5 Easy Ways to Handle Holiday Lighting Hassles

Trying to make your home merry and bright can certainly be a trying, and sometimes hazardous, experience.  Here are some tips to help you light up your holidays without putting a ding in your wallet… or yourself.

Easy-Clip Tree Ornaments

The wire hooks that come with Christmas tree ornaments can be hard to use and can scratch the ornaments. Instead of wire hangers, use plastic-coated paper clips to hang your ornaments. The paper clips are stronger and easy to use, and best of all, they won’t scratch the ornaments, so you can leave them attached when you pack the ornaments away at the end of each season.

Holiday Light Hangers

Instead of poking nails into aluminum soffits and fascia when you’re hanging holiday lights, clip the wires to the bottom lip of the fascia with reusable clothespins or plastic light clips.  Just be careful up on the ladder!

Test Your Lights

Test your lights before you go to the effort of stringing them on the tree. There are scads of tree light testers and repair kits available from just about every retailer out there for under $20.  And when the season is over, coil those unruly strands into a 5-gal. pail to keep them tangle-free for next year.

Zip-Tie Your Decorations

Zip ties are a simple way to string holiday lights on banisters and fences without marring the railing with nail marks. Zip ties are sold at all home centers and hardware stores. You’ll find them in the electrical supplies aisle. After the holidays, snip the ties off with scissors.

Easy Outdoor Light Control

The glow of outdoor holiday lights is cheerful, but going out in the cold to plug them in and unplug them is a pain. Buy an outdoor remote control switch so you can control them from inside your home or car, or better yet, get yourself an outdoor light timer.  Either of these options are found online, at home centers or hardware stores and easily plug into the nearby outlet, and once you set, you’re good to go.

Now you’re ready to let your holiday lights shine!

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Photo Credit: mooremedia / Shutterstock.com