Five Tips Friday #6: Holiday Lifehacks and Useful Tips

Happy First Friday of December my friends! We are now entering the hustle bustle, hurly burly, delightful chaos that is December.

Welcome back for another installment of Five Tips Friday… more easy life hacks and great ideas with the hopes that a few of them might make your world a little simpler, but this month we’re focusing on Holiday Lifehacks or Useful Tips for a little calmer entertaining and holiday season.

And since I’m a a huge believer in crowd sourcing, if you have noodled a way to do something easier or cheaper…please consider passing it on. I’d love to incorporate tips from our readers into the Five Tips Friday list. Email your tips to [email protected]

So, if you have a hack that makes life easier, is a less expensive way to do something or saves you money…bring it!

Some of these are affiliate links and I will earn a small commission off of the sale of these products, but the price you are charged is not affected. You can see my full disclosure policy here.

Holiday Lifehacks and Tips:

1. I wish I had discovered this hack last month so that I could’ve shared it with you because this little hack was a big hit at our Thanksgiving table last week.  I used a teapot that belonged to my paternal Grandma as a gravy ‘boat’. We have some serious gravy lovers in this house and so often are getting up to refill our gravy boat.  But…the teapot held more and kept it warm…and…was less messy.  There were no gravy drips on the tablecloth this year! This is now our go to method of serving gravy.
2. If you are like me, your linens will get quite a work out between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  This is a trick I learned from my mom.  We all know that ironing linens is much easier if the material is just still slightly damp. But who has time to coordinate their ironing with their dryer cycles.  So, after you’ve washed your linens, partially dry them. While they are still damp, put them in a zip lock bag and toss them in the freezer until you have time to iron them! They stay damp and keeping them in the freezer prevents any musty smell or mildew you would otherwise have from storing damp linens. Then when you have a few minutes, you can iron them much easier than if they were dry!

For your tablecloths, get some of these Big Ziplocks.

3.  I imagine that many of us will be baking more than usual over the next several weeks. Several years, I ago I purchased a silicone pastry mat to make my pies.  But since then, I use this mat whenever I am rolling anything on my counter. I still lightly flour the mat, but I find I need much less flour which helps prevent whatever you are making from getting tough through the addition of excess flour. In addition, I use one of my silpats or silicone mats on top of the dough, running my rolling pin over the mat.  Once again I very lightly flour the top of the dough but use much less flour than I would without the mats.

PLUS, I find that it’s easier to get the cut out off of the mat and you could roll right onto the Silpat you are baking and just pull off the dough that you don’t want to bake, leaving the cutouts on the mat.  Then, just pop your Silpat or silicon mat right on to your baking sheet.

I also love that using my Silpat is more eco-friendly than using parchment paper once and then throwing it away. I have used my one Silpat HUNDREDS of times. My daughter loves and uses hers religiously as well. If you are interested in learning about how to be greener in this kitchen, check out these other eco-friendly products and ways to have a sustainable kitchen.

Note to the wise: Don’t cut with a sharp knife on your pastry mat…just telling you from a friend.?

4.  Remember my spiffy wrapping cart I shared with you earlier this week? I do have to admit that it’s pretty much the bee’s knees…my arm is getting sore from patting myself on the back. But…I just found another way to make this organization coup just that much more organized, as if that’s even possible! And it’s….toilet paper rolls!  Who knew?

Cut one side of your toilet paper roll and ‘cuff’ your open rolls of wrapping paper to keep them neat and orderly…and more importantly…not ripped or mangled.

I know that this year I’m feeling a little all over the place and so will definitely use some of her printables to help me corral all the moving parts.  I already have my address book online, so don’t see printing off that portion and may actually keep the downloads as online versions so that I can put recipe links in instead of printing off the recipes, but it’s definitely a place to get started.

I do hope you can put some of these Holiday Lifehacks and Tips in practice over the next month, it’s all about making any chore that can be easier just a little easier. Book mark this page or pin this image for your future reference.

Oh, and don’t forget to send me your lifehack ideas! Send them to [email protected]

Have a fantastic weekend my friends.

hugs,

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!