10 Ways to De-stress at Christmas

Got more things to do than a Men’s Shed’s got Dad jokes? Want to do things in a more meaningful and less cash heavy way this silly season? Then have I got the hot tips for you.

Check out 10 awesome ways to keep your cool and de-stress at Christmas with collaborative consumption!

1. Save Money: Christmas takes enough of a slug out of the purse with food, holiday bookings, presents and so on- the last thing you need to do is buy equipment to make Christmas happen. So rent stuff off Open Shed instead. BBQs, eskies and all kinds of cooking equipment are just a click away.
2. Find Company: Facing a Christmas without some kind of celebration can be quite depressing and yet not everyone can get to or has family to go to at Christmas. That’s where Eat With Me comes in. You can start an Orphans Christmas, join in on someone else’s event and simply meet new friends for a meal. Low pressure, fun and delicious company is a great way to relax.
3. Don’t be Guilty: If you like me absolutely adore your dog and the idea of sticking them in a kennel behind bars is simply mortifying, you can now have a holiday without your fur kid without feeling like the worst parent in the world. You can book your holiday and have your four paw stay with someone or be sat in your very own home with Pet Home Stay- yep, even the dogs get a slice of the good life this Christmas!
4. Create Food and Time: Instead of being tied to the stove for days before and the day of Christmas, get in with the gals from MamaBake!  Many hands make light work is the basic driving principle. Groups of women together to cook in bulk, everyone leaves with several dishes and if all goes to plan, a healthy serving of “phew, glad that’s taken care of” to boot.
5. Ditch the Car: Instead of being yet another impatient, angry driver being the only person in a sea of traffic congestion, try things like JayRide  where you can get lifts to events, across town or across the country with other people. You help the planet AND your stress levels when you share the ride and avoid the steering wheel.

1. Forget the Post Office: Now you can safely transport those odd shaped, delicate, funny looking Christmas presents all around Australia in someone else’s vehicle via MeeMeep.  Using the spare space in someone else’s car to get your Santa sack into the hands of happy relatives and friends is easy and cheap with MeeMeep. Now if I could just find a camel to give to my sister in exchange for last year’s Oxfam goat…
2. Be Good at Re-gifting: It’s totally OK to re-gift  go second hand and/or take something else and make it new and that’s what the very awesome Secondhand Christmas Challenge is all about. Encouraging us all to re-purpose what already exists as opposed to buy new things, you can not only feel good about helping the planet and doing something pretty chic, you can find the support you need to avoid the hyper-consumption and stick to your 2nd hand guns! Nice one!
3. Be Mobile: Doing lots and lots of errands is one of those times an extra car (or even A CAR) can come in super handy. That’s where Car Next Door  comes in. You can borrow a car in your local area for an hour or a day and anything in between. The perfect alternative to taxis or lumping everything home on the bus.
4. Get Things Done: We all know how terribly large a TO DO list gets at Christmas time- but there is a solution to you doing everything or barking orders at family who keep ducking tasks. List it with TaskRunners and distress through delegation. There are people who need the extra cash, you don’t need the extra headache- and between the two of you, getting all that needs to be done at Christmas is so much easier.
5. Go for Experiences: The person who is hard to buy for is easily taken care of with a range of cool experiences to find at eXpertLocal. To be launched in time for Christmas, eXpertLocal encourages takes you for that fun experience based on like minded interest and fun things to do like tour wine and food bars, take in live music with other passionate gig pigs and more. Definitely better than a pair of socks!

The best thing about using collaborative consumption to de-stress at Christmas time is you’re working smarter, not harder.

And you don’t have to feel guilty about using too many resources. Nice, huh?