Streamlined: Showering

This one is an easy one, theoretically. If you have people coming over, you want to be lovely, fresh-faced and looking your best.

You also want to ensure you have everything ready to go by the time everyone arrives.

Almost every time I have a party, I succumb to the siren song of waking up, running to the kitchen and cooking. Or putting up decorations. Or making a playlist. Then my first guests arrive, typically good friends, so naturally I start chatting.

Then everyone has arrived. Not only will I have not showered in at least a day, but there is inevitably a host of three or more ingredients splattered all over me (we're talking flour matted into hair).

So what is the streamlined tip of the day?

Shower. When. You. Wake. Up.

Sometimes taking getting clean is rough, man.

Or shower when you get home, in the case of weeknight gatherings. Whenever you first start to enter "party mode," jump in the shower, get a cute outfit on, don an even cuter apron over it for kicks (trust me, you'll look adorable) and eliminate all that stress at once. Heck, you can even mix the sangria while your hair dries.

Now if you will excuse me, I am ignoring my own advice and am going to start setting out the platters for the people coming over in a couple hours...