Storage And Organization Solutions For Your Holiday Decorations!

Maybe you have already put your holiday decorations away this season and maybe you are just sick of the mere mention of the holidays, but making changes to the way you organize your decorations now will change your life.  Okay, it's possible that I'm over exaggerating the outcome. But I can promise, if Christmas music isn't keeping you merry & bright while you're lugging box after box from the basement or attic, having a better storage system will definitely help! Especially when it comes time to everything down and pack it away, because there is no after Christmas music to keep you cheerful...someone still needs to invent that! 


Beautiful & practical holiday storage boxes.

 
 I have always felt I had to mentally gear up for a 2 day commitment of lugging, looking, unpacking, and searching through mounds of tissue paper in various containers all in the effort to make Christmas happen.  The middle part aka holiday decorating, I love and thoroughly enjoy! But after the successful execution of that event, when things are winding down, was the nagging knowledge of another 2 day ordeal of making Christmas disappear!

I already had a basic system in place with large red and green plastic bins purchased years ago. Gathering it all in one place is the first step. It doesn't matter what color storage boxes you choose, but stick to one that will be for holiday storage only and easy to identify.


From our basement storage room makeover last fall. 

   The next step is to give each bin or box a label.  Being able to identify at a glance, without removing a single lid, what each bin contains will feel like a gift from Santa! The labels need to be specific. This is so important if you truly want the "pack-up" to go quickly and painlessly...meaning everything fits back into the exact same place it came from.  Added bonus: labeled boxes are the best solution when you come across that one thing that got left behind and used to get shoved in some random place!


Specific labels are key to easy decorating. What a pretty box
with it's Acanthus Leaf motif!

A small tree in my daughter's room decorated
with her collection of dog ornaments.

My son's tree with all his childhood ornaments.

Each year I put the box in the hallway between their two rooms
 for them to carry out their tradition of decorating their own little
 trees and pack them away after Christmas!

 
Eventually, I realized I that my bin labeled "glass balls" was not working as well as I had hoped. It just wasn't large enough. I have a set of large peacock blue glass balls and a few others that are over sized that did not come in packages. I was storing them loose in tissue and I was always concerned they would break. I needed storage for them and that got me thinking about why was so hung up about keeping everything in it's original package? The solution??? Sort and store the glass balls by color. So I last year I figured out what additional storage was needed and ordered it.  While I waited for it to arrive, it gave me time to sort through several bins and figure out what could be donated. I remember It wasn't until the first week of February before everything was put away. Totally worth it!!!


Sort by color!

  

These gorgeous peacock blue glass balls are my favorites.

Finally, a place for these too.

I like using index cards for labels because they are cheap and easy to write on and read. For the plastic bins I just tape the label to the end facing out.  For the cardboard/fabric covered boxes I put it on top of the contents inside the box. If you really want to go all out, take a photo of the contents of each bin and that way no matter who packs it up, there is no question about what goes where. This will also help you identify what type of storage containers you are lacking so you will be able to make a list of what needs to be purchased.

These storage solutions for my holiday decorations came from Target, Container Store and Ultimate Christmas Storage .  One last thing. I absolutely think it's worth purchasing acid free tissue and shredded filler. It will keep your decorations safe from breakage and the possibility of corrosion. Do it once, do it right and you will be one happy Elf next year!