Quick tips on organizing Christmas decorations so that you can find what you need easily next year.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday and that you had a delightful time with friends and family. I just finished putting away all of our holiday decorations and wanted to share with you my tips for organizing Christmas Decorations. We have about 5 boxes of indoor decorations and 3 boxes of outdoor lights, plus a few window lights. These items have to be organized for storage or I would go nuts (not to mention my hubby would not be so happy since these all are stored in our garage). This post contains affiliate links at no extra charge to you.
Organizing Holiday Lights
We use indoor lights for our Christmas tree. I have found that the easiest way to organize these, is by wrapping the string around a piece of cardboard. When I am wrapping the lights, I start from the bottom segment first, that way the top of the tree (where I will start decorating and unraveling next year) is on the top. I also put a little note with tape to remind me. This makes it so easy to get these on the tree next year.
Organizing Ornaments
Most of my ornaments are different shapes so I pack them in shoe boxes with tissue paper or newspaper. For larger specialty ornaments. I make little storage pockets for them with bubble wrap. It is a great way to repurpose the bubble wrap and safely store breakable ornaments. To make your own, just cut bubble wrap to twice the size of your item and tape two sides together to create a pocket. That's my ornament from one of my many trips to Las Vegas. It needed a custom package due to its size and shape.
You can also make some cool storage containers using red plastic cups attached to a piece of cardboard. Glue the cups to the cardboard and once dry, place an ornament in each cup. You can layer these in 2-4 layers a plastic storage bin with a lid.
For under $10 you can buy a nice segmented ornament box on Amazon.
Organizing Outdoor Lights
Outdoor lights are kept tidy on plastic storage wheels. This is simply the best way I have found to store light strings in a way that will allow for easy unraveling the following year. Large pieces like these bears and window lights are kept in their original containers. This makes them easy to spot and they always fit.
Organizing Christmas Decor
These items all are stored in large plastic bins. I also label each bin with a label. This really helps because I know where items for each room are stored. It saves a lot of time to add this little step. Otherwise, you might find yourself searching all the boxes for a particular item. I know because this used to happen to me. You can also add labels with the items included such as stockings, server ware, ornaments, etc. Kids especially love to make labels and can help with this.
I also store anything on a strand in baggies or boxes. This prevents them from getting tangled. This is my mini dollar store banner I made a few weeks ago.
These little boxes were from the dollar store and they double as table decorations. Score!
Do you have any great tips for your Christmas decoration storage? Let me know in the comments.
Kathy @ Creative Home Expressions
Hi Raquel - thanks for your visit! : ) Love your tips. I have not put my decorations away yet. I go a few more days before I do that, but I also want to go through my decorations this year and purge a little. I also am going to label my bins/boxes so I know what is in what. I would like to try and put like with like to make it easy to find things. I've got a few empty shoe boxes I can use so thanks for that tip!
Happy New Year!
Raquel
Hi Kathy! Yes, it feels so good to purge once in a while as space is treasured at our house. 🙂 I hope you have a wonderful New Year!
AJ
This is so great! I'm sitting here staring at my tree and much less overwhelmed about taking everything down than I was ten minutes ago!
Raquel
Thanks AJ! And I am still watching that Blank Space/Style YouTube mashup! 🙂
Akaleistar
Plastic bins really make storing decorations a lot easier to find 🙂
Jen
These are great tips! I am starting the process of bringing it all down today. I will definitely be using some these. Thanks for sharing!
Tamara
I tried to comment this morning but my stupid phone deleted it!
I was so impressed by this post, and with my husband. We have a similar system! He wraps the lights (I don't touch those) and we put the ornaments in packing material and then in ornament boxes.
Everything gets neatly put into 2-3 red and green bins!
jackie
i just put all our christmas decor away and did my best to keep things organized since i know i'll be thankful next year when i pull everything out!
Raquel
Awesome Jackie and I bet you will be really glad you did next year. Happy New Year!
Laura Funk
Why did I never think about bubble wrap! I also need to get my hands on a label machine because the sharpie is just not working well. Great tips, thank you!