many minutes? * Whether you’re alone or working as a team, take a look around the designated room and decide how fast you can clean it. State it as a challenge: “I/We can clean this room in 10 minutes!” Then set a timer and try to beat the clock. (This is one of Marilu’s favorites.)
Theme cleaning * Assign each person one particular task to be done throughout the house – gathering all the garbage and recycling; cleaning mirrors and switchplates; collecting and sorting laundry; cleaning sinks and toilets; collecting dishes and washing or loading them in the dishwasher. Then set a timer for 15 minutes and get busy. Meet when time is up for round two. After two rounds, take a game break. Bigger tasks can be split by rooms or floors of the house.
Color cleaning * Write down all the tasks that need to be done on three different colored index cards – red for adult chores, blue for kids’ chores, and white for chores that require teamwork. Draw cards and race to see who can finish first (and still do a good job). First place gets a prize (such as choosing the dinner menu or the movie to watch later).
Divide and conquer * This requires a little planning by the adult in charge of cleaning. Write all the tasks that need to be done, dividing them into the same number of groups as you have family members (four family members means four lists; seven family members means seven lists). The lists should be balanced by the approximate amount of time and effort required. Post the lists on the fridge at night. First person up in the morning gets first choice of lists. Second person gets second choice. Last person up gets the last list. Family members are free to go about their own plans after their list is completed. This is particularly good if you have teens in the house.
Don’t take housecleaning too seriously. You’ll be doing it all again in a day or a week – so just do what you can, and enjoy the day.
What’s your plan for Labor Day weekend? If you’re in the US, the traditional marker of the End of Summer is coming up with this three-day weekend.
What will you be doing?
Taking a short vacation! Three-day weekends are the perfect opportunity to vacation in your home town (see what draws in the tourists!), or go a short distance to another tourist area. Quick getaways can be refreshing, since there’s not too much packing or traveling required. Don’t forget your sunscreen and water bottles!
Doing home improvements! For some reason, Labor Day is a huge home improvement weekend. If you have projects to complete (or start), check local stores for sale prices on materials. You can easily repaint a room or two, or replace the fixture on your kitchen sink on a long weekend.
Digging the garden! Get started on next year’s garden by digging it up now. It’s a great time of year to do the soil preparation and to plant bulbs, shrubs and trees. While you’re outside, clean up the rest of the yard, too.
Catching up on life! This is the “yay, I have another day!” catch-up program. It’s doing the laundry, buying the groceries, running errands, making some extra meals for the freezer, and paying the bills. If this is your plan, try to limit it to one of the three days – then plan something fun and different for one of the other days. It’s good to have a break.
Catching up on reading! Get in your comfy chair and read the magazines that have accumulated over the summer – then toss them into the recycling bin. Or read a library book that you’ve put off because you’ve been too busy.
Seeing a state or national park! Take a full day and pack a picnic lunch and the sunscreen. Fill up the water bottles, grab some blankets for the grass, and a backpack to carry it in. Then enjoy the hiking trails and the picnic area for a whole day. Don’t forget to stop by the visitor center to learn more about the location.
Dealing with the hurricanes! Okay, this doesn’t affect everyone, but if you’re in a hurricane zone this week, you may be doing emergency preparation or clean up over the weekend. Take care.
Here’s a simple yet effective way to raise your spirits and brighten your environment.
Select an assortment of flowers, or purchase a couple of the inexpensive bouquets at your local florist or supermarket.
Take your time arranging the flowers just the way you like in a vase. Mix and match them, put them in several vases of different sizes. Then choose a special location where you’ll see the flowers – the kitchen windowsill, perhaps? – or spread them throughout your home.
Summer Saturdays often get filled with projects – home improvement and renovation projects, clean-out-the-garage projects, move-the-kid-to-a-new-place projects, catch-up-on-everything-we-ignored-all-last-week projects – it can get tiring.
When you plan a day of projects, be sure to plan some fun, too. Take breaks. Stay hydrated. Have simple meals that replenish and recharge your body. Watch a favorite movie at the end of the day (settle in with pillows and blankets, in case everyone falls asleep).
The Cornell University Food and Brand Lab found that people who eat off of typical 12-inch plates regularly consume 27% more at meals than those who eat off of smaller 10-inch plates.
The bigger your plate is, the more you eat.
That’s because the bigger your plate is, the more food you have to put on it to make it “look right.” You know exactly what we mean. And once the food is on your plate, it’s as good as in your mouth. And then it’s on your hips. And you can’t figure out what to change – after all, you’re eating food that’s good for you!
So what would happen if you used smaller plates? You’d eat less, of course. But you certainly wouldn’t be hungry. If your set of dishes came with luncheon plates (between a salad plate and a dinner plate), use those exclusively. Or buy some new 10-inch plates. Or 9-inch plates. That’s plenty of room for the food you need.
In our fast-paced world, we don’t always take time to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.
Find ways to bring beauty into your daily life. Put a vase of flowers by your kitchen sink or in the bathroom (you know, where you’ll spend time… what good do they do in the formal dining room?). Frame and hang a photo or print you love. Use your favorite fragrance; don’t save it for “good.” Garnish your plates at mealtime – a slice of citrus fruit, a sprig of herb, a sprinkle of sliced almonds or sunflower seeds. Light candles for dinner (even pizza). Smile.
*pssst – Share the song with your mom and other special women in your life. They bring beauty to the world, too!
Here’s a clutter challenge – spend 15 minutes today cleaning up one cluttered area in your home. Look for ways to make it happen (commercials, anyone?).
Pick one drawer, or one shelf, or your purse, or the door of your freezer, or the crisper of your fridge, or the corner of your desk, or that table by the door, or your nightstand. Yeah, we could go on, but you get the idea.
You may think all the stuff sitting around your house isn’t really hurting anything. But, really, it kind of is.
Clutter wastes your time. Spending time looking for the important things buried in the not-so-important and unorganized stacks and boxes. Did you know that 15 minutes a day looking for misplaced items adds up to 90 wasted hours in one year? That’s a lot of time to do something fun.
Clutter wastes money. When you can’t find the important and useful things, you (well, we) go out and replace them with new ones. Or if you lose receipts, you can’t return the things you don’t want. That’s money that could be spent on something fun.
Clutter wastes energy, both physical and emotional. You have to move, clean, and work around your stacks and piles – not fun and not easy. Then there’s the emotional drain of not having a clean, quiet living space. If you are not comfortable in your own home, where can you be comfortable at all?
Clutter is dangerous. Clutter can cause household accidents and injuries. Old boxes in a dank basement can become a breeding ground for mold, and cardboard and paper clutter is a possible fire hazard. Let’s not even think about the hazardous waste clutter that’s probably in the garage.
Fifteen minutes a day makes a big difference in cleaning up the clutter. Challenge yourself to take it on.
Here’s a simple yet effective way to raise your spirits and brighten your environment.
