ATLANTA—Your relatives are coming, your child is in the school holiday concert, gifts need to be purchased and wrapped, and the budget and work plan for 2013 is due to your boss on Friday. Can you say stress?
“The demands of daily life force most of us to tackle multiple projects throughout the day, and often hold meetings or run errands in the evening,” says Marie Stegner, consumer health advocate for Maid Brigade. “Without solid time management, relationships, work performance, and even your health can be affected. Add the holidays into this scenario and it may become overwhelming.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, stress symptoms may be affecting your health. You may think illness is to blame for that nagging headache, your frequent insomnia, or decreased productivity at work. But stress may actually be the culprit.
Maid Brigade – the only professional maid service that is Green Clean Certified® – offers the following holiday planning tips to lessen your stress and save time for seasonal fun.
Get your ZZZZZZZZs. The first thing that gets pushed aside during the hectic holiday season is sleep, but lack of sleep is a big contributor to stress. According to the University of Georgia, most adults need 6-10 hours of sleep per night. If you are frequently tired or irritable during the day and find yourself sleeping more than an extra two hours per night on weekends, then you are probably not getting enough sleep. And you may be more susceptible to illness including colds and flu due to a lowered immune system. Practicing a healthy sleep ritual and learning how to power nap are two remedies to get more healthful rest.
Write it all down. When there is so much to juggle during the holiday season, making separate, categorized to-do lists for all of the activities you want to tackle can minimize the chance you’ll forget something and help you to relax knowing you have a plan. Make lists for gifts, decorating, baking, and cards and correspondence. Plan out your holiday menu and then create a shopping list. And take your lists with you when you go. They won’t help if you leave them on the kitchen table.
Set goals, deadlines, and limits. Setting reasonable goals and limits can ease holiday stress. For example, avoid planning a cocktail party with friends the night before your entire family is scheduled to arrive. And break down the activities you must do into manageable chunks. So what if it takes a week to get all of the decorations on the tree! That being said, setting deadlines is a good way to help you get tasks crossed off your list. Tackle the things that have the earliest deadlines first and factor in external deadlines such as shipping and postal deadlines for holiday gifts.
Learn to delegate. You’ve made all of your to-do lists, set all of your holiday goals, and outlined all of your deadlines. Still too much on your plate? When holiday obligations seem overwhelming, it’s time to start delegating. If you’re thinking of hiring a maid service to clean your home, you’re not alone. Here are a few questions to ask before hiring a cleaning service that’s right for you. Are all maids bonded and insured? Do they provide all cleaning supplies and state-of-the-art cleaning equipment? Is your housecleaning inspected and guaranteed for satisfaction? Are all maids trained properly and undergo an extensive background check?
Keep it clean. Getting a cold or the flu during the holidays can be debilitating. Flu season begins in October and peaks in January and February according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Proper cleaning techniques can help keep your family healthy over the holidays. Take the time to clean properly by spraying surfaces with a natural cleaning solution and allowing for “dwell time” for the solution to remain on the surface before wiping. Pay special attention to “high touch” areas such as door knobs, light switches, telephones, and computer keyboards. Use separate micro-fiber cloths in each room when cleaning to reduce the chance of spreading germs from one area to another. Using just a few of the natural approaches to healthy home cleaning as featured in the new DIY Green Cleaning! video series from Maid Brigade can help keep your home clean and healthy.
