Hanging Christmas Lights Made Easy

by lazyb

214K6523

Intro: Hanging Christmas Lights Made Easy

Being lazy, I wanted to find an easier way to hang our Christmas lights than last year. Our house has gutters all the way around, which is a great platform for hanging lights off of. But last year I used a ton of hooks that grabbed onto the inside of the gutter and then held the string of lights. Applying, and later removing, these hooks though is a pain (literally), so I wanted an easier way.

By using ubiquitous office badge clips with attached strips, I created an easy to apply hanging mechanism that goes on, and comes off, easy as pie.

This works great if you have gutters. You may find a way to get it to work without them, but I guess it would depend on your roof.

STEP 1: Get Some Office Badge Clips

I got this package at Staples. 10 clips for about $2.50. I also got a couple of packages of 12 clips each from Walmart for a little over $1.50 per package. You might be able to find more bulk packages for cheaper online somewhere.

I hung 5 strings of lights, with 25 lights each, with 30 badge clips. That's 6 clips per string of lights. These are the strings with the large bulbs. Strings with the small bulbs could probably use fewer clips. I also used a few extra badge clips here and there as I went around corners or encountered other obstacles, so get a few extra.

STEP 2: Check Your Lights

Don't forget to check your lights before you hang them from your roof. It's a lot harder to change a light bulb when you're standing on a ladder.

See if you can get your dog to help you out.

STEP 3: Attach the Badge Clips

Snap the strap part of the badge clip around the string of lights. I put a badge clip close to the male end of the string, and then every five lights after that. That also put a clip at the other, female, end of the string. I quickly realized on my string of lights that I ended up having a badge clip between every red and green light bulb.

You want to have the clip part underneath the strap, and rotated around so that it faces the string of lights. That way, when you attach it to the gutter, the strap goes out over the edge of the gutter and the string of light hangs down in front of the gutter.

STEP 4: Hang Your Lights

Now just take your string of lights outside and attach the clips to the gutter. You may find that the badge clips are on backward or something, but it's easy to just unsnap it and turn it around. I moved each badge clip to the middle of the string between the two lights on either side of it. That gave me the most slack for the lights on the gutter.

Then just repeat these steps with the rest of your strings of lights until you're done.

When it's time to remove the lights, I'm just going to leave the badge clips on for next year.

Of course, if you get up there and discover that your gutters are stuffed full of leaves, it might take you a little longer.

Merry Christmas

23 Comments

Blalock7 8 years ago

VERY Clever.!!.Glad I found this

SuziE3 9 years ago

Brilliant. THANKS :)))

KimH86 9 years ago

I LOVE YOU! THIS IS BRILLIANT! My husband is away on a business trip and I wanted to surprise him with the lights up and the house decorated when he comes back. I couldn't have done it without this idea. Thank you so much!

amanda.pyscher 10 years ago

i love this! this is the first year i will be able to hang lights outside and i had no ideas for a quick and easy way to do it. i will for sure be giving this a try.

oddartist 12 years ago

Awesome! That's not being lazy, it's being smart!

Weissensteinburg 16 years ago

That's perfect! I wonder why commercial clips aren't more like that.

lazyb 16 years ago

I admit, I'm not sure what the weather will do to these clips. If they get really rusty, I may have to buy some more. But I'm hoping that they'll last at least 2-3 years, maybe more. I'm in Dallas, so we don't get much snow, just some rain. We'll see.
Maybe if I had sprayed the metal part of the clips with some WD-40 before I put them on the gutter that would have helped. I'll have to try that next year.

lazyb 13 years ago

Going on year 4 and so far so good. The WD-40 seems to be helping with the metal parts not getting rusty and the plastic parts have held-up well.

dung0beetle 16 years ago

Its so you can buy more next year.

whowantsbush 16 years ago

I wouldn't be as concerned about the metal clips surviving the outdoors as I would the plastic. I bet they become very brittle and snap on you next year because of cold and UV rays. Good idea though, I hope they end up lasting.

lazyb 13 years ago

I've used the same clips for 3 years in a row now and no problem with brittleness in the plastic parts. There is a little rust forming on some of the metal parts, specifically the snap. After the first year I started spraying a litte WD-40 on the clips and they've help up well.

tlebaron 13 years ago

Try using EZCableClips. They are designed for Christmas Light hanging. They are pretty sweet. They make my light hanging time alot shorter. Look at www.ezcableclips.com

The_Beast 16 years ago

Or you could just leave them up all year :)

blelmblad 16 years ago

This is an awesome idea. I rummaged thru the net and discovered that PLASTIC badge clips are available. Rust issue solved!

wfb3712 16 years ago

Check out this website I found. It's a new product that is supposed to be out next year. Looks like it will make hanging outdoor lights on the house really easy.

It's a strip of trim you affix to your house. Then you attach the lights on a slide piece with clips. Once your lights are on the slide, you just slide that piece into the trim piece already on the househttp://www.billboardtrim.net. It looks really cool. No more up and down on the ladder. Makes putting them up fast and easy, as well as taking them down. Check it out.

fwjs28 16 years ago

Brilliant...

DustyBoots 16 years ago

Such a simple idea! I've used all the other methods, and none of them is great, or they're a PITA to undo. Those "universal" plastic clips, which mean they universally attach to nothing; or the trusty staple gun, with which you inevitably drive staples through the cord; or screw-in hooks which are a PITA to install. I'm going to go outside, I think these badge clips may just do the trick this year.
More Comments