How to Make Christmas Storage Simple & Easy

Christmas time is here, and while you are pulling out all of your decorations you might be thinking, there must be a better way to organize this stuff! We want to give you some great tips to make life easier post Christmas. From solving tangled lights to preventing broken ornaments, we have solutions for you.

It’s best if you can keep your holiday decorations all together in one place, but it shouldn’t take up coveted storage space in your main house and living area. That is why your shed is the perfect place to store holiday, Christmas, and other seasonal decorations.

Consider keeping all of your seasonal decorations, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, etc., in separate containers but in the same location. This way there is just one easy spot to look in for all of your favorite seasonal decorations.

Safe Storage Equals a Long Life for Christmas Decorations

Your Christmas decorations are only as good as the containers you put them in. That is, if you want your ornaments to last, you have to keep them safe and secure! Depending on how much money you have to spend and how much time you have for crafting, there are many DIY solutions and store-bought solutions for your Christmas decoration storage needs that you can choose from.

Storing ornaments:

To keep your ornaments in the best condition, they should be kept in acid free paper. Acid free paper prevents your ornaments from discoloring and won’t scratch your fragile ornaments. It is best to keep your ornaments compartmentalized in whatever storage container you choose. This way, ornaments won’t rub or knock against each other and break or ruin their finish.

Compartmentalized storage also makes it easier to remove ornaments from your storage boxes to put on the tree, and it makes it easier to put the ornaments away. There are store-bought options for compartmentalized ornament boxes, or you could make your own! If you go with store-bought, most likely the container will be made of cardboard.

Cardboard does work for some storage solutions, but in this case is not the best. Rodents love seeking out warm cardboard havens, so make sure your storage space is airtight before you store cardboard boxes of your precious Christmas ornaments in there! For a DIY option, you can take a plastic tub and use plastic cups to compartmentalize your ornaments. Plastic tubs are great storage containers for holiday decorations because you can easily see into them to know what items are contained in each storage box. They also won’t attract rodents, and they will last for several years of holiday decorating cheer!

Wrapping Paper:

Leftover wrapping paper can be tricky to store outside of the home because you must make sure it won’t get damp. Wrapping paper can be stored in large plastic bins with other christmas decorations, but you won’t want to stack anything on top of the rolls or risk squishing them.

A neat trick, if you have hanging space in your shed, is to hang wrapping paper. You can zip them in old garment bags and hang them with a clothing hanger. This will protect the rolls from the elements, keep them off the ground, and prevent them from being squished. Plus, you can hang other wrapping accessories ,tape, ribbon, etc., on the hanger as well, to keep all of your wrapping supplies together.

Christmas Lights:

Everyone’s least favorite holiday decorating activity: untangling all of the lights! First things first: are you one of those people that holds onto old strings of lights year after year? Do you find yourself pulling out at least three strings of lights that are at least half dead? Throw them out! Chances are, you are due for a few new sets of lights.

Thankfully, today’s LED Christmas lights can be used both outdoor and indoor, and are much more energy efficient than older lights. So, by throwing out your old and dead lights, you will be saving yourself some money and some trouble! To store lights and to prevent the untangling in your future, you must wrap the lights around something before storing them.

A good DIY tip is to use old shoeboxes. Trim an old shoe box so that you have a flat piece of cardboard, cut slits in the sides, and wrap the lights around it, looping the string through the cardboard slits. Then, store them away in the shoe box. You can also buy a reel for your holiday lights, or you can repurpose a garden hose reel. This trick is best used for long strings of outdoor lights.

Artificial Christmas Tree:

If you need a new container or method for storing your artificial tree, you can buy a storage bag specifically made for them. These bags will prevent your tree from getting dirty or becoming misshapen while being stored in your shed.

Some artificial Christmas tree storage bags allow you to store your tree mostly assembled and decorated, which will save you a ton of time next year. If you are more of a DIYer, you can sew your own artificial tree bag.

The holidays can be a stressful time, but it should really be a time to enjoy your friends and family. Make the holidays easier for yourself and your family by following these tips to well organized Christmas decorations!