This week, we revisit one of our most-loved episodes and expand it for 2025: creating (or refreshing) your Holiday Mission Statement. We talk about defining a holiday season that aligns with what truly matters, avoiding overwhelm and clutter, making clearer decisions, and staying grounded even when life feels busy. We walk through simple reflection questions, real organizing examples, and a step-by-step process for crafting a mission statement that becomes a true guide, not another chore.
We also introduce the updated 21 Days of Holiday Organizing Prompts, which are designed to reduce stress and bring ease, clarity, and momentum to the season.
This episode is both compassionate and practical, perfect for anyone wanting a holiday that feels meaningful, manageable, and intentional.
In this Episode, We Talk About:
- How to create a Holiday Mission Statement that actually supports your mental load, space, and schedule
- Why using your senses helps you design a holiday season you look forward to instead of dread
- Organizing and decluttering examples that show how small intentions change the whole season
- The psychology behind decision fatigue and holiday overwhelm
- How to use your mission statement as a filter for what to keep, skip, buy, or declutter
Mentioned in this Episode:
- The 21 Days of Holiday Organizing Prompts
- Sensory reflection questions for intentional holiday planning
- Examples of past client mission statements and holiday organizing wins
Review full show notes and resources at https://theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast
Review Transcript:
Welcome back to this week's episode of Organize and Cherish. So as we head into the holiday season, I figured we would talk about our holiday topics. And if you're listening to this outside of the holiday season, this can actually apply to any season of your life that you would consider a holiday, and you'll see why as I continue with the episode.
Okay? So if you are listening in outside of the end of the calendar year. Many of the tips that you will listen to today are still relevant. So it's the holiday season and it's so easy to get swept up in the planning, the busy calendars, the traditions, the expectations, right? And, and let's be honest, the stress that comes with it, whether you intended it to be that way or not.
So today I want to bring back our annual favorite, which is creating our holiday mission statement. And if you're new here, welcome. I'm so glad that you're here. We do this every year. It's basically a way for us to set the tone for the holiday season to give you something like a North star or a goal or a feeling that you're trying to achieve.
If this is your first time doing it, then you will find some clarity to this, I believe. And then if you continue with it every year, it becomes more and more clear. So sometimes the first year that you do it, it, it feels like you're not sure what your goal is or some of these questions are just a lot to think about.
But I promise you that if you continue to do it, it becomes more clear as the years continue. Um, if you've been doing this with us for a couple of years now, I'm so glad that you're coming back and let's do our mission statement.
Welcome to the Organized and Cherish podcast. With the organized flamingo. I am your host Stephanie, your compassionate and deficient professional organizer. Whether you are part of the sandwich generation helping a loved one declutter, or just trying to simplify life, this is the place for you. Together we will tackle those overwhelming piles of stuff, uncover purpose in what we keep, and let go with dignity and care, because it's not just about throwing everything away, it's about respecting memories.
And simplifying life. Sound like a plan. Let's jump in and get organized. So if you've been around a while, you know this is something that we revisit every year because your life changes, you change, and your holidays should evolve with you. And that's why we don do it every year. We don't keep the same one for your entire life.
And it's always good to have a refresher about what you said. You know you wanted to do last year and just kind of look back really quick, but then change it to how your life is going right now. So here's the update for 2025. This year, we're going to connect your holiday mission statement more intentionally to your organizing your clutter load, your mental bandwidth, and your decision fatigue.
We always have, because we are an organizing, decluttering, and downsizing company and brand and discussion point, so we always have, but we're going to do it a little bit more deliberately this year because. All of that impacts how your season feels. So we're gonna kind of like put more of an emphasis on helping you create your holiday mission statement that is more aligned.
To your organizing goals, your decluttering goals, if you're downsizing or not, or if you are trying to be more intentional with the stuff that you're living with, but you're, you don't necessarily need or are looking to always throw everything away. Or declutter. Or downsize. You just wanna live a little bit more intentional and have less of that decision fatigue.
So we will cover that today. I'm gonna redo a refresher about a 21 days of holiday organizing prompts. Those are still available. I break them back every year. They are over at our our resources platform, so the organized flamingo.com/resources, and you can find them there. They're completely free, so you will want to do this, that part.
So today, like the, the mission statement is day one of those prompts. So if you're not doing the prompts, no worries. Uh, those are just 21 days of getting more clear, getting more organized, tackling one thing at a time. But even if you don't do that, um, we are doing the holiday mission statement together today.
You will have started day one with us together, but if you don't continue the prompts, that's okay too. This works with and or without the prompts. Alright, so let's create our holiday mission statement together. So first let's talk about what is a holiday mission statement. So for us, it's a short grounding reminder of what you want the season to feel like and what do you want it to be like, not what you think it should look like.
It's sensory, it's emotional, it's practical and deeply personal. It helps you avoid getting swept into the overcommitting, overspending over decorating, or one of my favorites over saving clutter because it's the holidays or overspending on the stuff that you think you might need to decorate your home.
The statement protects your energy and it helps you make decisions in alignment with what you truly want, not with the group chat. What Pinterest, what family expectations or guilt try to dictate. Now, lemme talk to you really quick about a, uh, client that I've had for years now. She was just recently telling me about how she has one box for her holiday, you know, decor.
I, on the other hand have about 30 no joke. So this isn't about minimalist or maxist or how many bids you have, but her story was, I think, relatable to what many of you are feeling like. So she said, you know, I only have one because I travel and it just, that's what I can handle. Well, first of all, the, that's what I can handle was a really important realization for her.
But second, she realized that she was trying to re. Live and reinvent and recreate the holidays that her and her family had had over the years, like her growing up because her family would have the holiday season at her house both Thanksgiving and Christmas. And so she was trying to recreate that and she said, you know, it's, it wasn't me.
Instead of, instead of me trying to create my new memories, I was trying to create other people's, which in this case was her, her family's, and for some of you that might be okay. Like that is your, that's what you're trying to do. You're trying to recreate something that felt really good for you in the past, but if it doesn't, there is no obligation for you to recreate something that you are doing out of guilt.
And for other people, especially if it's your home, if it's your space. So this is kinda like that permission that I hope that you will listen to, that you will take into consideration that whatever you're creating in your own space should be for you. And the joy that that brings you will radiate to others that are around you.
So if your family is coming to your space, to your home, that is up to you how you wanna decorate or not decorate, right? So anyway, I thought I'd share that because you know, for her it was that realization that. I just, I'm a happier person not having, have, not being stressed about all the things that I have to put up or decorate or bring into how my, my parents used to, you know, I am not my parents.
So anyway, we continue that conversation. It was very powerful. I think many of you will relate. I, on the other hand, do have many, many bit bins. Different bins for different seasons of my life. There are bins where whenever I'm feeling more of that nostalgic Christmas decorating style, I have those bins. I have the bins where if I'm just, if we're traveling a lot or I just really don't feel like putting a lot of stuff up, then it's more of a minimalist feel.
So I have different bins, but they're all there and they're available to me. But what really comes off is how. I engage in putting everything up and being present in the moment, enjoying it with my family, and not being so stressed out about everything. So I'm hoping that this holiday statement, this exercise, will help you get to that place where you're not feeling so run down.
You can't even enjoy the fruits of your labor. Okay? You know, one of the other reasons to do this is. The mission statement itself is, is not life changing. Okay? Um, we're not talking about that kind of mission statement, and it won't solve every holiday stressor, but it will give you that clarity, the boundaries, the fewer impulse spies, the less clutter, a calmer home, and reduced decision fatigue.
So that's what we're going for. There are psychological terms, like psychology terms behind this. Um, one of them, and, you know, I love bringing this into the conversations because I think it's important for all of us to do our research about why all of this is important. Uh, but choice overload. So they show that the more choices we face, like gifts, events, decor outfits, the harder it is to decide anything calmly.
Then there's the cognitive load theory, which reminds us that our brain only has so much bandwidth. When your space is cluttered, your brain is processing every item as data, and that is a lot of data When you're overwhelming it with stuff that isn't even as important to you, and if you're doing it for other people.
So your mission statement acts as a filter and it tells your brain, here's what actually matters this year. Ignore the rest. Okay, so for the first step, I want you to work on reflecting with your census. What does that mean? It is when you ask yourself, what do I want this holiday season to feel like? What do I want it to sound like?
What do I want it to taste like? What do I want it to smell like? What do I want it to look like in my home, in my calendar, in my responsibilities? This section exercise that you can also. Do incomplete any year in any space for your declaring organizing journey. It's a really powerful reflection because you get to dig really deep into how you actually feel versus what society or others feel like your space should look like.
So this is where clutter habits show up if you want it to feel calm, but your decor bins explode every year. That's information right there. If you want it to sound peaceful, but your schedule is jam packed, well that's information right there. If you want your home to look festive, but not overwhelming, you can create a visual plan before the bins come out so you can start to visualize what you're trying to achieve for the year.
Write it down. It doesn't have to be fancy. B on a sticky note, a notes app journal. For some of you, you're more of a, you like to dictate our voice note perfectly fine. Just get it out, out, out of your head. That's the most important piece, and reflecting on all of the senses for that part is also very important.
So lemme give you some examples from clients. For instance, like one community member and client realized that they wanted slow mornings, but every December. Their kitchen counters work covered with with stuff the school crafts, right? Especially during the holiday season. School crafts, the holiday mail, the baking supplies, the gift wrapping.
Her mission statement helped her declutter one counter and create a holiday landing zone instead of kale's. Like for her, it was, I just really want to feel like when I come into my home, it's cozy and it is to feel overwhelming, but I love the decor. You know, I don't like minimalist, like she really likes the traditional feel.
So after she finished putting everything up, we put everything away. And she did have help from us. So that's also, you know, kind of something I should mention because sometimes it's hard to, when you're, see you're hearing about these examples, you're like, oh, well that must be nice. She had all this energy, but she did have help.
Okay. So she didn't do it by herself, but one of the things that she realized is that she really wanted those slow mornings when she came down the stairs and it, everything was, was calm. And so one of the ways we achieved that was to clear that counter because that's the first thing she would see, especially around her kitchen where she would, you know, heat up her coffee and make all her stuff in the morning.
So we really worked on that landing section so that in the mornings it was a slow holiday mornings. Before the chaos, like she didn't really mind everything else. It's at the mornings. She wanted it to be for her. Hi, cherish friends. Life can get overwhelming, especially when you're juggling caregiving, clutter and everything in between.
That's why I created the Organizing Cherish Weekly email that goes out every Wednesday's straight to your inbox. To help you keep the momentum inspiration going with tips and reminders of our upcoming events, all you have to do is head on over to organize and cherish.com and sign up for the email newsletter.
It's free and you can sub subscribe whenever you'd like. It's my way of helping you simplify your life and respecting memories along the way. Now, back to our show. So that's one example. There's also, I'll give you a multi-generational family example because, uh, there's more of you out there that than I think many of, some of you realize, and some of you feel alone in this.
And there's actually quite a few of you that live or spend a lot of time with your, with different generations, like parents or loved ones that you take care of and they live with you. And or part-time for a multi-generational family, they created a shared admission statement and ended up doing a gift exchange with homemade gifts.
One shared experience, you know, they saved money, they reduced the clutter and they increased the connection. So that was like after the, the mission statement. It was, it just fe feels like there's so many personalities. I feel really overwhelmed with all the people that are living here. And then once they went down to the how do I want it to feel like, and you know, exercise, how do I want it to taste like and everything, it really came down to the fact that there was just so much stuff and so many people already.
For lack of a better word or sentiment, it's like they felt like there was just too many cooks in the kitchen, so they wanted it to feel a little bit less crowded, but still with the love and still with the connection. Um, so they decided that a gift exchange and homemade gifts was the most appropriate.
And that they, you know, that they could spend more time together, but not add more stuff into the home because they, they actually ended up creating, uh, DIY gifts from the stuff that they already had, which was pretty fun. Um, I'll give you more examples as our conversation continues, but that's kind of the, the, the reflection that I want you to have.
So for the step two, you're going to identify your core holiday values. What does that mean? So ask yourself things like. What matters this year? What matters to my household and what feels doable? What season of life am I in right now? What do I believe in? If you are faith-based, you definitely want to include that in here.
If you are moral, there's like something you're working on like family moral wise, and you want it to match with that, that's where this comes in. Like what are your holiday values? So some of your, the values could be connection. Peace recovery, tradition, rest, minimal stress, simplicity, joy, coziness, connection to your faith.
Insert the faith here that you are, uh, that you would like to add in. That's the the part where you get to dig right into your belief system. This is really important. Your values do shift depending on your life chapter. I'm sure you've noticed that. I see it all the time. I see it with myself, but I also see it with our clients and community.
If there's a new baby, maybe there's grief, maybe there's a big move. Maybe there's financial changes, a heavy year health complications. You get connected to different parts of who you are and what your value system is, and your holidays should adapt to that. So don't stay stuck in an old version of your life.
Very important for this part of identifying your core holiday values that you will insert into your mission statement. Okay, so how do you write your holiday mission statement? In our experience, it has been that if you can keep it short, genuine, achievable, that will set you up for success. So it's not a Pinterest goal.
It's not a someday when things calm down goal. Okay? This is short. It's genuine to who you are. Step one, right? Going and digging deep into how you want it to feel, how you want it to smell, et cetera. All the sensory. So a couple of examples are that we have seen, or I have written down here are this holiday season I'm choosing calm joy over chaos.
That's the choosing the calm things and not the chaos. I've always liked that one for, but that one also can be a little bit vague, but I, I saw great success with a couple people that had variations of that simply because it was this reminder of the calmness to choose things that were calm. But you have to define what calm is first to you.
My calm is going to be very different than yours, and even people that you live with, their calm is going to be different than yours. So I would just make sure that you define. This type of statement into something very specific to you and the people that are around you, so you can kind of gauge to see if it's, it's, it's feasible.
Um, a couple other ones are, I want my home to feel warm, organized, and easy to maintain during this busy time. We really worked great with that statement, uh, because we knew exactly how that person wanted it to feel. So we created spaces and systems that would align to that. So, for instance, organize, like we created some bins that it said, uh, for the recycle giveaway, recycle cell or donate bin, so that immediately as they were purging or taking stuff out of their holiday bins from their, uh, their pantry, they could immediately put it in one of these bins.
So they set themselves up for great success there. And just as things came in, there was no maybe pile. And the maybe pile was very intentional as well. I will check back how I feel about this gift in January. It was very intentional. So that gave great follow-up to. The actions of the holiday, right? Like you go to a white elephant exchange or whatever, the, the fun parties, and then you bring home all this stuff and you don't know what to do with it, or there's just so much going on that you don't even put thought into it.
So when you have these bins available to you, you immediately put them in, in where they're supposed to be ahead of time. Um, so that was really a great one to work on because it, we achieved their goals of, uh, maintaining the chaos during the busy. Time, like maintaining it, meaning like, it, it was, it was not as chaotic as it normally would happen been.
So this guides your choices too, to help you when you're, you're not indecisive of what to buy. So it'll help you with what to buy, what to attend, what to donate, what to display, and what to release. So that has become really helpful when you have a vision statement like this that is achievable into how you actually want it to feel.
Making it visible is also important though. So this is our last step of creating it. So after you write it down and you have it, I would make it visible. Mission statements work when you see them or you actually have them memorized and it's part of your habits. But if you don't have that habit, I would put it as a phone wallpaper, maybe on your fridge if you still put stuff up on your fridge, the whatever your command center is that you pass by every single time, and actually look at it.
Print it in your planner, save it on your home screen of your laptop, taped inside your holiday storage box. Um, as a screensaver family group, text, whatever it may be. I would text it to yourself as well, something that is visible. And if it's a family mission statement, definitely display proudly, of course.
Um, but make sure that it's shared in a place where everybody can look at it. So that can be a really good way for you to actually live it every single day. Okay, so let's go ahead and do the revisit and adjust it for every year. I would not carry over last year's mission statement unless you, like you have gone through the exercise and you feel very connected to last year's statement because life changes so fast and whenever I've seen people bring their mission statements from previous years, there is this sense of this repeat.
Rinse and repeat that doesn't feel innovative for end of year, beginning of year trying to start over, starting to, to look at things from a fresh perspective. That just has been my experience. But if you, you feel very connected to that mission statement you created last year, have at it. You know, I mean, you are the same person, but it's a different season.
So last year's newborn is now walking. Last year's grief feels different. Last year's finances have shifted. Last year's energy has changed. Last year's holiday chaos did teach you something and now you've grown up from it. So revisit that statement, but refresh it. Okay? And that's why it works, because you actually do the work to refresh it.
And to tweak it enough that it will actually stick and make an impact. Let's really quickly also tie in that clutter and organizing piece to the mission statement. You know, using your mission statement, you can also decide how many bins of decor you actually need. Uh, which traditions do you want to keep versus let go of?
How many social commitments are realistic, right? Like simplifying your life, your social life. Many people don't think about their social life as being part of the chaos, but it absolutely could be adding to it and the stress or making you feel great. Maybe that connection to having all these social commitments has made you a more creative person, has allowed you to be amongst the people that make you really happy.
It, it can be, of course, a source of chaos and a source of calm for you, but be intentional about thinking about it. What gifts actually get used versus the ones that create more clutter. Whether to declutter before or after decorating. This will be part of your mission statement. These are questions that when you create your mission statement, you will apply it directly to how your space and physical things and digital and mental commitments that you've made through your calendar, how you want to treat those.
So that's how this meshes statement should also be applied, not just to your physical stuff, but also to your organizing and decluttering and downsizing journey. Okay. I'm gonna give you a really quick a roadmap or just examples of how this can be applied. If your statement says the word simplicity, well then you don't need to bring out every ornament that you own.
There is such a thing about rotating. Maybe this year. You keep it simple. You don't let go of everything, but you just bring out a couple of things. If your statement says connection. Then you don't need to overbuy gifts out of obligation. You need to connect so you attend more things. You make more things because you like to connect with the people that you love and appreciate and are around you.
So use this as your filter to then make decisive actions in this holiday season. Okay? It's a great filter. This mission statement will be a great filter for your life in any season, but especially the very chaotic holiday season. All right, friends. So that's it for our episode today. Don't forget that we do have the 21 days of holiday organizing prompts.
They do start in about mid-November and run through December, mid-December, but you can actually start them whenever you'd like. So this episode probably will be airing at the beginning of December, and the prompts can be done in whatever order you'd like. Um, each day you basically get one small organizing task.
One bite-sized prompt and reminders to stay aligned with your mission. And then there's in our weekly Wednesday email of Organizing Cherish Weekly, which everyone should and could subscribe to. Um, you do get those prompts as well every week, so you can, you can get them there. Okay. So my hope is that this very simple grounding exercise helps you create a season that reflects what really matters, not just what shows up on your calendar or on your storage bins.
Okay? So, um, I hope that you found this. Helpful. If you would like to share your mission statement with us, we would love to hear it, especially, have to cheer you on and maybe give other people some motivation depending on where they're, they are in their organizing and decluttering and downsizing journey.
Okay? So I really hope that this was helpful for all of you. Cheers, and happy organizing. I'll see you next week. Thank you for listening to the Organized and Cherish podcast with the Organized Flamingo. If you enjoy today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you left a rating and review on your favorite podcast player.
It helps others discover our show. For full show notes, resources, and more organizing inspiration, visit www.theorganizedflamingo.com/podcast. Until next time, happy organizing.