How do you prepare your house for the decorations?

[StripedOss]

We've a small house, very poky, and rather cluttered.

i'm a christmas hog, i love it, but i'm always limited for space for displaying things.

How do you prepare your house? do you tidy, declutter, store stuff for christmas season?

And also, how do you decorate the house? Just a tree, or do you do other stuff?

[TwoNoisyBoys]

Yes Cat....that's what I keep telling myself.....over and over and over again

[forago]

I clean it. And majorly dust the living room, under the sofas etc - to cope with a moths worth of glitter, and fluff and bits of the tree and wrapping paper and chocolate smears and all that crap.

[blibblibs]

I'm moving house a week before christmas so will have no clutter just all our christmas tat out in the new place

[startwig1982]

I'm tidying up and decluttering. Plus getting all the cobwebs and cleaning all skirting boards thoroughly.
My big jobs are to clear and dust the dresser and to get DH to clear his massive pile of post.
This year we're having garlands made by me and ds as well as our usual stuff.

[HolgerDanske]

I have to move the TV console over a bit, and the sideboard over a bit the other way, in order to fit the tree.

This year I'm having a little real one in a pot (hopefully)

[PlantsAndFlowers]

I move a bookshelf so it doesn't look like the tree is squashing it.

Paper chains, cards and a couple of christmas ornaments.

Always but a Christmassy (and posh) bouquet of flowers.

Doing it all next Saturday, can't wait!

[MrsLindor]

I usually have a big clean up before the decorations go up.

[StripedOss]

im wondering whether to go the whole crapola hog this year and hang paper chains from the wood ceiling beams again, lol!

[catwithflowers]

Noisyboys but it will be lovely when it's all finished mantra to self

[ClawHandsIfYouBelieveInFreaks]

I've begun a massive tidy up and removed photos and some ornaments. I don't have a lot anyway but they go away as I am also a Christmas Hog. I LOVE my Christmas crap!

[TwoNoisyBoys]

(And all this before I can even think about the big pre Christmas clean up/declutter!)

[TwoNoisyBoys]

Cat, cans of pain sums it up perfectly! I'm decorating the boys bedroom at the moment, carpet coming Friday, so they're camping out in the living room this week. The house is a tip, stuff everywhere.....ooh, and I'm hosting my mothers 70th birthday party Wednesday evening! Stressed? Moi?!!! Aaaargh!!!!!!

[clam]

I dust anywhere that cards are going. Am sure as hell not going to dust round them for three weeks. not that I dust that often anyway

[BiddyPop]

I have done quite a bit of decluttering and deep cleaning since late August. (Y'know, things like cleaning the washing machine and tumble dryer filters, washing the dishwasher with the bottle of stuff, cleaning chimneys, washing windows, wiping down air vents, checking smoke alarms, etc - all those "useful, must get around to" jobs). Probably sent about 20 bags to charity shop, 5/6 of DC clothes that no longer fit to various cousins, at least another 20 to recycling/rubbish, and a few down to the storage unit as they are not loved here anymore but I am not yet ready to get rid of them.

I've also tried to get a thorough actual clean of each room in the house, but not managed that in all rooms.

I wanted to declutter the decorative items in the sitting room, and the overstuffed bookshelves. Maybe in January.....

But I can now see all of the dining table (and the small pile of newspapers/magazines will shift in 2 seconds, sewing machine goes back upstairs next weekend, so will be completely clear then again). The junk pile on the drawer beside the dining table is no longer threatening to fall and take out all small DCs in the vicinity - only about 6" high and stuff I need.

I do need to tackle my dressing table. But DH is able to use the desk in the study. And I have space in the guest room again too - either to organize things for a day or 2, or to actually have guests again (we have no au pair for the first time in a long time).

[ItsBeginingToLookAlotLikeChris]

started the big clean last night.

Moved sofas, intensive tidy up....long way to go yet though....the Big Dust is also taking place.....
I have decs on nearly every surface, everywhere you look there will be something I like the grotto effect

[StripedOss]

i managed to get the top of my sideboard de-cluttered today, it always gets lights draped around it, so it needed to be tidied.

Got to do the same with the shelves and TV unit.. and this year i've bought a candelabra thing to go in the upstairs window and some window stickers for downstairs so it looks a little christmassy from outside for a change!

[ThinkIveBeenHacked]

We clear out the same alcove in the lounge. It usually houses the small dining table, so thats moved up against another wall. This year we have stood.our tree on a large hamper which makes it look much nicer (high ceilings so it fills the wall better).

We hang stockings from the tv on the wall as its the chimney breast wall so thats where they should be.

No other decs, however we have two small dcs so once they get to nearer 8/9 ill get some christmas candles etc.

[CiderwithBuda]

I'm th same about laundry. Like not to have to do any over xmas.

I took two bags to the charity shop this afternoon.

Didn't get the hall cupboards cleared though which was my plan.

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day!

[IssyStark]

We decluttered and put away stuff all weekend just gone. Still got loads to do as we were concentrating on upsatirs as the dc wanted their tree up in their bedroom yesterday. We won't be decorating the rest fo the house for a couple of weeks so we have a bit more time for decluttering.

We do tend to move furniture around and put stuff in the loft is necessary. Sometimes I run out of time and end up putting stuff in a big bag for sorting later. It often then isn't sorted until the summer.

I really like having all of the laundry/cleaning etc all out of the way before Christmas Eve. I do not want to even have to think about laundry until the 27th. That said, this year we will be in the midst of potty traing ds2 so the machine might be on anyway!

[StuntCodPiece]

Cans of pain is about right cat. We are having carpets fitted in 2 weeks so need to be decorated and ready for then. Then it'll be Operation Christmas ??

[catwithflowers]

Cans of pain? Cans of paint!!!!

[catwithflowers]

Stuntcod, I feel your pain! We are in the midst of a complete overhaul including rewiring, new central heating, new bathroom and are decorating each room as it's finished. Cans of pain, tools, stuff for the skip, and tradesmen in and out constantly. The dust is unbelievable. I'm desperate to have it clean and beautiful for Christmas

[TheGonnagle]

November we redecorated the front room, landing, hall and stairs (not every year, I hasten to add!).
This week is epic clean week. (steam clean kitchen and bathroom, proper clean all round.
Declutter, most non festive ornaments etc go in boxes in the roof.
Decorate!

[CiderwithBuda]

I try to do a good declutter and a good clean before even attempting to get the xmas stuff out.

I use the boxes from the xmas decorations to store all the ornaments, pictures etc that are being put away.

I have a plan for this week to get sorted but it's gone to pot already!

[PogoBob]

We've ended up re-arranging the sitting room totally to fit the Christmas tree in the bigger alcove (chimney breast is not central!). Last year we had a slim tree which fitted in the smaller alcove but DH really wanted the 'fat' tree this year hence the re-arranging.

Not yet figured out where everything else is going but that's more to do with an almost 2yo who is still learning not to grab everything so rather limited in terms of the surfaces we can decorate!