I can’t believe Easter is less than a week away! Maybe it’s because it’s still not feeling at all spring-like here, but it seems to have just snuck up on me.
If you’re like me and need to get organized for Easter quickly, then these tips will help you prepare so you can enjoy the day with your family and friends.
I’m thankful that I’m not hosting an Easter dinner here, but for the sake of this post, I’ll assume many of you are. You can skip steps 1, 2, and 5 if you’re celebrating Easter somewhere else.
Oh and since this isn’t a craft blog or a decorating blog, I don’t have posts to share to help you in those areas. So I’m sharing some pics throughout this post from some of my blogging friends who specialize in these areas 🙂 Click the links below the pictures to get more details.
1. Clean Your Home
You may not have time to do a really deep clean in just a few days, but at least do a thorough clean of the areas your guests will be spending time – living room, family room, dining room, kitchen, bathrooms, etc.
If you have enough time (or your guests will potentially be in other areas of your home – for example if you have kids and you’ll be having nieces/nephews that will play in their rooms), then clean them too.
Don’t get overly stressed about cleaning though… your guests are there to celebrate Easter with you, not judge you for how clean your home is (or isn’t).
2. Plan Your Meal
Often an Easter meal is almost as big as a Christmas dinner (although if you can simplify it I highly recommend it!). Whether it’s an Easter brunch or a dinner, the planning process is the same.
I wrote a lot of tips for planning a holiday meal at Christmas and they apply for Easter meals too. Here’s a quick summary.
- Decide what food and beverages you will serve (free printable planners here)
- Record any dishes or drinks your guests will be bringing
- Plan when you will prepare each part of the meal
- Make a shopping list
- Have a back-up plan
- Keep it simple
3. Plan Your Gifts and Treats
As with everything in our lives, we’ve been simplifying gifts and treats at Easter. The bunny isn’t as extravagant as he used to be 🙂 For years, many little things that were hidden in plastic eggs just became clutter after a week or two. And then I’d have to fight with my kids to purge it later. Each year we’ve cut back the number of little trinkets (and the number of eggs hidden) and my kids have never noticed or questioned it. We aim for mostly consumable things now. Of course we have some chocolate eggs, candy eggs, Peeps, jelly beans, etc (although we’ve been cutting the sticky things back as well – my son has braces and my daughter has weak teeth and is more susceptible to cavities!). You can even put little notes inside eggs or coupons for activities they enjoy or free passes from chores they don’t like. Be creative 🙂 Some families have Easter baskets for their kids and if you usually do that, include clutter-free as much as possible. If you haven’t started that tradition, don’t! Then you don’t have to get out of it later 🙂
