Holiday Decorating Hooks & Other Gadgets

Many homeowners enjoy creating a festive holiday environment inside and outside their house. The question you might ask yourself each year is how much time do you want to spend finding (they're buried in the attic, basement or under the stairs), organizing and putting up the decorations.

If you're organized, you have a schedule starting sometime in November that lays out which tasks you'll take care of each week leading up to Thanksgiving, and then Christmas and New Years. If you're not organized (most of us), you run out of time and some of the decorations never get up. This article provides ideas to make make your decorating easier …

Holiday Decorating 1 – 2 – 3

What could be easier than decorating for the holidays? There's no magic although we wish there was and for some reason, we don't have a written plan for getting the job done – we consider it one task and that's what gets us in trouble. Would you make an apple pie without pulling out your recipe? Unlikely as you might forget a spice or use the wrong amounts. There are similarities with decorating too.

• Make a list of the rooms you want to decorate. Your entryway and stairs go on the list if you want to decorate them, and don't forget your mailbox, porch and other areas outside your home that you like to decorate.
• Match the rooms to available weekends on your family calendar. If you have more rooms than weekends, you can group the rooms and that's where it gets interesting. You probably put all the outdoor decorations away in the same box last year but did you group your inside decorations by room?

With a list of rooms you like to decorate, you realize it's smart to store holiday decorations according to the room where they go. By labeling each box, it's much easier to take out 1 or 2 boxes each weekend versus spreading 4, 6 or more boxes across the living room floor.

• Depending on your creative spirit, you can also save time if you take photos of your decorations before you put them away. This will guide you during next year's decorating and it's fun to see how your home changes year after year so keep taking new photos.

Hooks and Gadgets to Save Time

When putting up decorations, you often need hooks to hold them in the right place. That means taking out your hammer, a selection of nails and hooks and even a ladder (step ladder indoors, extension ladder outside to hang lights from your roof's eaves).

There are lots of new hooks you can leave in place so this step isn't necessary every year. Here is an example of a holiday wreath hung on the kitchen window (inside). The windows are tall so the wreath hangs down from a ribbon, and the ribbon is secured by a single screw which is barely visible throughout the year. You might need to get a bit more creative in deciding where to hang your decorations but the time you save will make it worthwhile. Using the wreath example, try to find places up high, i.e. above eye level for the average adult when they're standing.

There are many hooks or clips to simplify hanging outdoor holiday lights. There are hooks to hang lights from your roof, from gutters, from your deck and railings. Some hooks are clear making them good candidates to leave up year round so putting up lights each year can take less time.

At the same time these clips are changing because LED holiday lights can't just hang like older bulbs. LED lights need to point where you want to see the light and clips help this happen. While there are now LED holiday lights with a rough or faceted surface to break up the light, they still need to point in a specific direction. Clips give you this control and many LED lights now come with integrated clips. If you're planning to buy new outdoor lights, ChristmasDesigners.com has a nice table to help you pick the best clips for your home based on your roof material, gutters and/or siding.