Reader suggestion: Cleaning ornaments
This is a little late for this year’s holidays, but I didn’t want to wait until next year to post it. Maybe the procrastinators can use it this year, and the rest of us will mentally store it away for the next 11 months. Thank you to reader Kerry for passing this along:
When I take the ornaments off the tree, I hang them on my wooden drying rack which is placed over a towel. Then, I use compressed air to clean the ornaments so they are ready for next year!
Great idea, Kerry!
9 comments posted
Posted by Monique - 01/15/2008
I use a soft bristle paintbrush to dust off the ornaments. It is also important to remove the metal ornament hooks before storing because they can stain or scratch the ornaments.
Posted by bopper - 01/15/2008
Good gosh how much time do people have.
Posted by alphasqix - 01/15/2008
*Cleaning ornaments*? Really? How did they get dirty in the first place?
Posted by Minnie - 01/15/2008
Wow, you must REALLY LOVE Christmas; if your ornaments get dusty! Mine see the light of day for barely a month. Dust? Meh. I have much dustier concerns in my house. Like my tv screen. Why is it ALWAYS dusty…
I used to take the ornament hooks off each year too, but then I realized my ornaments aren’t expensive or worthy of such painfully tedious, time consuming chores. So this year, I left them on. I do not regret it. I make no apologies.
But…if I had fancy ornaments from Tiffany’s, I’d TOTALLY be into this.
Posted by Ed - 01/15/2008
Compressed air? Brilliant! I no longer need to put them in the dishwasher.
Are you kidding me? Do you not have jobs? Or kids? Or a social life?
How’s about a dish towel and some Pledge when you take them out of the box and put them on the tree?
Posted by Lisa - 01/16/2008
Life is way too short for this kind of time-clutter.
Posted by Monique - 01/16/2008
Silly me! Apparently, my time would be better spent making comments about what others do with their time. By the way, it doesn’t take any longer to dust off an ornament as I put it in the box than if I didn’t. To each his/her own.
Posted by Aisha - 01/16/2008
As someone who doesn’t deal with Christmas tree ornaments at all, I can still tell you that there are actually a good number of people who have some wonderful collections of incredibly delicate ornaments. It’s well worth their time to clean them carefully. And very few people live in places where a month doesn’t cause significant amounts (read: a layer 1-cm thick) of dust to gather…
Posted by Julie - 01/17/2008
I think that’s a great idea! I have some ornaments that are 16 years old now & they do need a gentle cleaning. I’m curious how long the compressed air lasts for this purpose?
As for the ornament hooks, I’ve mostly done away with metal because they’re a pain, what with the scratching & the getting tangled with other stuff. I have ribbons instead, or the original thread. Thanks for a good idea, I will try to remember this next year before decorating the tree.
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