085. Keeping Your Home Running During the Holidays When You Work Full Time

Simple holiday home-management tips for working moms. Learn five rules that reduce stress, lighten the mental load, and keep your home running smoothly all season.

When you’re juggling work deadlines, school events, travel, hosting, and the everyday homework–dinner–laundry loop, “holiday magic” starts to look a lot like “holiday mayhem.” 

Today I’m sharing five simple rules that keep your home running smoothly during the holidays - especially when you’re the one in charge of managing the household. These tips will help you create calm, clarity, and breathing room so you can enjoy the season instead of rushing through it.

✨ What you’ll learn:

• Why accepting that something will go wrong makes everything easier
• How a 60-second nightly calendar review prevents last-minute chaos
• What true delegation looks like (spoiler: no supervising!)
• How “zooming out” with an annual planning view keeps the season sane
• Why being Choosy is your best holiday strategy

Resources mentioned in this episode:

My annual planning calendar template: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TVEBBt-jWiFGfX0L50QYcd5ouj2I5f-mDlMuvKY_r-c/edit?usp=sharing

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Transcript

Welcome to Organizing for Beautiful Living with Zee Siman, The Choosy Organizer.
This podcast is for women who are done organizing everything and ready to be choosy — about what matters, what’s enough, and what can wait. Because Beautiful Living starts with a little less stress and a lot more intention.
Ready to get beautifully organized? Let’s make it happen.

This is episode 85 - Keeping Your Home Running During the Holidays When You Work Full Time

We’re officially in the holiday season, where the calendar starts to fill up faster than we realize. And if you’re the full-time working parent who also happens to be the primary household manager — whether that’s because you’re the only parent, or your partner is working long hours, they’re traveling or sick, or that’s just your home dynamic — I want to help you keep things running smoothly.
Because overwhelm can creep in before you even notice it, and suddenly you realize you completely forgot your youngest child’s Thanksgiving play, and you’re sitting in your office staring at the clock, and you’re kicking yourself.
So today, I want to share my five rules of household management during a busy holiday season, and a mindset shift at the end that you can carry with you into the new year. 
If you’re functionally the only adult at home for long stretches, I want to say this clearly: this isn’t just a busy season, It’s a heavy one. The responsibility feels different when you’re the only parent physically present. So these five rules are designed to help you create stability and breathing room while you’re holding everything, ok?
Now, even if you’re not the primary household manager, this episode will still be helpful. I am what I would call a reluctant household manager. I love a well-run home but the day-to-day coordinating? That just was not a part of my childhood dreams.
And to me, a well-run home simply means everyone’s needs are met, meals are thoughtful, lunches are packed, and the plans are made early enough that we’re not overspending or scrambling every week from now until January.
And over the next month and a half, you might have travel, guests, hosting responsibilities, work deadlines, and you’ve got school shows, recitals, charity drives, and the everyday homework–dinner–laundry cycle. That’s a lot.
So let’s walk through the five rules that make this season manageable, maybe even calm, when you’re the one carrying most of the household load.
Oh, also, just before we get into the 5 rules, I want to say that the holiday season tends to highlight the fact that one person typically carries more of the mental load at home. That’s a common thing. And if that person is you, you deserve a plan that makes things feel lighter. So that’s what these 5 rules are, ok?
All right.

Rule #1: Accept that something WILL go wrong.
Something this season will go sideways. It will. We’re not machines.
Someone will get sick. A school event is going to be rescheduled to a day that you can’t make it. You’ll forget the party cupcakes on the counter. A costume will rip. A meeting will run long. Even if you plan beautifully, you’re still human.
And when that moment hits, instead of spiraling into guilt, remind yourself that this doesn’t define the season. This is just a moment.
The more you accept this ahead of time, the less it rattles you when it happens.
Think about past years, right? What’s a holiday hiccup that felt really huge at the time? Maybe you did forget to bring the cupcakes to the holiday party. Was it disappointing? Well yeah, and probably not just for you, but for your child, or family or friends who were involved. But did it derail your entire holiday season? Did you go on to celebrate anyway? You probably did, right?
Oh gosh, one year, I had all the kids dressed, in the car, kind of rushing to make it to school by 6:30 when the event was starting, and I’m backing out of the garage when all of a sudden, the rear windshield explodes into the trunk of the minivan. In my rearview mirror, I didn’t see that the garage door hadn’t opened all the way, and I hit the garage door. No one was hurt, thank goodness.
I kind of played it cool, right, with the kids there, but in my mind, while I’m sweeping the glass on the ground away real quick, I’m calculating: is the garage door going to close? Is it supposed to rain for the next 2 hours? Is there anything valuable I need to take out of the car? Are we going to make it to school on time?
OK, so we made it there late, the garage door didn’t close because it was bent where the car hit it, and I spent the entire show in a worry about all of the above.
But it’s a story that we tell, and we still had a great holiday, even though I felt really terrible about having to spend money on the fixes. So disappointing things WILL happen. But you will still have a holiday.
Rule #2: Scrutinize your family calendar every night
This one rule is going to eliminate more stress than almost anything else.
Every family I feel needs a family calendar that’s separate from your work calendar. Your work brain and your home brain function differently. So keeping separate calendars keeps your mental load lighter. Now I don’t mean that you don’t put these 2 calendars in the same planner. I use electronic calendars, so I see all my calendar entries. But my work and personal and family calendar entries are all different colors, so I know green is work, orange is family and yellow is personal. So, I see every day ALL the entries, but I can easily tell what work entries I have vs. household ones.
If you keep a paper calendar, maybe use a different pen color, or highlight work entries a different color.
And the key is to look at that family calendar every single night.
It doesn’t have to be a long process. 60 seconds is all that it takes. You’re looking so you can anticipate things a few days ahead at least, and that prevents last-minute panic.
If there’s a school event next week and you have a work deadline at the same time, you can decide today:
OK, am I going to go to the school event?
If not, who is?
Do they need instructions or reminders?
Do I want them to take a specific picture or video?
By the way, at a certain age, your kids are going to be adding things to that calendar themselves, or you're going to teach them to. As soon as our kids could manage writing into a calendar, or typing in our case because we've always used electronic calendars, we had them start adding in their events. Things like play practice, spelling bee dates, and the science fair. When they write these things in themselves, we could show them how many days or weeks away that was, so they would have time awareness. 
Now, for school-related events, their teachers would generally keep them on track for finishing something by a deadline because they would assign certain things to finish each week, right? 
But when it was something they needed to finish on their own, like practicing for a spelling bee, or if they're making a holiday gift for someone that takes time, like a painting or crocheting something, well then it's important for them to see the passage of time. It gradually helps them learn planning, pacing, and responsibility.

Rule #3: Delegate.
This is the rule most people think they’re doing, but not quite.
Delegating means handing off the task and handing off how it gets done. That’s hard for us, isn’t it? I mean, I don’t like having someone else pick my produce, so what could be a fully-delegated task of grocery shopping instead becomes a 2-part thing where I delegate half of it, but I want to go in and get my fruit and veggies myself. But I have to recognize that in busy seasons, I might be stressing myself out trying to get to the grocery store to pick out fruits and veggies. So at some point I’ve got to let it go.
What can you delegate during the holidays?
Let your partner handle all communication with their side of the family.
Let an older child be responsible for their rehearsal bag or their sports gear.
Let someone else create the centerpiece even if you’re hosting.
Let a grandparent buy the holiday outfit.
Outsource one meal a week. Takeout totally counts.
Ask someone else to handle one entire category during the holidays, start to finish.
And remember: If you delegate something, you cannot also supervise it. That defeats the purpose. Releasing control is part of the mental load relief.
Rule #4: Plan with simplicity, especially on Fridays
Your regular Friday Planning routine is already a gift to future-you, but during the holiday season, you’re going to zoom out more than usual, and look further out than the next week or two.
Here’s what you can do during Friday Planning this week:
Review the past week.
Look at next week.
Then look out at the rest of the year and a few weeks into next year.
I have a simple way that I do this. It's my yearly planning calendar that I do on a Google Sheet. It’s super simple. It's just the entire year laid out in front of me, and I input things like travel, my travel, my husband's and our family travel, too, and events I cannot miss or don’t want to miss whatsoever. I put  birthdays on there, these are the things that help me to see how busy a season is going to be and what my deadlines are. 
I don't put times or any details on this calendar. This is for top-level time planning only. Like if I see that my husband is traveling one week, and I have 3 school events the same week, I know it's going to be tough for me to accept big client deliverables that week. Or if I see that the kids have a long weekend in February, and we want to travel, well I can already book the dog-sitter right now before she fills up and before I’m panicking to figure out what to do with the dog that weekend. 
Do you see what I mean? This is not a calendar where I put in a 3:15pm dentist appointment. There are no times on here, just events on a particular day. 
It helps me to recognize weeks, even months, in advance, visually, what has to happen so our household keeps humming along. And I love to see clear days and weeks throughout the year on this calendar. Now it doesn't mean that nothing's happening those days. I mean, we've still got the daily activities. The after school activities, work things, appointments, meals to plan and cook, and all of that. But there's no travel or big event or deliverable on those clear days. So this is the annual overview calendar, which is going to help you see who's out of town, when, and what events or deliverables you must plan for.
I’m putting the link to my calendar in the show notes if you’d like to create one for yourself. I’ve taken off our personal stuff from it, of course, but you can go ahead and download it and fill it out for yourself.
I’ve got one sheet that you’ll use for the rest of this year, and then another tab with a template for 2026 as well.
This is the calmest, simplest way that I’ve found to see what’s coming.
What this visual overview prevents is overcommitting because you can catch conflicts before they become stress.
Rule #5: Be Choosy.
This is where everything comes together.
Being Choosy means that you’re particular about what goes on your schedule, especially during the holidays when every activity seems meaningful, right?
But we should realize that not everything is required. Not everything needs to be a tradition. Not everything needs a “yes.”
If you’re not at least 75% sure that you want to do something it’s worth pausing and really deciding whether that thing is worth your energy or not.
You can say no kindly, but be sure to say no early and say no without guilt.
Being Choosy doesn’t mean that you’re being selfish. It means that you’re intentional.
It protects your energy, and your family’s rhythm, and your mental health.
All right? So let’s review the five rules that will keep your home Running During the Holidays When You Work Full Time:
Rule 1. Accept that something will go wrong.
You’re human. It’s okay.
Rule 2. Scrutinize your family calendar nightly.
The anticipation of what’s coming is what will prevent chaos.
Rule 3. Delegate fully.
Not halfway. Fully. No supervision allowed
Rule 4. Plan with simplicity. Zoom out.
You can use the annual planning calendar that’s in the show notes to avoid overwhelm.
And Rule 5. Be Choosy.
If it doesn’t fit your energy, your schedule, or your priorities, then release it. Say no.
If you want one small action step for tonight:
Open your family calendar and look two weeks ahead. That’s it. Two weeks. Take a look. Absorb it. You’ll be surprised how much clarity that gives you.
If you’re the only parent at home right now because your partner is traveling or your support is limited, these five rules are what keep the household moving — not perfectly, but steadily — and that’s what matters. You deserve a season that feels manageable, not overwhelming.
Before we close, I want to leave you with a mindset shift that makes the entire holiday season feel lighter:
The goal isn’t to do everything.
The goal is to do the right things with intention.
And how do you know what the “right” things are?
Well, you look at your annual planning calendar.
And then you look at your values.
You look at the things you’re genuinely excited to spend your energy on.
Those are the things that stay.
Not the obligations.
Not the things that you said yes to out of habit.
Not the activities that drain you.
When you choose the right things, the things that align with your energy, and your values, and the season your family is in, everything becomes more manageable.
And everything else? Well you can let that go. You’re allowed to.
Because a well-run home is built on clarity and intention, not on the volume of events you’ve got going on.
If you are not already following the podcast, go ahead and do so so you don’t miss a new episode, and leave a quick review if you wouldn’t mind. It helps other women find the show and helps me support more families who want calmer and simpler homes.
Have a beautifully organized week. I’m Zee, and I’ll see you on the next episode.