Getting Ready For the Holidays

No time of year is more dangerous for your Arts & Crafts home and collection than the next two months. From Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, your home is apt to be invaded by guests, family, friends and strangers, many of whom will have no idea the value of that brown table they are so casually setting their steaming cup of hot cider on.

Here, then, are a few tips for protecting your collection and your home:

1.) Move your valuable art pottery from out in the open into closed bookcases or china cabinets. Then lock them.

2.) Apply a coat of old-fashioned paste wax to any flat surface of your furniture. Do not cheat by using any aerosol products, creams, soaps, liquid polishes, beeswax, linseed oil or lemon oil. These do not provide enough protection against heat, grease and alcohol.

3.) Place a plastic dropcloth beneath your decorative Christmas tree skirt to protect your hardwood floor against spilled water.

4.) Check the bottom of chairs legs and footstools for any metal glides or tacks that would scratch your floor or snag a rug.

5.) Place throw rugs at each entrance for people to wipe the grit off their shoes.

6.) Put new doormats outside as well.

7.) Lay drink coasters and napkins out in plain sight. Everywhere.

8.) Reglue any loose chair rugs now. When one glue joint fails, the others have to withstand more pressure - and may not.

9.) Check the underside of pottery for any rough spots that would scratch a finish if it was slid across a table.

10.) Replace valuable antique table runners with modern replacements that can be washed.

11.) Have extra trivets handy for hot dishes.

12.) Make sure you don’t have any electrical cords that someone could trip over, pulling a valuable lamp off the table.

13.) Be careful with candles. Both the heat and the wax can leave permanent marks.

14.) Do not delay cleanup until the next morning. Pick up all glasses, plates and silverware before you go to bed -- and before they have time to leave a permanent stain.