10 Easy Ways to Prep Your Home for the Holidays
10 Easy Ways to Prep Your Home for the Holidays
The holidays are just around the corner and we're all feeling festivity in the air. Whether you're seeing distant relatives this year or making wonderful memories with your nuclear family, preparing your house is the best part of the lead-up to the holidays. Decorating the house and getting ready for each big day of the season is even enough to make pre-holiday cleaning fun. Of course, you probably don't have an infinite amount of time and energy to spend on prepping the house. There's still work, school, and daily tasks to take care of. So what are some easy ways to prep your home for the holidays?
Here are ten of our favorite ways to get the house ready for holiday cheer and family celebrations.
1) Deck the Halls
You don't need elaborate decorations to make your house beautiful. Garlands, ribbons, and festive cloth can are a beautiful way to decorate nearly every surface of your home. Throw a brilliant red tablecloth on the dining table. Wind the staircase bannisters and porch railings with garlands. Drape ribbons from the light fixtures and drape your seating with beautiful blankets.
Decking the halls is easy in any home. Have strings of lights that won't be going outdoors? Edge your tables or the inside of window frames with them. Or dump them all in a vase for a blinking festive table piece.
2) Clean the Guest Room
If you'll be hosting family this year (or you're not sure about visitor plans), air out the guest room! Change the bedding for fresh, lovely sheets and a festive bedspread that will make any guest feel welcome. Clear and wipe out the drawers for guest clothing and personal items and find spaces in your guest room where dust has been hiding.
Just a few small items can make your guest room feel festive like a centerpiece arrangement on the dresser, scented candles in the bathroom, and perhaps a small wrapped gift as the cherry on top of a beautifully made bed.
3) Clean and Light the Fireplace
If you have a fireplace, now is the perfect time to get it ready for family evenings around a roaring fire. Clear out your fireplace and sweep away old ash. Check the flu and make sure it still opens and closes safely, and that you can open it when it's time for the first family fire. Gather wood to burn and scented pinecones to throw in to make even your fire smell like the holidays.
If your family likes s'mores, don't forget to dig out the roasting forks and stock up on chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows.
4) Holiday Throw Pillows and Blankets
One of the best ways to decorate for the holidays is with throw blankets and throw pillows. Bold holiday-colored tartans are in right now, but any brightly colored pillows and blankets will raise both the comfort and festivity of your home. Throw blankets on every chair and windowsill make it easy for your family to wrap up against the chill for some warm conversation. Throw pillows brighten a room and help to change the overall feel of every piece of furniture, not to mention welcoming the occasional post-feast couch nap.
5) Decorate the Dining Table
The dining table is the star of the show on family holidays, with your best linens and dishes out for their annual celebration. Dust off your best china, polish your holiday glasses, and lay out the linens. Decorate your dining table for a holiday feast as part of the household decoration. Leaving beautiful napkins contrasting with your tablecloth is a great way to feel festive every time you walk through your dining room. Plus, it gives you plenty of time to brainstorm the perfect centerpiece.
6) Festive Hand Sanitizer, and Lotions
This year, especially with visiting family, we'll need to be careful cleanliness. Washing hands regularly can get to be a pain, no matter how necessary. Little sanitizer stations nestled in festive wreaths and baskets make it easy for the family to keep clean hands all holiday. For the drying effect, pair your sanitizer b with fun scented lotion bottles and everyone benefits.
7) Bake and Display Your Holiday Goodies
Want to save a little effort this holiday? Turn your baking and decorating into the same task. Make fun, festive desserts and display them in glass jars and cake displays as part of your kitchen and living room decoration plan.
Make a gingerbread house with the family and leave it on display, eating little treats through the season. Decorate cookies together, let the icing set, then leave them on display in a glass container. Family and guests will love both the look and taste of your new decorating style.
8) Make a Holiday Wrapping Station
A wrapping station is a great way to decorate and prepare for the holidays at the same time. We all need to do a little gift-wrapping, and wrapping paper makes a festive display all on its own. Lay out a beautiful, fun, and funny selection of wrapping paper along with scissors and tape on an open table area. Just be sure your wrapping station can be closed or curtained off when actual wrapping is taking place.
9) Put Up the Winter Curtains
As the cold weather blows in, another easy way to prepare is to put up the winter curtains. Heavy thermal curtains are the key to keeping out cold drafts (in addition to window caulk). This is your chance not just to make the house warmer, but also brighten up every room with cheerful and/or elegant holiday season curtains. Rich reds, dark blues, and even deep grays can feel festive and formal, while others prefer cheery prints of holly and poinsettias.
10) Hang Wreaths and Garlands Outdoors
Last but not least, don't forget the outdoors! You can hang lights or not this year, but the easiest way to get festive is with wreaths and garlands. Hang a wreath on your door. Wrap garlands around your porch railing or the fence around your front yard. Hang wreaths from your trees or deck the branches in garlands. In fact, outdoors is the best place for fresh evergreen decorations, especially shady areas where they won't dry out.
Getting your home ready for the holidays? Contact us today for more wonderful ways to celebrate the holiday season and ring in the new year with your family.
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