ORLANDO, Fla. – I love the look of Christmas lights, but boy, do I hate hanging them!
I’ve always struggled with how to attach them to the gutters or shingles (sticky tabs?? Noooo!).
And how do you wrap a tree with lights???
We went to the pros at We Hang Christmas Lights to find out how they do it as quickly and painlessly as possible.
Manager Josh recommended breaking the install into three different phases: Putting the lights on the house, putting the lights on trees, and getting power to it all.
Step 1
Hang up the lights on your house. Josh said the secret to easily attaching bulbs to your house is using the proper clips.
He brings 3 different types of clips: 1 to clip onto a gutter, 1 to slide under a shingle tab, and 1 with a magnet to stick onto the roof drip-edge.
Josh uses all LED bulbs and attaches the appropriate clip to each bulb.
#Househack: Use 1 clip for each bulb!
#Househack: Put a bulb at the peak of a roof so the bulbs running down the sides of the roof will be even.
Step 2
Hang up the lights on your tree (if you want). I try to wrap my oak tree branches but Josh admitted that a palm tree is far easier.
Start at the bottom of the tree truck and tie a knot around the trunk with the lights so they stay in place.
Wrap the lights around the trunk and use your hand as a spacer in between each strand so the strands are even going up the trunk.
Tie a knot with the lights at the top of the trunk
#Househack: If you want to wrap lights around the branches, use zip ties to keep the lights in place.
Step 3
Run power to the lights. If you use LED lights, you can use one power cord to power all of them (plugging one end of the lights into the other). LEDs draw very little current compared to incandescent (old style) bulbs.
#Househack: Josh uses electrical wire that matches where he’s running it, so white wire to run along downspouts and gutters and green wire if its across the lawn.
#Househack: The best place to run the power cord from the ground to the roof is along the gutter downspout. Shove the cord behind the downspout up against the house so it’s hidden and use zip ties to secure the cord to the downspout.
And make sure to use a timer to turn on and off the lights automatically!
You just got results at home!
If you have a project you’d like Erik to tackle, send us an email at GettingResultsAtHome@wkmg.com and next week Erik might just show up at your door!