I just wanted to put up a few tips on taking down holiday lawn décor. Taking down your yard decorations after the holidays is always a little sad (at least for me), but if you can manage to get through the glum feelings and put all the holiday lawn and garden décor away in good order, it’ll all be in great shape come next December. So here are a few pointers.

Lights require the most care. The first thing is to take them down as carefully as you put them up – get out the same ladder, go through the same process in reverse, rather than trying any shortcuts like just yanking them out of the tree, etc. After you’ve got an entire string of lights in front of you, check the cord and all the bulbs for damage before wrapping it up carefully (I’ve found that wrapping lights around a rectangle of cardboard works really well). If you see damage, what to do depends on the type of damage. For broken bulbs, if you have replacements, do the replacing now rather than waiting for next year (it’s safer, and you won’t run the risk of forgetting to do it or losing the replacement bulbs and being unable to do it). If there’s any sort of damage to the cord, play it safe and get rid of that string. Always store lights indoors (a nice dry shed counts).

For just about everything else, you’ll do right by the décor if you clean it gently and store it in a safe, dry place (I’m always a fan of keeping all my holiday lawn décor together, and if you can find one corner of the garage/shed/closet to hold it all rather than tucking it away here and there, I bet that’ll work best for you, too). Most decorations are best cleaned with a damp cloth. So don’t worry about getting out any heavy duty cleaning chemicals. Most of what you’re removing is just dirt and weather, so water should do the trick. Make sure everything is dry before you start putting it away.

Holiday lawn displays can be so much fun, and a little TLC at the end of the season when you’re taking things down goes a long way toward making it easy, fun, and SAFE, when you’re putting everything up again next winter.

Hope everyone’s holidays were great!
Dawn