Let me begin by apologizing for the delay in my first post of this series. The local winter bug made its way through our household this last week putting all to-do’s on hold. Thankfully the family has recovered and here I am with the first post.
So as it is the beginning of January it is time to begin taking down and storing away all the Christmas decor we all spent so much time putting up. As it is that these pieces only come out of storage once a year, it is vital to store them in an organized way to avoid days filled with tangled lights, broken ornaments, and angry people come next Christmas.
1. Tree Storage: This year my husband and I bought our very first tree, and yes it was nearly 8 feet of artificial, store bought, beauty. And after reading one to many spiders-in-real-Christmas-tree stories this year, I don’t regret not getting a real tree one bit. If you too are the owner of an artificial beauty than you understand the importance of proper storage.
Most artificial trees are put together each year using a color coding system of limbs to trunk like this. Now these tiny stickers are exactly long lasting and it is not an enjoyable experience trying to put up the tree while playing “guess what level this limb goes on?!” because the stickers fell off.
I promise these are the matching pairs.
In an attempt to prevent this likely headache, putting a reminder of what goes where on the box [you use it to store the tree anyhow] will keep the tree experience holly and jolly next year.
2. Ornament Storage: Now perhaps I am wrong, but I like to imagine most people approach Christmas decorating in the same color “themed” way that I, myself do. I LOVE picking one color or two and going nuts. But in order to do this I must first be able to access [with ease] the necessary colors. Over the last few years, in order to accommodate this completely obsessive normal method of decorating, I have been storing ornaments by color.
If you wait until after Christmas you can get all sorts of storage bins on sale. I snagged two of these from Lowes for $5 each. I cut cardboard to the width of the box [on hand thanks to all the boxes from gifts] and slid them inside to separate the various colors.
And VOILA…..the final product. A second bin holds our red ornaments and all our sentimental ornaments.
3. Wrapping Supplies. Now I admire and frankly drool over the wall mounted, whole closet dedicated, wrapping stations. In fact, if I had the space I’d gladly dedicate a couple square feet to gift wrapping, but as it stands in our home it just isn’t feasible. But worry not readers, organizing your wrapping supplies can happen without emptying out a linen closet.
Personally, I like having all my supplies in a single container. This allows quick grab and wrap sessions. For my supplies I chose an under the bed, flat storage container. [Mine contains shorter rolls of paper but the long under the bed storage containers will hold full rolls of paper using this method.]
4. Light Storage: Tangled lights are a sure fire way to start the holiday season off on an irritated foot. In an attempt to eliminate this lights are stored on [yet again] pieces of cardboard. By wrapping the lights around the cardboard you limit tangles and allow for labeling and easy color identification.
5. Labels, Labels, Labels. And my last piece of advice is this….Take the time to label your boxes. You will save yourself a lot of time when you are able to grab the exact box you are looking for versus spending countless hours rummaging through box after box looking for that darn tree topper.
Good luck and please share any holiday supply storage tips you have!
