7 Ways to Be Organized For Easter

Easter is coming quickly!

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with all the things you still need to do, hopefully these tips will help you get organized so you can enjoy the day with your family and friends.

If you aren’t hosting an Easter dinner at your home, but are celebrating someplace else, you can skip steps 1, 2, and 5 (or help whoever is hosting with these steps so they can enjoy the holiday more).

Throughout the post I’ll share a few fun Easter decor ideas as well, in case you’re already organized and have time for a few projects.

1.  Clean Your Home

If you don’t have time to do a deep clean, 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 those areas 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
• 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

For more details on each tip, read that Christmas meal prep post (just ignore the Christmas pictures!).  

3.  Plan Your Gifts and Treats

I encourage you to keep your Easter gifts simple. For adults, consider clutter-free gifts so you’re not adding potential clutter to their home. For kids, consumable gifts or experiences are ideal.

The bunny was fairly extravagant when my kids were little but many of the 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.  Over the years, we cut back on the number of little trinkets and the number of eggs hidden and my kids never noticed or questioned it.

We aim for mostly consumable things now – things like chocolate eggs, candy eggs, Peeps, jelly beans, etc.

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 items as much as possible.  If you haven’t started that tradition, don’t!  Then you don’t have to get out of it later.

For clutter-free gift ideas, check out these posts {sorry they’re all from around Christmas – but the gift ideas are still good for Easter!}:

• Planning Gifts {Day 2 of 12 Days of Being Organized for the Holidays}
• Holiday Gift Giving Ideas Galore
• Clutter-Free Christmas Gifts {Organizing Ideas for the Weekend}

And for more clutter-free gift ideas, check out my Great Gift Ideas board on Pinterest!

4.  Shop Early

With your list of groceries and gifts in hand, shop as early as you can. That way you won’t feel as overwhelmed. And you won’t have to fight the crowds at the mall or the grocery store on a long weekend.  That gives you more time to relax and enjoy your friends and family on Easter weekend!

After you come home with your purchases, you can wrap your gifts or create your baskets or prepare your plastic eggs for an Easter egg hunt so you aren’t rushing to finish that at the same time as preparing for guests.  It’s amazing how long those things can take! 

For a really organized Easter egg hunt, you can use a different coloured egg for each child.  Then fill them with appropriate items for that child.  My parents did this for several years for the grandkids and it takes away the competitive nature that Easter egg hunts can take on (you know the grab-as-many-as-you-can kinds of hunts!). We even had cousins helping each other find their eggs, which is much more fun than breaking up fights over them.  Plus, you can be strategic in where you hide the eggs for various age levels. 

5.  Prepare As Much as You Can Ahead of Time

There are lots of things you can do before your guests arrive.  And the more you do in advance, the more you’ll be able to spend time with your guests on Easter, instead of being overwhelmed in your kitchen.

I talked in more detail about these in part 2 of my holiday meals preparation post at Christmas, but the same tips apply for Easter.  Here’s a summary:

• Make a list of everything you need to do on Easter so you don’t forget anything
• Set your table in advance (keep it simple to make things easier on yourself!)
• Set out each pot/pan you’ll need to prepare each item on your menu as well as what you’ll need to serve it
• Organize your fridge to have everything you need easily accessible and make room for all the dishes you prepare in advance (as well as for leftovers after your meal!)
• Cook any food in advance that you can (side dishes, dessert, etc.)
• Plan your cooking time backwards from when you want to eat

6.  Decorate and/or Get Crafty

If you’ve got everything as prepared as you can, and you have some time to spare, you can decorate your home for Easter.  If you’ve got a crafty family you can even plan some simple Easter crafts to make at your Easter gathering. 

You can use the ideas scattered throughout this post or search online for others. Just keep it simple so you’re not adding extra pressure or traditions to a busy time.

7.  Relax and Enjoy Your Easter!

Whether you celebrate Easter because of the bunny or Jesus or both, have a special day with your family and friends.  And if you’ve organized and prepared in advance, you should be able to do that!

I hope these tips help you as you prepare for Easter!  May it be a special time with friends and family.

How do you organize for Easter?  Do you host an Easter meal or go to someone else’s home?  What’s your favourite part of Easter?

If you need help decluttering or organizing, contact me for in-person services in the Mississauga area, or virtual services anywhere else.

Happy organizing!