With the new year here you may be planning to pack up holiday decorations soon. A little effort spent organizing your storage to prevent tangled lights and broken ornaments will be well worth it when you unpack your decorations next year. To help make decorating as fun and easy as possible next time around, take care while “un-decorating” this year.

Sort and Purge

As with any storage project, it is always wise to sort and purge before storing. Discard or donate items that no longer bring you pleasure or suit your taste. If some of your decorations need repair and you would like to keep them, fix them now before storing so you will enjoy finding everything in good condition next year when you’re ready to decorate.

Storage Containers

Clear plastic bins work well for storing items since you can quickly see the contents. There are also many sturdy containers designed specifically for storing ornaments, lights, wreaths and other decorations that can be found at home stores and online retailers such as ornamentsafe.com,ultimatechristmas.com, ornamentbox.com, and thehomemarketplace.com.

It is helpful to store wrapping paper in a container designed for holding gift wrap. Containerstore.com carries a good assortment of wrapping paper organizers that can hang, stand, roll, or slide under your bed. I like having two containers for wrapping paper – one for holiday paper that stays in the garage until the holiday season, and another for all the other gift wrap used year round for birthdays and other occasions. That one stays near the pantry close at hand.

Store Like Items Together, and Label

Whenever packing any kind of items it makes sense to pack similar things together, and will make decorating next time easier especially if you do it in phases; then you won’t have to bring all of your holiday bins out of storage to search for a few things. Similarly it is always helpful to label storage containers, and use labels that are specific. Instead of several boxes all with the same general label such as “holiday” or “decorations,” you might have a box for “tree ornaments,” one for “mantle display” another for “outdoor lights,” etc.

Plan for next year

Are you running low on gift wrap, lights, cards or other decorating items you know you will need next holiday season? Now is a good time to pick up holiday decor on sale, so if there are a few things you are sure will need you could get them now and include them in your storage, then you’ll know you have everything ready to go for next time. While you’re at it, why not take out your 2016 planner, and make a note on the date you intend to decorate and un-decorate next holiday season.

If you could use assistance with un-decorating or organizing your home or business, contact us to learn how we can help.