Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Christmas Time: Clean Up and Decor

Everyone loves throwing Tinsel on the tree and scattering lights and glitter at the house...  Its all great cheer till you remember Santa's elves don't clean it up.


For parents especially the After New Years hangover is probably met with friendly reminders of getting Rudolph off the lawn and Frosty off the roof.

That cheer is now dread.


My mother never let me decorate the house as a kid because of the clean up.  I had to visit a friend to trim the tree each year.  When I hit High School I decided I should help with the clean up...

That tree was soo much easier to put up then take down.  I left covered in tinsel, pine needles, and broken glass from the ornaments that hadn't survived the de-trim.


I suddenly wasn't so bitter at my mother for her lack of spirit.  And I didn't even help with the outside!



So for starters:  Downsize.

My friend always tosses broken ornaments, and attempts to keep tinsel for the next year during cleaning.  Her methods have helped her go 12 years without needing tinsel and allowed her to downsize the amount of boxes she puts away after Christmas.

She also donates ornaments she dislikes but are still good.


We both decided on smaller trees as well.  She still goes for the living tree but one about 3-4 ft tall to allow kids easier access rather then the 8 foot her grandparents always invested in.

I on the other hand save my cash and got a 3 ft to put on a low table in my apartment when they were on sale.

We both ditched a lot of our décor in favor of not overloading the tree.  That means one string of lights, about 10-30 ornaments, and small toppers.


I know the idea of downsizing ornaments can sting for some, my friend Linda had atleast 300 sitting in the attic but atleast 100 had value to her family such as "Baby's First" and handmade ones from her or her family.  These weren't replaceable.  Her idea was to avoid having any break on a tree that may fall and had a case made to display them that is easily put up each New Years and taken down after Thanksgiving.  In return her favorite ornaments glimmer on her tree and are easily put away without fear of the others being broken.

The same is said with her stocking collection.  Stockings from before she was born were hung in homage to her Great Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts, cousins, all since dead.  These have meaning to her family and she tends to hang them on the wall with other stockings and uses them as a "advent calendar" of sorts.  She sticks sticky notes above and small treats or toys in them for the kids that come over.  It gives her a festive area and a quick clean up after since she just uses the spot for pictures and keys year round.  Not really a downsize but it allowed her to give away the stocking holders to other family that wanted them after her grandparents death.  And the clean up was very quick.



Repurpose.

Ever seen a house covered in Christmas lights (I mean multi colored) year round?  No offense but its either a lazy person or someone into being "Festive" in my experience Mexican descent. 

But my artsy friend in her wisdom started laughing and saying she likes the idea and does the same inside her own home. 

Clear white lights can easily be placed in back yards for soft lighting (I actually do this with my patio, it makes it nice for late night reading and meals).

My friend uses her outdoor lights in her kitchen, she has huge house supports showing and hangs icy one on one side towards her table and then around the room to act as a "night light."  She uses the traditional white lights as well that flicker.  It reminds me a lot of fire flies and its a great place to write.  Since she hangs her herbs to dry in the kitchen and has potted plants in the room it always smalls earthy and wild.  Its the comforts of AC and Heat in a outdoor feel.

Another thing she does is take her old lights and stapled them to her ceiling (keep in my mind this is her house, not a apartment) to let them hang loose and uneven above her.  To be honest, walking in it looks like a jungle.  She has dark walls and those strings look like vines.  But she pulled the blinds and turned off the lights.  Poof.  Those strings lit up and it reminds you of looking at stars.  Great for kid rooms since its like a natural night light and it was a great way to use yet another string of the 12 she had.


I personally use the lights around my old vanity.  I only have the one string and my vanity is antique.  I don't use it often but the multicolor string looks nice reflecting off the mirror and pictures I have sitting on and near it.  Upside is I never have to untangle the lights or dig for them.




Organize.

This does not mean 12 boxes labeled Christmas or even ONE BIG ONE labeled Christmas.  It means rolling the lights and hanging them, carefully packing ornaments and stockings.

Theres nice trays you can buy discounted after Christmas for ornaments (Waste of money to me, but my ornaments aren't that big, nor do I have that many!). 


I took after my friend's grandparents.  She'd buy the nice bins that pulled out like drawers and label each with "Stockings and Lights" and another "Ornaments" with the last one called "Santa and Hooks" which really meant her collection of santa statues wrapped in the Christmas paper they'd used and the stocking hooks.

Linda narrowed that down to one bin with drawers and now uses the others for fabrics and art supplies but the concept still stood.  She now quickly finds her stuff and puts it up and then cleans up in only a few hours. 


Living in a Apartment, mine is less organized.  I repurpose as much as I can like the lights, I wrap ornaments in the stockings, and then shove the fake tree under the bed with the stocking wrapped ornaments.  If you have the room, I suggest following the other example.  My tree scares the crap out of me through out the year when the dogs pull it out of the bin and leave it sticking out just slightly...  Cops have been called when I scream bloody murder as something prickly 'attacks' my foot when I wake up. 




I hope yall got some useful info and some laughs out of this.  Im going to go get tipsy off eggnog!


So have a happy Christmas and keep safe!


Wolfe

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