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Christmas stocking gift ideas

by Christmas

I always used to struggle filling up my children’s stockings.  It is not always easy looking for small gifts that easily fit.  I still have younger children in my family and I absolutely love to put together a stocking for them.

There are so many options for what to put in a Christmas stocking. The traditional approach to a Christmas stocking for kids is to fill the toe of the stocking with either an easy-peel orange or satsuma, or a Terrys chocolate orange.

Other ideas include adding the traditional gold coins which you could do by adding in a small bag of chocolate coins or even some money.

Putting together the stockings at Christmas is one of my favourite Christmas activities and these little. nik naks are always really appreciated sometimes more so than the big expensive items.

Last year I went on a Christmas Stocking mission and this is what I have come up, hopefully this will help give you a few more ideas.

  • Scratch card
  • Gift cards
  • Lego min figure
  • Plasticine pack
  • Hair bobbles
  • Hair clips
  • Match box car
  • Pen
  • Pencil
  • Rubber
  • Money
  • Key ring
  • Socks
  • Tattoo
  • Stickers
  • Glow sticks
  • Card game
  • Glitter
  • Badge
  • Nail polish
  • Funky tooth brush
  • Bouncy Ball
  • Marbles
  • Christmas earrings
  • Nerf Bullets
  • Chocolate
  • sweets
  • Candy Cane
  • Book mark
  • Bag decoration
  • Small action figure

Don’t forget some adults love a Christmas stocking too. For adults, stocking fillers could be chocolate, some fruit, something useful like socks and maybe some mini perfume samplers or skin creams to fill space. You can also be a little cheeky and add a cocktail can to start the festivities.

The 5 gift rule

The 5 gift rule is a useful way to plan buying gifts. This is particularly useful if you are buying for children or a large family. The 5 gift rule helps you plan for a variety of different types of gifts whilst keeping the number of gifts sensible.

For presents the general 5 gift rule is:

  • 1 thing they want
  • 1 thing they need
  • 1 thing to read
  • 1 thing to wear
  • 1 thing to do

Hope this has given you some stocking inspiration don’t forget my Christmas Calendar countdown is now available.

Happy Christmas Planning

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10 General Cleaning Hacks for around the home.

by Cleaning Tips

I have rounded up some of my favourite cleaning tips for you to help keep your home extra clean and pristine. Some of these are so easy and simple to do and will literally take no time at all.

1 – Cleaning cloths and sponges really do harbour germs.  My tip is to pop them in the microwave for 2 minutes to kill all those nasty germs.

2 – Use salt to clean the iron plate on your iron. Pour some salt onto a tea towel or old cloth and iron over this without the steam option this will help release any sticky patches or dirt.

3 – The best way to clean your windows is the old-fashioned way with a newspaper and white wine vinegar.

4 – Pop on you rubber cleaning gloves and dampen one of these and then you pick up stray pet hair from Cats and Dogs.

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5 – Put the kids plastic toys in the dishwasher to get them germ free.

6 – Remove hard water stains with Lemons, cut a lemon in half give the stain a good rub, leave for a while and then rinse with warm water.

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8 – Never leave your toothbrush near the toilet as when flushed the germs will jump up and can land on your brush…. Keep as far away as you can. Toothbrushes are full of bacteria from daily usage to keep them clean you can wash them with mouthwash or add a few drops of white wine vinegar to a glass and sit your toothbrush in it for around 15 minutes. White wine vinegar is a natural cleaner.

9 – When cleaning your make up brushes, got a bowl and add boiling water and a small squirt of your shampoo and then let them swirl around for a while.  You don’t want all the bacteria being spread all over your face so try to make this a weekly job.

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10 – To get your bath towels nice and fluffy put a big heaped spoonful of bicarbonate of soda into the washing machine try or drum and then put on a hot wash. This will help bring your towels back to life and will keep them nice and fluffy.

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I hope you have found this home hacks useful and thank you for reading.

Queen of Clean xoxox