Christmas Cleaning

I'm sure we've all had unexpected guests drop by during the holidays, only to look about the house and see that you'd successfully sty'ed the halls with clothes and debris. So before we get too close to the holidays here, I thought that I would cover a very important holiday entertaining subject – cleaning the house! So today, I'll offer you a few holiday cleaning tips that should help prevent you from embarrassing yourself when company stops by unexpectedly.

• Line the floors with plastic wrap! When company stops by, you can simply rip up the plastic wrap and reveal truly dust bunny-free floors that appear freshly swept and waxed. (Just be sure to avoid lining your sinks, showers, and toilets with plastic wrap – it's not quite as helpful as you might think...)
  
  
• Always make sure the dishwasher is empty. Not only will this tip help you keep those dirty dishes from piling up in the sink and/or dishwasher, but an empty dishwasher is also a great place to hide away all that excess kitchen clutter!
  
  
• Gift wrap a junk box! If you can't help but accumulate clutter in your living room, then wrap a giant empty box in festive holiday gift wrap. Then, when company stops by, run about the house grabbing all the clutter and throw it in the junk box. Once the top of the box is in place, nobody will ever know the box contains nothing but clutter.
  
  
• And lastly – forget about dusting! Not only is dusting time consuming and tedious, but during the holidays it is completely unnecessary. Instead of dusting, sprinkle fake snow (or even powdered sugar, really) all about the house. The snow will add a festive touch to your holiday decorating, as well as cover up all that dust. It's win, win!