Mummascribbles – Getting the house ready for Christmas time – Mummascribbles

This is a collaborative post.

If ever there is a good time to have a spruce up of the house, it’s at christmas time. If you have a relatively large house it may be less of an issue but when you have a smallish house like us (2 bedrooms upstairs, a through lounge/dining room, kitchen and downstairs bathroom) and two children, space can very soon become outgrown. Add to that the soon to be brought down from the loft Christmas tree, we found ourselves looking around and wondering where we’d be putting it this year. 

Last year we had two huge bookcases and a large glass cabinet in the dining room and it was in front of one of these that we moved the computer desk and then slotted the Christmas tree into the alcove where that usually sits. The tree was a bit squished and it meant that if you were sitting at the computer, you couldn’t see the TV.

We therefore didn’t want to do the same this year. We decided to dismantle and get rid of all three of these pieces of furniture a few months ago and so now our dining room consists of a table and chairs which are usually up against the wall so that we have as much floor space as possible for Zach to make use of, a big Ikea Kallax storage unit that houses lots of toys, books and dvd’s, and a sideboard which sits next to it. We absolutely love the set up now but we found ourselves faced with the problem that we now had nowhere for the Christmas tree! This meant that before we put the tree up next weekend, we needed to do some furniture maneuvering and some clearing up.

So this weekend we moved everything round. Some of Zach’s larger toys like his shop, his big dump truck and his buggy have been rehoused to his bedroom making enough space for the dining table to take centre stage in the dining room. The sideboard has then been moved to the other side of the room where the table usually is which means we have a lovely large space for the Christmas tree to sit. It is such a better area for it. Wider, more spacious and without the tree getting in the way of anything. The only problem is that looking at the space is making me want to get a new tree. Ours is lovely and big but is very old and quite gappy in places so I’m now worried it might look a bit rubbish! I in no way have another tab open right now that has trees for sale!

The other half loves the new look of our dining area. He has always wanted to have the table in the centre of the room but where children are concerned, the more floor space the better. Yesterday he looked at it and said, “this is what our house would look like without kids” – which would be correct if the Playmobil castle and Magformers sets weren’t currently being housed on the table! 

We are hosting the in law’s at our house this Christmas and so it feels good that we have already had a Christmas spring clean of the area that will house six adults, 4 children and a baby for a day! Now I just need to tackle the next jobs on the list – finding some storage boxes for said toys on table and sorting through the clothes that Oscar has already grown out of and replacing with the 3-6 month ones. The boy needs to stop growing so quick!