Storage Tips for Your Christmas Decorations
Most Americans that celebrate the Christmas holiday have a huge volume of boxes that they store away in the attic, storage shed, garage and any other place they can tuck away the festive decorations and memorabilia. There is a wide range of people and their habits about decorating during the season. Some start decorating around Thanksgiving and the remaining others get to it sometime during December. The “deChristmasing” can take place as quickly as December 26th and the Orthodox Churches go into January after their January 7th Christmas celebration.
Taking down and storing the massive amounts of Christmas decorations, lights, tree, ornaments, etc. can be very time consuming and extremely stressful trying to figure out where to put everything, organizing, determining how to store items without breaking or tangling them up. The goal is to make it easy for when you bring the items out of storage for next season.
Storage Ideas
There are a ton of ideas for customized storage of your precision Christmas items out there. Here are a few specifically recommended by Reader’s Digest:
Wreaths
If you’ve been shoving your wreath into a shopping bag or trying to wedge it into a wrong-sized box, you might be pleased to know large plastic containers and garment bag-style boxes are available specifically for wreath storage. Target has many affordable options which will keep your wreath intact and dust-free. If you can’t swing the specialized box, hang the wreath on a hanger and cover it with a plastic dry-cleaning bag to keep your wreath safe.
Ornaments
Two solutions for ornaments:
- Instead of recycling that cardboard egg carton, save it as an organizer for more breakable ornaments. “Empty egg cartons are the perfect solution for storing fragile bulbs and other small ornaments. Secure it closed with a rubber band and make sure to stow it on its own shelf or on top of the other decorations, to keep the ornaments safe.
- The obvious solution here is a dedicated Christmas ornament storage box and keeps even glass globes safe and secure till you need them again. If that’s not an option, what you don’t want to do is put ornaments into bins directly, because you’ll risk breakage and mess. If you must DIY your ornament storage, the pros advise putting the globes into plastic bags, then into shoeboxes, and then into bins. So, if one or more ornaments breaks, instead of cleaning the bottom of the bin, you’ll have to rescue only the unbroken ornaments from the bag before tossing it.
Label maker
The goal of any Christmas storage project is to keep everything organized, safe, and out of the way until next year. Pro organizers swear by the simple brilliance of a label maker and clear plastic boxes. If you can label and see everything you store, you’ll have an easier time pulling it out in the future. Get ready to transform your life with these creative label maker tricks!
Lights
Use any leftover cardboard from boxed Christmas presents to wrap your lights. Christmas lights can be one of the most frustrating parts of organizing Christmas decor, but if you wrap them around 8 x 10-inch pieces of cardboard, they’re less likely to get tangled. This solution will keep the lights organized and keep your recycle bin empty. Use zip-ties to corral cords of particularly tricky holiday lights. When you wrap the lights around the ties, it’ll prevent serious tangles (and frustration) next year.
Artificial Tree
If you’re using an artificial tree and have to unpack and re-pack it every year, The Family Handyman has a tip for you: Use duct tape to color-code each layer of your artificial tree. When the time comes to unpack it the next year, it’ll be so much easier to assemble. Here are the secrets your Christmas tree wishes you knew.
Wrapping Paper
Leftover Christmas wrapping paper can be a pesky thing to store, especially since it can wrinkle, rip or fade over time. Stores sell wrapping paper boxes, but if you want an easier solution use a garment bag. Just grab all the loose rolls causing clutter in your closet and place them neatly in a garment bag. Hang the bag in the closet and easily access what you need when its gift-wrapping time!
Purge Collection
This year as you are putting away your holiday decorations, make the tough decisions whether or not you want to keep all of them. Purge where you can. Are items broken? Have your style and taste changed over the years of collecting? Can you give your adult children some hand me downs of tradition?
Just spending a little bit more time and effort this year will save you an amazing amount of time, stress and hassle for next year pulling out your decorations.
Hire a Professional
To maximize your storage, give you sage expertise, ideas of products, etc., it is recommended that you hire a professional closet organizer. Hit the easy button!
To schedule your transformative consultation with a professional master closet designer from Southern Closet Systems, residents of New Tampa, Brandon, East Lake, Madeira Beach, or any of the surrounding areas can contact us today.
Contact Us
In business since 1983, Southern Closet Systems was the first custom closet company ever to serve the Tampa area. From our factory and showroom in Odessa, Florida, we’ve assisted thousands of clients with our custom closet designs, storage cabinets, shelving and other accessories.
Give us a call today to make an appointment at 727-447-7227 (in Pinellas), 813-926-9348 (in Pasco) and 813-855-2255 (in Hillsborough) or send us an email.
