Making the most of your Christmas lights

One of the most fun elements of Christmas-time is the beautiful lights and displays both indoors and out.  On homes, businesses, city parks, churches, just about everywhere you look there are lights.  Whether it be twinkle lights, spot lights, C9's, what have you, the joy they bring to everyone is a great reward for the work involved.

So why doesn't everyone put up lights at Christmas.  Frankly, not everyone cares to, but, there are probably quite a few that would if it weren't so time consuming and such hard work.  I myself have had moments when I have thought I might scale back and perhaps not hang light on the roof line, or maybe not have as many displays on the lawn.  It's a lot of work, and if the weather doesn't cooperate, it can quickly become miserable work.

What a tangled web we weave...

Nothing will ruin the fun of decorating like a set of tangled lights.  After a frustrating fight that could go on until my hands and arms are sore and my nerves on edge, I have been known to give up, throw them up as they are, or more likely, go out and buy a new set and just forget about the tangled set until next year.  

What's the solution.  Well, let me tell you, I am so excited about this that I can't wait to share it all of you.  It's so simple, it's CRAZY!!

Coat Hangars.  Yes, Coat Hangars.

I have all of my lights on separate coat hangars.  It took all day to get it done, but, I have had them organized this way for almost two years now, and this system has stood the test of time. First I had to go through the tedious task of untangling all of my lights, which I did a strand at a time, first testing to see if the whole strand lit up, and if it did then I would untangle it.  Once it was nice and straight, I wound it around a coat hangar, starting with the female socket end (that's the one that you use to connect a second set of lights to it) and ending with the male end.  This way, I could easily attach a set while it is still on the hangar, and unwind as I decorate to avoid it getting all tangled up again.  Some light sets are bigger than others, but they all fit on coat hangars.  If they were particularly long I would just use a strong hangar to hold the weight.  Then, I put curtain rods in the rafters of my shed and hung the light hangars in order of color and length.  This way, I can easily see what I have, and not have to dig through a pile of lights.  It's made my decoration boxes so much easier to sort through, too.  Oh, and I got this tip off of Buzzfeed, but, there are other holiday decoration enthusiasts that have posted this tip.  Not sure where it originated, but, whoever came up with it is a genius and I will be forever grateful.  They took the most frustrating task in decorating and made it a snap.

Stay tuned, in my next blog post I will give more tips to make your holiday decorating a little less grinchy.