We will be making this a series of blogs on how to decorate your home easier for the holidays!  Our first blog will be about putting up lights on the house itself. 

Supplies you will need to put up your own holiday lights: 

• Lights of your choosing
• Extensive Ladder
• Your choice between: Plastic adhesive light hooks, nails, or staples
• A toolkit to hold your supplies while you are on the ladder
• An extension cord for the lights
• A staple gun (if you choose to use staples for the lights)
• A hammer (if you choose to use nails for the lights)

First things first, we need to choose what types of lights you would like to set up outside. With the holiday season, there are tons of different lights you can put up. Picking the one perfect for your family depends on what style, cost, and energy usage that fits your budget and wants. The most energy efficient lights are the LED light that can come in all shapes and sizes. These lights can range from string lights to icicle hanging lights. But, if you are looking for the best bang for your buck, we would suggest using the LED string lights to light up your house!!

After you have the lights, you will want to decide the layout of your lights. This is important to have a plan of where you would like the lights, because this will affect the way in which you put the lights on the house. 

After you finalize your layout, you can now decide how you want to hang the lights. There are many ways that you can actually hang the lights. The least damaging to your siding or roof would be to use adhesive plastic clips to hold the strings of the lights. However, you do run the risk of the adhesive wearing out or not being strong enough for the whole season with only using this method. So, we have seen many people use the adhesive plastic clips and then staple the strings of the lights onto the siding and roof. The staples will leave smaller holes than an actual nail would, however the staples do require a staple gun which is an extra tool needed for this project. 

After you figure out how you want to hang the lights, it is time to test all the lights that you have. This is an important step since you do not want to place all your lights down and then realize that half of the lights do not work. So, go ahead and plug them in and see if any bulbs need to be replaced before setting them up. 

Now, it’s finally time to start actually hanging up the lights. It is important not to do this during rainy or snowy weather. You do not want your ladder to be slick or in a muddy spot. The ladder should be flat on the ground and placed securly on the house. We would advise having another person with you at all times, just in case of a slip or fall, another person would be there to help. Next, you will want to fill your toolkit with the supplies you need; whether that is adhesive clips, nails, or staples. Then, you will want to already have the lights plugged in to the length they need to be at to reach the extension cord/ outlet. Next, you can take the remaining lights and start working your way around the house in the layout that you wanted. If you chose to use the adhesive plastic clips you would just peel the back paper off and place the clip onto the roof or siding. Then, most clips may have you wait a day before putting the lights onto the clips. This is because the weight of the lights may affect the adhesion in the beginning. However, this will not be an issue if you choose the use nails or staples. You would just need to put a nail in and hang the lights on that nail or hold the light strip up to the house and staple it in using a staple gun. You would continue this process all along the house, until you have completed your desired design. 

A big mistake many people many is not buying enough supplies, whether it is not buying enough lights or not buying enough plastic clips for the lights. Nothing is worse than having to climb back down from the roof, without completing the job. And then, having to go back up later, once you’ve gotten all the supplies that you need. So, the most important thing to do, is to buy more lights and clips than you originally think you need. Worse comes to worse, all you would have to do is return the excess. But, that would be less of a headache than having to climb back down and go back to the store to purchase more things.