Holiday Survival Guide
Holidays are the season of magic, happiness, and a complete lack of self-control with eggnog (which is also a form of joy). It’s the gift of spending all our available time with our families. It’s also the nightmare of spending all our available time with our families.
So you may slightly be on edge. It's ok, we’ve been there.
To get through this holiday season with your credit card bill, health, and sanity intact, we’ve compiled this handy list just for you in lieu of airing grievances. You already decluttered your house, it’s time to discover our 7 tips so you can survive this holiday season.
1. Secret Santa is your godsend
“I have no idea where those 12 new family members came from” is something you hear pretty often around the holidays. Somehow the economy hasn’t adjusted to this troubling trend and you’ve curled up in a ball cradling a bottle of wine and your credit card bill. Curb this immediately. Each family member draws a name out of a hat and only needs to give a gift to that person. Because you need to think of the wine budget... Always think of the wine budget!
And if you are afraid of some wine-spilling incidents, don't be. You will find all the answers in our "how to remove white and red stains naturally" blog post.
2. Arts and crafts, or great-looking natural detergents as gifts
Don’t be sucked into the consumerism crowd. Create your own decorations this holiday. They’re fun and free. Pine cones, holly, and evergreen branches are in abundance in many areas. Plus they smell great. Try to move away from plastics, as many can be toxic and not easily recyclable. Think of unconventional gifts that your family and friends actually can use, like our AspenClean natural laundry detergent pods or dishwasher pods - they work great, create no plastic waste, not to mention look great under a Christmas tree. You might want to test them to see if you'd like to use laundry pods instead of liquid detergent in 2023.
3. All is calm, all is LED bright
No longer choose between being festive or homeless. Use certified LED lights in replacement of your traditional string lights. These lights can be up to 80% more efficient, saving you huge on your bill and they usually last 25 times longer. You can even recycle your old strings. Bonus point: LED holiday lights are cooler than regular incandescent light strings because they reduce the risk of fire and personal injury. They don’t have moving parts, filaments or glass so they are much more durable and shock-resistant than other light strings.
4. Christmas tree: choose wisely
On one hand, if you go natural this year with your tree, there are some great benefits: trees smell great, they help oxidize your house, and you can recycle them after the holidays to help local parks and gardens with mulch. But, on the other hand, it also means cutting a tree every year just to keep it inside for a month, and a lot of people do not know that you can recycle them. If your guests have allergies, they could spend the entire gathering sneezing too. Finally, you will have needles everywhere, and sometimes bugs too, so it takes longer to clean after it. Don’t get us wrong, it will be a good excuse to use our natural floor cleaner, but still!
Convenience. That’s the first word that comes to mind when you think about artificial Christmas trees. You just set them up and they look just right, year after year. Then, when the holidays are over, you just pack them back for the next year. They do last for years, so it’s an annual cost-saving and they are mess-free. Unfortunately, these trees are loaded with chemicals like PVC. It also takes about 500 years for them to decompose in a landfill and most of them are made in a faraway country. So, you will have to keep an eye out for that. Buying a second-hand artificial tree might be an option if you opt for one like that.
5. Drink in bulk
Save space, time, money and a trip to the recycling plant. Avoid buying individual holiday drinks like eggnog or hot chocolate and create them yourself. It never goes out of style. If you’re ambitious this is the time to get your first wine kit as well. We hope you will share, but hey, we’re not here to judge you.
6. Mix and Match
If you’re running out of cutlery or plates, ask your friends or family to bring some instead of buying disposable plates. It costs you nothing, and you avoid adding to the troubling statistic that there’s enough disposable cutlery to circle the earth 3 times. Design clashing is also very fashionable these days. Don't forget to wash with our non-toxic dish soap afterwards (one pump is enough).
7. House Cleaning Services as a Christmas Gift
Relax. You’ve done enough work! Book a house cleaning service in Vancouver, Toronto, or Calgary, so that you can rest easy this holiday season knowing that you survived, and enjoyed the best time of the year with those who matter the most. Now, you are prepped and ready for 2023! (Next step: getting ready for the Lunar New Year).
