Seven Things To Avoid When Decorating Your House For The Holidays

It’s time to start decorating for Christmas. Or maybe you’ve felt the need for the joyful spirit and already have. There are some things you should avoid when it comes to decorating your home.

Here are 7 Tips from from Steven Johnson of Lifehacker.

Not being safe:

According to The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, there were 15,000 injuries involving holiday decorating in 2012, and that was the fourth consecutive year that injuries increased. Using ladders, electric cabling, and glass objects prone to breaking can easily lead to injury if sufficient care is not taken. Be safe and enjoy the holidays. “Remember: Candles can burn down all of our houses, whether we’re celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or the Inti Raymi winter solstice festival of the ancient Inca.”

Not planning it out beforehand:

“You can’t just throw your decorations up haphazardly, lest you be the person your neighbors point at and shun. So start with a plan. Try to think like a designer—take a look at your house from the street and imagine how to make it express your feelings about your holiday of choice.” Your Christmas decorations don’t need to be only white, or only red and green, feel free to mix it up, just keep it coherent. “And consider scale—a gigantic house with a few lights can look really bad, as can a tiny yard with a huge display.”

Doing too much or too little:

This tip isn’t about how many decorations you use, so much as it is about how you use them. “A single light in each window can create a powerful, minimalist holiday effect. But here’s what will not work: One string of lights outlining your door or haphazardly thrown around a bush.” Be sure to decorate with intention. Not just splashing them everywhere you can, or putting up a single thing and calling it a day.

Injecting politics or being confrontational:

There is a time and a place for every kind of conversation, and there are certainly those of us who have opinions we like to share. But perhaps the front lawn in a season of hope, peace, joy, and love is not the place or time. Be thoughtful of those around you when decorating the home. “It’s hard to describe exactly where the line is, but we all know it when we see it.”

Trying to do it all at once:

It’s good to pace yourself. “You’re not going to be able to put up all the lights in one day. If you try, you’re going to get tired and sloppy, and fall off the ladder. This is the kind of thing you do all the time—try to take on too much responsibly and then wait until the last minute and cram it all in without planning. Then you get bitter and snappy when it doesn’t work out.” This calls back to the first two tips. Be safe, and have a plan.

Not using LED lights:

LED lights are safer and more economically and environmentally friendly; yes it’s good to avoid being too political, but this is just good sense. “There is no reason to continue using incandescent bulbs for Christmas displays anymore. LEDs use way less electricity, they don’t produce heat so they’re less of hazard, they change color, sparkle, and can be programed to do all kinds of cool things if you want to get fancy, and they’re laughably inexpensive.”

Not taking down the decorations when the season is over:

Christmas has to end, and your decorations will last longer if stored properly when you don’t need them. “You have a one-week grace period to get your lights back in their cardboard boxes and into the garage. After that, there’s no excuse for still having lights up.”

Hopefully these tips help keep you on track to have the most joyous of Christmas seasons, and that you remember it’s a celebration; meant to be fun and thoughtful, not a fight with the neighbours over how your house looks.

Source: https://yhoo.it/3hQt4LU

Image – David Geitgey Sierralupe / CC