A BUSY mum has come up with a simple hack to get a perfectly decorated Christmas tree in just 10 minutes – and it’s so easy.
Gillian Cowie said that she used to spend up to two hours decorating and tweaking her tree each year with lights, tinsel and baubles until she got it “just right”.
But for the past 10 years, the 39-year-old has been carefully wrapping it up in cling film before storing it away until the following year – and she hasn’t looked back since.
The call centre operator has a cherished Christmas bauble collection from all over the globe and said she’s quite ‘anal’ about their display – so the hack has saved her a lot of time and effort.
Footage captured by the mum-of-one unveiling her 6ft artificial tree with all its bells and whistles intact in under 10 minutes have amassed more than 162,400 likes, comments and shares on TikTok.
Gillian, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, said: “It’s to save time because I’m quite a perfectionist with all the baubles, lights and tinsel – so it takes me a long time to get everything just right.
“I absolutely wouldn’t go back to my old way of doing it, it’s so much easier.
“I like different baubles so if anybody goes on a holiday I like them to bring back a Christmas decoration and I’ve got baubles from Australia, Spain, Mexico and New York.
“And I like them displayed in a specific way so you can see those baubles. I probably am quite anal about the way I put on baubles, so it certainly saves me time.
“Some people might be able to swing up a Christmas tree in half an hour I don’t know.”
The Christmas lover would spend between an hour and a half to two hours decorating her tree.
She said that as long as it’s wrapped quite tightly and some of the branches are bent in, it stays safe and secure until the following year.
With a roll of cling film costing as little as 79p from Asda, the hack is as cheap as it is clever.
But Gillian said she will be buying recyclable cling film to wrap it in this year.
She added: “I must have been doing this for around ten years.
“I think someone mentioned it to me that it was something that they did and I thought ‘I’m going to try it’ and I have, it’s dead easy.
“I just wrap it up at the end of December or whatever and it goes down in the garage until the following year.
“Everybody loves it – they keep saying ‘I’m going to do it this year’ if I put a picture on Facebook.
“My son always helps me wrap and unwrap it.
“I think when people first see it, they think it’s a bit crazy but when they see me taking it off they’re like ‘right, ok’ because it doesn’t get crushed or anything, I’ve never broken any baubles.”
Gillian shared videos of the crafty idea on TikTok – with one alone amassing more than 157,000 views.
One user said: “Absolute genius.”
Another commented: “Omg this is brilliant.”
A third remarked: “I wanted to do the same this year. I wish I did.”
A fourth said: “This is the best idea I have actually ever seen.”
Meanwhile, a fifth commented: “I’m so glad I have storage room now bc I have wanted to do this for years!!!”
