On Saturday, 3 Jan 2009, while reading the comic strips (yes I read those!); my favorite one of the day was “Zits”  by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman.  Jeremy’s mom is outside with her husband, Walt, and her son Jeremy and they are taking down the seasonal lights display.

Walt – is barely hanging to the gutter I presume, I only see his legs and the ladder falling over.  Jeremy has a string of lights wrapped around his neck and holding it high as though he is forced into the family activity of “taking down the lights”.  Connie on the other hand is “enjoying” what she is doing.  She has painstakingly marked boxes to note where the different strings of lights are stored.   Her line fits me to a “t”, “I don’t know about you guys, but I enjoy taking down the Christmas Decorations as much as I do putting them up!”

Tuesday, 30 Dec 2008, I had the bittersweet task of taking down the seasonal lighting display, carefully removing the lines from their positions.  See, this day was specifically planned, as the weather was changing the next day to rain and ice. 

My seasonal lighting display had been displaying for 31 days, they were put it up the day (although the not lighted except for “testing” the timers until Nov 30th) after Thanksgiving and it had gone through some extreme weather conditions!  Just long enough to be beautiful, but not abusive enough to the January / February utility bill, ouch!

So what’s the deal? There is a mission to Seasonal Lighting Madness!  This includes the processes of putting them up and taking them down.

• If you take the time to organize, this is done purposely – you’ll know where everything is located next year. What used to take hours to setup and take down can take less than four (4) hours. Not bad.

• Watch the weather channel! I’m a weather watcher – the lights go up and come down on a days when there is no precipitation falling – less ice to slip on. The idea is to remove the light strings and pick up the extension cords while they are pliable and it’s warmer outside – (32 degrees outside is considered warm).

• Organize your containers, sharpie pens for notes, small-sized note paper, tape, and re-cycled plastic bags! 

• Mark your string, cords, plugs, timers.  Description of where they were used outside and the year it was used in that location. Take a small piece of paper, write what the light string, cord or plug was used to do. Wrap the note around the wire of the string with a ¼ inch piece of tape to connect the ends of the note paper.

• Keep one (1) central container to keep extension cords, timers, stakes, special cords, 3-way plugs, bulb testers, special hooks, line testers, and the light replacements strings.

• Keep a separate container to house your net light strings

• One at a time, remove each light string line from the display.  Take each string inside and lay it in a warm spots. Notice I didn’t say lay each of the light strings on top of each other. The idea is to have de-tangled lights next year! Spread them out! Yes…you’re residence may be a mess for few hours! 

• Once pliable, and well-marked coil or gently fold (if net lights) the strings of lights. It’s best if each light string is placed inside separate recycled plastic bags (not garbage bags!) with any special 3-way plugs or timers you used with that specific string of lights. 

• Then, place the individual bagged light strings into containers less likely to crack and break.  My preference – Rubbermaid containers; I have had Sterlite containers over the years that cracked and broke due to temperature extremes. My Rubbermaid containers on the other hand are still in tact. 

• Label each of the containers and what is inside, and store them away.

• Last but not least – Dust and Vacuum! You will discover crumpled dry leaves, outdoor pine tree needles, mud, and a few other things everywhere you look.  

• Relax and enjoy realizing the fact that you just worked out – exercising and burning calories at the same time.

Happy New Year!