Thinking about tidying up your home before Christmas?
By now we can’t escape it, Christmas is coming.
With only a few weekends to go before the festive season is upon us, our minds turn to buying presents, planning our Christmas menu, and making sure our stocks of wrapping paper, tape and cards don't run out. With all this preparation going on, it leaves very little time to spend sprucing up your home ready to receive your family and friends.
With the arrival of Christmas, hordes of family and friends will be keen to fill your home with festive cheer. But before your home becomes overwhelmed with decorations, people and presents, set aside some time for a bit of a cleanup and some well deserved TLC for your home.
Don't worry – we are here to help! Here are a few things you can do to get your home ready for Christmas:
Have a De-cluttering session
It is amazing what an effect getting rid of a bit of clutter can have on your home. You can open up dusty corners and neglected work surfaces in a jiffy. If you are having people over to stay, then it is great for them not to be clambering over your clutter to feel comfortable in the spare room.
Look at what you can get rid of permanently and sort out a charity box for any good quality items you no longer need. If you can only remove some things temporarily, look at getting some storage boxes to use. You can pack things away in your attic, garage and shed until after Christmas. Let's face it, you are going to need room for a Christmas tree, so that mountain of unread books sitting in the corner can be packed out of the way for a while.
Refresh your paintwork
What good is hanging up pretty Christmas decorations if you have grubby door frames, faded or peeling wallpaper, scuffed wall paint, or chipped and bashed skirting boards. All these things can make a house look tired. So why not get scrubbing with some sugar soap to remove the grime then buy some fresh gloss and emulsion paints to revitalise your paintwork.
If you only have time for a bit of a touch-up to your skirting boards, then something like Rustins Quick Dry Small Job Gloss Paint would do the trick perfectly. Available in a range of colours, this quick dry paint is great for indoor and outdoor use.
We also have a splendid range of quality paint brushes on offer, such as the Harris Artisan Round Paint Brush. This brush is ideal for painting detailed areas with pinpoint accuracy, so would be perfect for painting skirting boards or door frames.
Sand and varnish wooden doors
Whether you have a solid wood front door or wooden internal doors, they all get a good bashing throughout the year. Small dents and scratches are easily done, so giving your wooden doors once-a-year spruce up can make them sparkle come Christmas time. Again, if you are short of time, why not gently sand out minor scratches and scuffs before giving your doors a lick of protective varnish.
You can make a quick job of this by using something like Ronseal Interior Quick Dry Varnish. This has been specially formulated for interior woodwork and is extremely tough with diamond hard protection. A quick coat of this varnish and your doors will be protected against the many knocks, scuffs and scratches they can get at Christmas when there is a lot of little ones running around.
Banish grubby grout!
If there is one room in your home that you cannot hide from your Christmas visitors it is the bathroom. Grubby and discoloured grout can look horrible and will make your whole bathroom look dirty – no matter how long you spent scrubbing the toilet!
Rather than spending a lot of time scraping off and re-applying fresh grout to your bathroom tiles, why not take the easy route and simply clean your grout instead. You can buy specialist grout cleaner at a very reasonable price and does the job in a fraction of the time. We would recommend HG Tiles and Grout Cleaner which is ready to use grout cleaner that comes in a handy spray bottle which cleans and restores the colour of grout quickly and effectively.
It is amazing what can be achieved with a quick coat of paint and good clean up and de-clutter. Before you know it you will have your home in ship-shape condition and ready to receive your Christmas visitors with pride!