Are you excited yet? There’s officially twelve days until Christmas and a lot of people are already feeling the buzz that comes around this time of year.
Well, the children are at least.
For the rest of us though, those Christmas stresses are setting in. What are you going to wear to the Christmas party? Are certain family members going to embarrass themselves on Christmas Day again? How on earth am I going to fit ten chairs around that tiny dining table?
Believe us, we know the pain well. And we have some tips to help ease it – all of which involve buckets. Here’s how to use a H&O Plastics bucket on every remaining day before Christmas.
Whether you put your Christmas tree up in November or on Christmas Eve, you can be sure that everything will not be where you left it the year before, especially the tree stand.
Sound like your family? Well fear not because we have got a great homemade solution to your problems. Check out this guide to the perfect homemade Christmas tree stand that we made last year.
Ok so this job isn’t exactly the most glamorous job to be doing over Christmas, but you know it has to be done and you might as well this time off for something right?
H&O Plastic buckets come with handles which makes taking them up ladders much easier. And if you do a good job, who knows, Santa might bring you more presents for being extra good this year.
Well not the halls, but the drive and any pathways could certainly do with a good gritting, especially if you have elderly relatives coming to visit for Christmas.
It’s good practice to have a bucket of grit on standby throughout the winter, because it’s usually the times when you need grit the most when it is so hard to find.
Anyone who’s ever seen a low-budget Christmas movie will know that the true meaning of Christmas is giving back. Pick a charity that means something to you, gather some friends and family and hit the streets to spread some festive joy.
So you have something to collect all of the charity money you should buy and decorate a H&O Plastic container with the colours of the charity you will be representing.
If you have a small army of friends and family coming to visit on Christmas day then you’ll need somewhere to store all of those extra shoes. Early weather forecasts indicate that some northern parts of the country will receive a dusting of snow this Christmas, but many other parts of the country will get more of the heavy rain and gusts coming through.
Either way it’s a good idea to keep a big plastic container by the door to stop muddy/snowy feet being tramped through your lovely clean home.
If you have an open fireplace then you’ll know that there’s nothing finer than a roaring fire on those warm winter nights. And an open fire is even better when you can roast chestnuts or marshmallows on the night before Christmas.
One issue you might have with an open fireplace is where to store firewood. If you haven’t got space inside or a barn outside then you could be in trouble. One of our open top kegs has room to store enough firewood for all of winter.
If it’s your turn to cook the Christmas dinner this year then you might be freaking out about the amount of vegetables you have to prepare on the seventh day of Christmas. Carrots, potatoes, parsnips all of them will produce an awful lot of skins.
Why not take the opportunity to start a compost bin in your back garden. Take a large plastic container and start filling it with organic matter before using it to feed your garden.
If we are blessed with a white Christmas this year, then building an igloo is the perfect way to celebrate. And your bucket can be converted from storage container to construction tool quicker than you can say HO HO H&O.
Get yourself a few rectangular plastic containers from our website and pack them with enough snow to make a brick. Then all you need to do is stack the bricks on top of each other and you'll be on your way to making an igloo. Who knows, if you get enough snow you could even build a snow castle.
The office Christmas party is my favourite part about Christmas. It’s a chance to let loose with the people that you see almost every day. Sometimes though, people can get a little too loose and in these situations it pays to have an H&O plastic sick bucket somewhere close at hand.
With only a couple of days to go until Christmas it might be time to defrost your Christmas turkey. Fill a large bucket with tepid water and weight the bird down so that it’s fully submerged. Once the turkeys defrosted and dry you can wash the container and fill it with ice to keep the lagers cool.
If you are anything like me then you have definitely left the present wrapping to the night before. But plastic buckets come to the rescue again.
Clear a space in the dining room and arrange everything you need in separate buckets – wrapping paper in one, sticky tape stuck around the rim of another. Make up your own system and you’ll be able to avoid the embarrassment of badly wrapped presents – or making yourself look like an Egyptian mummy.
Finally, we present the super adaptable multi-purpose Christmas Day mega bucket that is so versatile it can be used for all sorts of different jobs through the day.
On Christmas morning, your H&O bucket can serve as a wrapping paper disposal unit to keep your living room nice and tidy. By lunchtime your bucket will find its way to the kitchen where it can be used as a turkey de-frosting station, or even as a place to keep the champagne on ice. In the evening, your bucket can be re-purposed again, this time as the perfect Christmas storage pod. Just pack away all the festive decorations, party hats and unwanted gifts and they will be ready to use again come Christmas 2015.
Tis the season for eating and drinking (in large amounts). Whether it’s a batch of mince pies or a cocktail bucket, all this festive joy needs preparing and storing, as well as imbigin.
This is of course where plastic containers have a starring role and so its vital to ensure that they are safe to use. If you bought through our online shop then give yourself a pat on back and carry on safe in the knowledge all H&O buckets and containers are food grade. But if you didn’t, here’s our handy food grade guide to iron out any uncertainties about what you’re using.
We have comprehensive regulations in the UK, for materials that are manufactured for use with foodstuffs. This is to remove the possibility of any inherent chemicals interfering with food stored in or eaten/drunk from the container. For instance, we wouldn’t recommend storing your potatoes in a former paint bucket!
The BuyBuckets food grade container guide
1. The first port of call is to look at the underneath of the plastic bucket / container in question. There should be a recycling number and some arrows and there should also be some numbers. One, four, and five indicate that it is indeed food grade standard and manufactured from the materials PETE, LDPE and polypropylene (PP) however, the ideal plastic for use with food is high-density polyethylene (HDPE) - number two. There is also bio-plastic – an organic, plant-based compound – which also is OK for storing food.
2. Moving to the sides of the container, you may notice some symbols around the sides of the container. These indicate the food grade quality of the container as well its utility i.e. its potential cooking and storage uses and the symbols used should be self-explanatory. If you see a cup and a fork, rest assured that the plastic is indeed food grade. A ‘radiating waves’ symbol indicates the container is microwave-safe, and a snowflake implies that the container (with food in) can be left in the freezer. If you notice a symbol showing dishes in water that will mean its OK to stick the used and dirty container into a dishwasher.
3. Lastly, take care if you’re thinking of re-using any buckets or containers that have an unknown or debatable history. The symbols we’ve discussed refer to new containers and therefore will be meaningless if the container has since been used for mixing chemicals, or storing any toxic substances.
Hopefully this quick guide will be of some help to you when choosing or using plastic buckets and containers. The regulations may seem a bit complex but they are in place to put people at ease. Mind you, if you purchase a food grade container from Buybuckets, you needn’t worry at all, as they are manufactured specifically for food usage.
And a very Merry Christmas from H&O Plastics and the Buybuckets team!
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