I Gotta Organise. . .Christmas!

Ho ho holy cow, it’s only three weeks to Christmas!!!

I visited the 'Christmas on the Square' one day pop up shop in the Irish Architectural Achive on Merrion Square over the weekend. There we found leading Irish designers and Irish artisan food producers with their beautiful products on sale. The gifts,  gorgeous surroundings of number 45 Merrion Square and singing from Choral group Tonnta really put me in the Christmas mood! 

So, I hope by now, you have at least one gift bought! Me, I’ve broken the back on my Christmas shopping, and almost all of my cards written. 

So what’s on the to-do list this week I hear you hark….? 

3 weeks to go

1.       GET THE DECORATIONS OUT OF STORAGE

This can be a cause of stress in a lot of homes. Bringing decorations out of storage, lugging heavy boxes, removing year-round ornaments to make way for Christmas ones and surrounded in bubblewrap can be exercise in itself and can create a right mess. So make sure you're well prepared before you start to remove anything from storage.

• Schedule plenty of time so you are not rushing.
• Clear a good, large space in the hallway, or sitting room so that you have somewhere to place the decoration boxes when you take them out of storage.
• Take your everyday ornaments down first and put them in one area - like an armchair for instance. Now you have space to put up your Christmas decorations. Then when you have a box or two empty, you can place your everyday ornaments in here to store until you need them again in January. And by having placed them in one area when you were removing them, you can box them up quickly instead of zig-zagging around the house.  

2.       DECORATE YOUR TREE & HOME

Ah my favourite "to-do" of the festive season! Decorate and have fun! 

Mont Blanc, France (c) Sarah Reynolds

3.       GIVE THE HOUSE A CLEAN UP

Putting the tree up, and getting decorations out of storage can cause a bit of dust - not to mention Christmas tree pines all over your carpet. Use this time of decorating the house to give the rooms a good polish and vacuuming. You will probably want to do this again closer to Christmas day but if you do it now as you decorate, there will be less to do later. 

4.       ADDRESS YOUR CHRISTMAS CARD ENVELOPES

Now that you have your cards written, spend some time addressing and stamping your envelopes this week. 

Don't forget that Friday 7th December is the deadline for posting cards and parcels to detinations outside the US and Europe.



Mont Blanc at 3560m (c) Sarah Reynolds

 

5.       CHECK SAFETY AROUND THE HOUSE 

Rushing around before Christmas, it's easy to forget to make sure your home is safe and secure for you and your family. A few checks now can help avoid any accidents in the home which could ruin the Christmas fun.

• Test your fire alarms 
• Ensure plug sockets are not overloaded
• Clear up all wires and cables
• Tie up loose cords within reach of children
• Ensure candles aren't near anything flammable
• Check you have all the bulbs on your tree lights. There is electricity flowing all the time when they are turned on, even if a bulb is missing. 
• Ensure the tree is stable and not prone to toppling over. 
• Ensure the location of the tree is in a safe place - not near electrical heating or an open fire place.  

Next week....your two week To-Do List...