Holiday Decoration Storage Tips

Holiday decorations can accumulate quickly over the years. Soon you have a whole room dedicated to holiday decoration storage. Here are some tips for keeping your holiday decorations in order.

First of all, if you didn't use some of your holiday decorations this year, consider getting rid of them. You will have fewer holiday decorations to store year-round, and fewer decorations to sort through when the time comes to decorate again.

If you own an artificial Christmas tree, invest in a tree storage bag. A Christmas tree storage bag will cost around $10 and will keep your tree nicer for longer. Eleven months is a long time for your artificial Christmas tree to be gathering dust in your basement.

Also, consider leaving Christmas lights on your artificial Christmas tree. If you spend a little extra time putting them on well, you can leave them on while storing your holiday decorations and save time putting them up again next year. You will have to change out any strands that burn out, but this is less effort and cheaper than pre-lit artificial Christmas trees.

Holiday wreaths, whether for inside or your front door, should be stored in a wreath box. This will prevent your wreath from being smashed, or having branches broken.

Keep packaging for fragile items like ornaments and ceramics. When storing your holiday decorations, you will not be able to protect your glass icicle ornaments better than the original packaging.

Sort your decorations by type. Put holiday lights in one box, ornaments and Christmas tree decorations in another. Label everything. This will save you time later, as you will be able to sort through your holiday decorations quickly and find what you need. Your holiday decorations will also be better protected when separated by type. A tree stand packed in a box of delicate tree ornaments could easily lead to disaster.

If you have a lot of holiday decorations, another option is to sort by room. This will save you from carrying a box upstairs only to find that it contains decorations you use downstairs. Just be sure to pack heavier holiday decorations at the bottom of the box and more fragile ones on top.

Strings of lights can be one of the most difficult types of holiday decorations to store. Putting each string in a separate gallon-sized Ziploc bag is one idea for keeping strings of lights untangled. Another option is to put an industrial twist-tie around each set. Or cut off the front of a cereal box and wrap a string of lights around it. Whatever your storage method, fastening the beginning and end of each string to itself to limit the amount of tangling.

Finally, don't mix other holiday decorations with your Christmas decorations. There is a pretty good chance that you'll forget they are there, or be unable to find them when the time comes.