Friday

It's Almost Christmas

Merry Christmas Eve!

You're no doubt busy getting ready for tomorrow, so I'll make this quick. I have two handy cleaning tips for Christmas morning. Naturally neat people already know this one, but if you are housekeeping-impaired as I am, it may never have occurred to you.

1) Before you open a single present on Christmas morning, place a big open cardboard box or large trash can, lined with a plastic bag, in an accessible area in the room. As you unwrap, have everyone toss all crumpled papers, torn ribbons, and other trash into the container. Don't let the monitoring of trash ruin the Christmas morning fun, of course, but if you follow this handy rule, you'll save yourself a lot of trouble in the long run. You might even make a game of it with the kids, challenging them to score two-pointers from where they sit. Even if most of the trash lands in the general area of the box or trash can, it will ease the pain of cleaning later.

2) Even with a handy trash can nearby, there will still be some mess. Therefore--and we learned this one the hard way--always designate one person to be the collector of all cash, checks, giftcards, and other tiny and valuable items the moment they have been opened. Trust me, there's nothing more frustrating than realizing several days later, after the trash has gone out, that the $100 bill Uncle Bobby sent you is on its way to the city dump.

Most of all, be sure to enjoy your loved ones and to remind them of the reason for the season: our beloved Messiah's birth!

2 comments:

  1. We did this--but filled about 4 trash bags--the wrapping paper would have just filled one, but all the packaging the toys came in filled the rest! Thank goodness for a Monday trash pickup! It was nice to have the trash collected as we went. There was still some the next day, things that hadn't been removed from their packaging until later and thus didn't make it into the bags right off the bat, but still much nicer than what it would have been otherwise. And the kids could see how important it was to keep the trash out of the way so they could actually enjoy their presents without having to sort through so much trash to get to the good stuff. :)

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  2. Good for you! I'm so glad it worked.

    We sat down to open presents & my daughter said, "Mom! Aren't you forgetting something?" I looked at her blankly and she added, "Don't you even read your own blog?"

    Haha, I had forgotten the trash can! She grabbed one and brought it in and we were good to go. :)

    Hope you had a lovely Christmas!

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