11 Tips on How to Easily Prepare Your Home for the New Year

The New Year is coming soon, which means it's time to pull out Christmas ornaments and create a festive atmosphere in your home. To make preparing your home for the New Year easier, we've gathered the simplest and most effective ideas for holiday decoration that are easy to implement over a weekend.

1. Get Rid of Unnecessary Items

Start the New Year with a clean slate: get rid of old and unnecessary items that have been sitting unused for a long time and only take up space in your apartment. Extra dishes and furniture, useless magnets, and already-read magazines — the list can go on endlessly. 

By the way, items you no longer use don't have to be thrown away: you can donate them to a flea market or give them to charitable stores.

2. Wrap Gifts

Receiving gifts is always pleasant, but giving them is even more so. To make sure your gifts are sure to please friends and family, don't forget to wrap them. Craft paper, newspapers, foil, or even an old sweater — you can use almost anything for wrapping.

A gift already wrapped can be decorated with a Christmas branch, a pinecone, or a bright ribbon. Children's gifts will look great with gingerbread cookies or candies.

3. Decorate the Christmas Tree

The most reliable and fast way to create a festive atmosphere at home is to decorate the Christmas tree. To avoid over-decorating, hang ornaments from bottom to top and start with those that set the tone for the holiday decor, then add everything else.

Make the holiday brighter and hang family photos on the tree. You can go even further and use old Christmas cards: nostalgia in the New Year is very appropriate.

4. Turn the Christmas Tree into an Art Piece

A small apartment is not a reason to give up on a Christmas tree. Moreover, you can replace the traditional fir with a decorative potted Christmas tree. 

You can also mount the tree on a wall: draw it, make its silhouette from small individual items, or attach several branches decorated with tinsel and ornaments to the wall — your choice is unlimited.

5. Make New Year Noisemakers

Give kids a holiday and make bright New Year noisemakers. For the frame, you can use a tube from paper towels — it will give the noisemaker its shape. For wrapping, choose ribbons, colored paper, or foil. 

A little glitter and a handmade noisemaker becomes an original decoration for the holiday table. The main thing is not to forget to put confetti or a sweet surprise inside.

6. Hang Garlands

You can never have too many garlands: hang them literally everywhere — on staircase railings, ceilings, and walls, along cabinets and doorways, and, of course, on the tree. By the way, you can make garlands yourself: for example, from shimmering paper or foil.

Decorate the garland with snowflakes made from paper towels — and snowfall begins in your apartment. Don't forget to involve friends in cutting them out: it will become a real pre-New Year party.

7. Decorate Doors and Windows

Set the tone for the holiday and decorate your front door and windows. You can hang a pine wreath on the door according to European tradition, and on the windows — stick snowflakes cut from paper towels or foil.

You can also draw beautiful frost patterns on the windows. It's very easy to do: cut out stencils from cardboard and prepare paint — mix toothpaste with water until thick. All that's left is to place the stencils on the windows and dab them with a sponge.

8. Update the Textiles

New Year's Eve is the perfect time to update your home textiles. Take care of table settings: festive napkins and a beautiful tablecloth for the holiday table will come in handy.

Bedding, pillows, and throws with bright Christmas motifs are great for New Year decoration. If you want to use these fabrics all year round, choose more neutral prints — red plaid or lettered designs.

9. Make a New Year Composition

Another simple way to decorate your home for the New Year is to make a New Year composition. There are many options: you can put unused Christmas ornaments in a clear vase or arrange candles inside an evergreen wreath.

What New Year is without mandarins? Next to evergreen branches, ribbons, and cinnamon sticks, mandarins can become an original and aromatic New Year decoration.

10. Plan the Table Setting

A beautifully set table is another small guarantee that the holiday will go well. Forget about standard approaches and unleash your imagination. For example, you can make cute envelope-style holders for tableware from ordinary paper towels; funny snowmen and snowflake trees for your youngest guests; large and small snowflakes for table decor.

11. Play Music

New Year decoration can also be auditory. Popular Christmas melodies will do just as well as the most festive tree and make the atmosphere in your home truly holiday-like.

We suggest not limiting yourself to just the living room and changing your phone's ringtone and alarm clock to New Year clips, as well as doing workouts to favorite holiday songs.