Wrapping presents can be a mammoth task and take up much needed family time around the Christmas season - not to mention how uncomfortable it can be hunched over a table for hours, endlessly perfecting your gift presentation.
Christmas is a time of festive cheer and celebrations, so you want any seasonal tasks to be as easy and stress free as they can be. Lynsey 'Queen of Clean', a bestselling author and homecare expert renowned for her clever advice, has given her top tips for making the festive period as simple as possible, including a handy ironing board hack.
She explained: "Set up your ironing board so it is the right height for you to be comfortable then no stretching or back ache, grab your presents and wrap away."
The ironing board will be adjustable in height unlike other tables, so can be moved to be in the perfect position to wrap all your presents. Sadly, this might not work for bigger presents but for the bulk of gifts this will keep your backache to a minimum.
Wrapping on the ironing board isn't the homecare expert's only hack as she also suggests wrapping wine bottles in a pair of socks too. Lyndsey explained: "Grab a pair of festive socks, pop a wine bottle into one of the socks, fold the other sock and tie around the neck to look like a scarf, this makes a great pressie and they get two lovely presents in one."
If the wrapping paper itself is causing you headaches, Lyndsey suggests simply keeping everything in a bag. Rather than having lots of gift wrap, tags and ribbons scattered around your home - put them all in one safe place to minimise stress.
She also suggests using empty toilet roll tubes to keep your wrapping paper tidy and stop it unravelling - just cut a slit along one side and no more messy paper.
Make your scissors "perform better" by cleaning the blades with tin foil, this won't sharpen them but it can remove "little blurs along the cutting edge".
For a personal touch on presents, Lyndsey suggests printing out pictures of family members rather than writing on generic gift tags. She said: "This adds a nice touch, plus when you are out and about delivering it makes it easy to recognise which present is for who".
Moving away from presents, make your cards smell festive by putting them in a sealed bag or box with some cotton balls with essential oils in them. Lyndsey suggests festive scents like evergreen and peppermint to make it extra festive and says they should hold on to the smell for two weeks.
Her other top tips include wearing rubber gloves when fluffing up your tree to prevent scratches, using old wine bottle corks as name card holders at dinner and wrapping your Christmas lights around a hanger or empty gift paper tube. This stops them getting tangled and makes life easier next year for decorating.
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