The holidays are a beautiful and decorative time of year. It is easy to get swept up in the magic of it all and go all out with your decorations. With the arrival of New Year’s Day, it’s time to pack all of that away and get back to normal. You deck the halls with bows and garland, but then what do you do with it all? Holiday decor storage doesn’t have to be a problem. There are many creative solutions to your storage needs.
First, designate a space where you will store your items. Make sure you have enough space for all of your holiday decorations. You don’t want to keep your Christmas tree in the attic and your lights in the basement. Also, keep the holidays separate—don’t confuse things by throwing some Halloween costumes or Easter eggs in with your Christmas decorations.
Next, put things away in logical order so that next year’s decorating is easy. You’ll need to put up the tree before the ornaments, and for goodness sake, make sure the Elf on the Shelf is easy to find!
Label everything or get color-coded tote boxes. Knowing which boxes are your holiday boxes is so much easier than rifling through endless totes.
Here are some easy ways to store some of the more popular decorations:
Light strings: These are one of the most frustrating things to pack away because they can get tangled easily. If you pack them correctly, they’ll come out tangle-free every time. Start with the end of the cord in one hand and fold the wire at each light. The end result will be a handful of cord with bunched lights at both ends. Then wrap the extra cord around the bunch in the middle and plug it together in a neat stack. It’s self-contained and requires no ties.
Garland: Especially beaded garland is another easily tangled mess. Take paper towel tubes and cut a small slit in the top and bottom. Insert the end of your garland string in the top and tape over it to secure it. Wrap the garland around the tube and secure the other end in the bottom slip and seal with tape. Voila, no tangles. Bonus points for easy unwrapping around the tree next December.
Ornaments: Usually it’s a good idea to keep ornaments in the box they came in because they are packed in molded plastic for protection. If that’s not an option, you can purchase ornament storage containers with cardboard separators, or you can get creative. Egg cartons make excellent separators for small ornaments. Try plastic apple separators for larger ones, or the mesh sleeves that Asian pears are wrapped with. Re-purpose the plastic air balloons from all of your holiday Amazon shopping to pack them securely.
Christmas Trees: Some years the tree will just not fit back in the box. Try a Christmas tree storage bag. If you use a real tree, instead of leaving it out at the curb for pickup, consider bringing it to a local beach dune rebuilding effort.
Wreaths: You don’t want a crushed, misshapen wreath when it comes time to pull out the decorations in a year’s time. Invest in wreath storage boxes, or hang on a rod with a hanger and cover with a plastic bag.
Wrapping Paper: It is very likely that your holiday wrapping paper goes unused for the rest of the year, unless you were smart and purchased some plain silver or gold paper. There is no need to keep wrapping paper out and unfortunately it doesn’t store easily. First keep the end of the paper secure with a rubber band. To store the tubes: purchase a tall wrapping paper storage box, or you can modify an over the door shoe organizer by cutting holes in the bottom of the two middle rows of pockets and slipping the wrapping paper through. Use the top pockets for ribbons, tags, bows, and tape. Another option is a large plastic garment bag for keeping holiday wrapping paper together.
Gift Bags, Boxes, Bows, Gift Tags, Ribbon, Tissue Paper: You could keep all of these together in a box, but who wants to rifle through a big box just to find what you need to wrap one little present? A clear plastic drawer organizer will handle these items nicely and you can tape labels on the outside.
Stockings: Store heavy stocking hooks inside the stocking to protect them from damage.
Once you’ve boxed up all the individual items in your holiday decor collection, it’s time to put them away until next year. You can stack them all in a corner somewhere and hope for the best, or you can thoughtfully plan your space for the best storage organization. Dallas Custom Closets offers a wide variety of storage options and can create custom shelving, drawers, hooks and hangers all while keeping a pleasing aesthetic in your space. Next December when it’s time to retrieve your decorations, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to get in the holiday spirit!
