Now that it’s December we can start talking about Christmas! The festive season is great fun but a lot goes into making sure everything goes smoothly on December 25th – especially if you’re hosting friends and family on the day or during the run-up.
Preparing your home for Christmas generally means doing more than putting up your tree and wrapping your gifts – in fact, there are a few things you should do before you get the tinsel out of the loft.
To help make your Christmas as low-stress as possible and ensure your home looks great and feels festive, here are our top tips for getting your home ready for the big day.
Have a good declutter
Christmas decorations can take up a lot of space so if rooms are already looking a bit cluttered, a tree and other decorations will only make it worse.
You’ll also be filling up kitchen cupboards with food and needing to make space for your gifts, so doing a big declutter and tidy will make things much easier and help you avoid some post-Christmas stress.
Starting by tidying and decluttering the areas of your home that are used the most is the best option. This means:
- Get rid of clutter and anything that doesn’t need to be in your living room.
- Rearrange furniture to make more space for a Christmas tree, if possible.
- Clean out the fridge and cupboards to make sure there is no out of date food.
- Clear off kitchen counters as much as possible to make room for Christmas cooking.
- If you have a coat and/or shoe rack, clear these off to make room for guests.
- Go through your children’s toys to donate unused items and make space for Christmas gifts.
These steps will make Christmas easier and ensure that tidying up after the big day is much simpler.
Plan your decorations
Getting the Christmas decorations out of the attic or up from the basement is exciting but it can also be overwhelming. If you don’t have a plan, you can soon end up with multiple rooms in disarray and decorations left all over the place.
Planning what you want to go where will allow you to check there are enough plug sockets where you need, allow you to pack away ornaments that may get in the way and ensure you can do one room at a time.
Start with your main living area and then move onto different rooms and spaces in your house, taking it one at a time. This will help you avoid added stress and mess. If you have decorations that aren’t going out, consider if you still need them or if it’s worth donating them or throwing them away.
When it comes to putting your decorations away after Christmas, you should do so the same way – one room at a time. This will also mean you can label boxes for each room, which will make next year much simpler.
Organise your kitchen
From parties to the Christmas dinner, your kitchen is likely to see a lot of action this December, so make sure it’s organised. Going through your cupboards to make sure every plat, pan and glass has a place will make laying the table at Christmas and tidying up much simpler.
If you need extra plates and glasses for guests, make sure you have these ready to go. It can be a good idea to keep these in boxes somewhere out of the way but easy to access if you don’t usually have them out for use.
You might want to create space in your cupboards and fridge just for Christmas food. This will help avoid confusion and allow you to see what else you need to stock up on, which will make your supermarket trips much easier.
If there are food items you can get early in the month, it’s definitely worth grabbing them while you can to avoid having to do a big shop just days before Christmas and risk not getting everything you need. You may also want to consider preparing things like vegetables in advance ready for the freezer to make cooking Christmas dinner even easier.
Create a wrapping station
Getting all the Christmas wrapping paper out and then having to put it away again can be a bit of a nightmare. Instead, create a wrapping station that means you can leave everything to hand and get all those presents wrapped up and ready to go much quicker.
This can also mean that everything stays much more organised, as you can store rolls of paper in a tall box, making it easier to grab the roll you want, and put things like ribbons and tags in stackable boxes or baskets.
You’ll also be able to keep a close eye on the scissors and tape, which we all know seem to grow legs once December rolls around!
Make sure you’re ready for cold weather
As well as being the month of Christmas, December is also the official start of winter. This means that temperatures start to plummet so you can soo be left feeling the chill, as well as dealing with high energy bills.
Taking steps to make sure your home is ready for the cold will mean you stay toasty and can enjoy Christmas without catching a chill. We’ve got some great tips for keeping your home warm in our recent blog.
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