The order December goes up in

Start with what furniture is wearing

Slipcovers and pillow covers are the slowest part of a December room and the easiest to put off. Stretch covers want a chair that is empty and a cushion that is out, so they go on before anyone sets a plate down. Cushion covers are quicker, but they still need the insert pulled and pushed back in, and that is a floor job rather than a sofa job.

We cut our covers to sit on a standard dining chair back and a standard 18 inch insert. Measure the back of your own chair across the widest point before ordering, because a carver with arms behaves nothing like the four plain chairs beside it.

Hang the quiet things next

Ornaments, felt pockets and fabric bags have no cord and no weight worth worrying about, so they can go up in any gap. Doing them second keeps the floor clear for the step ladder later and gets the fiddly work out of the way while the room is still tidy.

A felt calendar pocket wants a wall it can stay on for four weeks. Pick the spot by where a child can reach it rather than by where it looks best from the doorway.

Leave anything with a cord for last

Lit pieces decide where everything else can sit, because a cord has to reach a socket without crossing a doorway. Hang them once the room is otherwise finished and you can see which run is shortest.

• Unwind a whole string on the floor and plug it in before it goes near a wall.
• Hang from the plug end so the lead ends up nearest the socket.
• Keep the last bulb of one string and the first of the next away from a corner, where they end up bent.
• Count sockets before you count strings.

What to do about the packing box

The order you take things down in is the order they want to be found in next year, so pack the room in reverse. Cords come off first and coil loosely by hand, covers come off last and go flat on top. Anything that arrived folded stays folded.