Holiday Wrap-up: 5 Tips to Store Your Decor

Have you decked your halls with boughs of holly yet? According to reporters at the Washington Post, families are eager to get their holiday decorations up early this year. This eagerness stems from the desire to bring brightness and cheer to what has otherwise been a challenging year for many.

But just as Newton theorized, what goes up must come down. Once the holidays come and go, it will be time to pack and store your wreaths, ornaments, linen, strings of lights, and garland until next year’s festivities. A few key supplies—boxes, bags, and bubble wrap, along with a Sharpie and maybe even a label maker—make easy work of this task.

Pack Like a Pro

Here are 5 tips to pack your holiday decorations like a pro this season:

Lights

Whether nestled in your tree or hanging from your eaves, a glistening string of lights can become a knotted mess if not handled properly—but worry not. Simply be proactive. Using your Sharpie and a slice of masking tape, jot down the string’s essentials (where it’s used and how long it is). Stick the tape near the male plug. Next, starting with the female plug, wrap the string around a reel or strip of cardboard with a notch at one end. Once the string is wound on the reel, the male plug will be at the end, ready for next year’s setup.

Linen

Have you got festive linens—a tree skirt, table runners, cloth napkins, dish towels, and so on—that only come out once a year? Sort them by holiday and place each stack in a labeled hanging vacuum bag. Seal them up and stow all the bags in the rear of a closet, where they’ll be out of the way.

Ornaments

When it comes to ornaments, plastic containers, tissue paper, and bubble wrap are your friends. Use the tissue paper to surround each precious ornament and the bubble wrap to serve as a barrier between layers of stacked ornaments of all shapes and sizes. Storage containers should be moisture resistant and weatherproof so as to protect the ornaments wherever you store them, whether it be the basement, the garage, or a closet. Repurpose a cardboard wine bottle separator to easily store balls in upright rows.

Wrapping paper

A clever option to keep wrapping paper organized and safe is to implement tension rods. Corral rolls upright in the corner of a closet, or if space allows, use one rod per roll, hanging the paper horizontally in a ready-to-use fashion (this works amazingly for rolls of ribbon too!). Alternatively, a wall-mounted plastic bag holder doubles as wrapping paper storage as well. To prevent unraveling of an opened roll, add a small bit of tape to the end of the paper or slice a cardboard tube (from a spent toilet paper or paper towel roll) lengthwise and wrap it like a sleeve around the wrapping paper roll.

Wreaths

Wreaths add a special touch to the holidays, but what is the best way to store them in the off-season? A plastic wreath box is a go-to for protecting the integrity of a bulky wreath. An appropriately sized cardboard box and bubble wrap do the trick as well. Another option is to hang a wreath on a sturdy hanger or hook, cover with a plastic bag, and stow it in a closet.

Wrapping up the holiday season and storing festive decorations for next year is a cinch when you’ve got a plan and some helpful supplies. Store your decor like a pro this year; your future self will thank you. Happy holidays!
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