Preparing Your Home For the Holidays

Preparing Your Home For The Holidays

After stuffing themselves like the proverbial turkey on Thanksgiving, many central Floridians take on another daunting buffet. (Perhaps that buffet table in the living room needs to be moved to make room for the tree?)

Yes, it’s that time of year again, and as the calendar pages turn over, many households will be decking the halls and trimming the tree.

Sure, you can simply tear those boxes out of the attic and start hanging, but this is the perfect time to do a little extra when preparing your home for the holidays. Cento Family Moving has pulled together a checklist you can tackle if you want your house to be spic and span this year.

“Fall” Cleaning

Decluttering isn’t just for springtime; now is another great time to do some deep cleaning at your home (especially if you’re expecting out-of-town guests).

Take a few extra hours during the week to tackle the detail work that you usually let slide: dust baseboards, reorganize the medicine cabinet in the guest bathroom, and wipe the cobwebs from the vaulted ceiling. Decorating (and entertaining) will weigh less heavily on your mind when you know the house is clean.

And if you don’t have time to do it yourself, consider hiring a cleaning service for a thorough once-over. It’s less expensive than you may think and will save you a lot of time.

 

Keeping Company

If you’ll be expecting company this holiday season, make sure the guest rooms (and bathrooms) are ready.

Make sure the rooms are clean and uncluttered (of course), but also make sure guests will be comfortable. Test the electrical outlets, doors, window blinds, and plumbing in lesser-used rooms and make any necessary repairs. Wash the bed linens and towels and make sure you leave out a stash of replacements. Stock the medicine cabinet with commonly used items that your friends or family may have forgotten; painkillers, bandages, bobby pins, or nail clippers can all be welcome sights to a tired traveler.

It’s also considered good etiquette to leave an alarm clock, bottles of water, and some light snacks (like granola bars) in the guest room so guests won’t feel like they are bothering you if they need something.

 

Make Some Room

A new haul of Hanukkah and Christmas gifts will be a lot easier to handle if you de-clutter the house first.

Have the kids (and yourself) go through belongings and weed out anything they no longer use. You can either donate these items to a good cause or sell them for some extra holiday cash. (Clothing consignment stores will sometimes pay you cash outright for good-quality items.) Now that the shelves are a bit cleaner, Santa’s offerings will have a place to go.

This also goes for holiday decorations. Get rid of unused decor at the beginning of the holiday; you’ll be more likely to find a new home for it. Give a shout-out to your Facebook friends or donate a batch of lights to Goodwill. At the end of the season, you won’t have as many boxes to pack away.

 

Move Some Things Around

If you find your furniture getting in the way of your Christmas displays, move items to a different wall, a different room, or a different building altogether until the holidays have passed.

As long as you can go a month or so without a certain table or cabinet, it might be easier to simply take it out of the house. Maybe that end table gets in the way of the tree, but it would be a great help in the guest room when Aunt Edith comes to visit. Larger pieces of furniture can be moved to the garage or even an off-site storage unit. You’ll only need to pay for a month of storage, so costs will be low and the climate-controlled environment won’t damage your furniture.

 

The holidays can be stressful, but they can also be fun…especially if you put some prep time in beforehand. Call us for any of your moving and storage needs. And from the Cento Family to your family, we wish you Happy Holidays!

Comments
  • Hi theгe! I cоuld have sworn I’ve been to this blog before but after browsing through some of the articles I realized it’s new to me.
    Anyways, I’m certainly happy I discovered it and I’ll be bookmагking it and checking bасk regularly!

Comments are closed.
Contact

Start Your Quote