How to clean and store Christmas ornaments

Christmas decorations do more than make your house look festive; they evoke family traditions, memories and sentiment. To ensure many happy Christmases to come, proper cleaning and storage of your decorations are essential. If new decorations often come with instructions be sure you read them before cleaning.

• Separate them so you can pick them up one at a time by the hanger.
• Lightly dust each ornament with a feather duster.
• Try not to handle the ornaments, since the oils in your hands can damage the paint; if you need to, wear latex or cotton gloves (particularly if your ornament is old and fragile).

• Spray regular glass cleaner onto a soft cloth and wipe gently.
• Do not use glass cleaner on acrylic or perspex, but wipe with a solution of dishwashing liquid and water instead.
• For more serious grime, wipe with a little citrus-oil based cleaner.

• Use a feather duster, brushing across the surface in a downward motion.
• Don't handle crystal decorations unless you wear gloves. A buffing jewellery cloth is also great to use on crystal.
• Simply wipe over the surface with the cloth.

A soft cotton cloth works well. Again, just wipe across the surface

Wipe with a polishing jewelry cloth. Apply the cloth in circular motions to remove dust and fingerprints.

• This will ensure they will be sparkling, dust free and ready to hang the next year. Here are some simple tips to follow:
• Store ornaments in a large box with a lid, a plastic storage container or, if you still have it, in their original box.
• Place a thick layer of scrunched-up tissue paper (use only non-acidic paper) in the bottom of the container.
• Lay a full layer of ornaments on top of the scrunched-up tissue paper on the bottom of the container.
• Put the more sturdy ornaments on the bottom and the delicate ones on top. Don't use more than two layers. Try to offset the upper layer so that the ornaments don't sit directly on top of the ornaments below. Don't pack the ornaments tightly, because they might break and the older ones, in particular, may be difficult to replace.
• Wrap each ornament individually using just one layer of tissue paper for the ornament.
• Gently lay one or two layers of flat tissue paper on top of the first layer of ornaments.
• Place the second layer of wrapped ornaments on top of the tissue paper over the previous layer of ornaments.
• Store your ornaments in a cool, dry, out-of-the-way place.