Christmas is coming. Whatever uncertainty Covid-19 brings, we can be sure that the good people of Birmingham will make Christmas happen in style. We’ve had so much gloom this year – cancelled holidays, lockdowns, school and pub closures, work worries, no sport – that there may well be a big reaction under the Christmas trees and stockings of the country as we look for ways to compensate our loved ones, and maybe even ourselves, for the tough times.
Get organised to reduce stress
One of the best ways to celebrate the season is to be as organised as possible to beat that Christmas stress. Start now by drawing up a checklist of jobs that need to be done. Of course, we won’t know the specifics about what a 2020 Christmas will look like yet, but you can plan enough food for Christmas with your household/a party of six, and enough for food parcels and treats that you may want to drop off safely outside loved ones’ homes. Consider what goods you need to buy, when you want to have food prepped by and where you’ll store it.
Online Christmas shopping boom
Even if it’s not so easy to get to the shops as usual, online shopping will step up to save the day – online retailers are expecting huge demand this Christmas, so get clicking. The only proviso here is to make sure you shop in advance and allow plenty of time for any delays.
In case the kids are wondering, Santa and his helpers already have complete immunity from Covid – a very rare arctic plant that’s only found at the North Pole protect them from all human illnesses. Deliveries will continue as normal this year and judging by the stuffed mailbags of letters they’ve been working through, it’s going to be a bumper year.
Make space for those presents!
With all those incoming gifts imminent, now would be a smart time to have a good look around and make some extra space in those wardrobes, under-stairs cupboards, box rooms and garages. Storage space is going to be at a premium; you’ll be needing somewhere to put those new kids’ bikes, doll’s houses, scooters, skateboards and train tracks, not to mention all the lovely Christmas jumpers and thick socks that your favourite aunties have spent the long lockdown hours knitting for you all.
In any case, like many people, maybe you’ve been thinking and talking about downsizing and decluttering for months, if not years. Clutter has such a strange way of multiplying when we’re not watching. Whether it’s stuff with sentimental value, bargains you’ve picked up at boot sales, boxes of shoes that are well past their fashionable ‘use-by date’, or clothes that used to fit so well, but somehow have shrunk over the years – clutter expands to fill all available space.
The problem is, you don’t want to just throw it away – you never know when that unused camping gear, your collection of stuffed toys from when your kids were babies, or those piles of glossy magazines might come in handy; or even, one day, turn out to be valuable collector’s items.
Get packing
Wouldn’t it be great if you could put all that stuff somewhere safe and secure, in time for Christmas? Somewhere you can get to it quickly and easily when you need it? Somewhere close to hand and on your doorstep, that doesn’t cost the earth? In fact, somewhere very like Safestore. Christmas is coming – time to get packing before it’s time for wrapping.