Easy Ways To Keep Holiday Decorations Safe And Organized.

We love the holidays and personally I wouldn’t mind leaving the decorations up for just a bit longer.  The twinkling lights give our home so much warmth and coziness. It makes me sad to see it go.

Just look how upsetting Bella finds it:(

The things we have hold so many memories and the majority of it I use over and over again every year. All our things are stored in our basement and its not ideal. We live in the northeast and deal with flooding during power outages and unwanted critters for sure. I’ve managed to keep our things safe for years by taking a few extra steps that, admittedly take a bit more time, but have been worth it when unpacking, decorating the following season and keeping things safe.

We try to get the outdoor decorations nice and dry to lesson the risk of any mold or mildew during storage.  We try to get the lights down before the freezing temperatures and ice begins to form.

We lay them out in our garage either on a mat or across some saw horses for a day or two before repacking. They’re also easier to handle when their dry.

My artificial tree on my porch and any outdoor garland is dried as well.

I leave the lights and bows right on the tree and once dried I wrap the whole thing up in plastic wrap.

I buy a couple of the large cheap rolls from Dollar General or Dollar Tree, start from the bottom and work my way up.

My garlands go all together in wreath storage bags that zipper closed or I use dry cleaning bags.  Several can fit per bag and they are always dust and critter free. These then go into labelled plastic storage bins.

For the holiday linens such as quilts, napkins, tablecloths, runners, tree skirt and stockings I also use dry cleaning bags. They zipper shut and I seal up the air holes with packing tape. Then they go into a plastic storage bin.

The ornaments from the tree go into ornament boxes.

Most are adjustable so if you have larger ornaments you can change the size of the storage compartments. I also take off the hooks, which can be tedious, but I no longer deal with tangled messes and missing hooks.

I place all the hooks in a plastic baggie to keep them altogether. These ornament boxes are placed in plastic bins.

Our tree is artificial and goes back into the box it came in.  To keep critters out I seal up all edges and corners with packing tape. Since this box is large and doesn’t fit into a plastic bin we put the box on wooden pallets or 2 x 4s to keep it off the basement floor again in the chance of any flooding.

Remember:

• Make sure everything is dry before packing it up.
• Use plastic wrap to protect items that are not going into boxes.
• Put storage boxes, especially cardboard, on wood pallets or planks if possible.
• Seal up any holes on cardboard storage containers with packing tape.
• Invest in some ornament boxes, plastic containers, wreath bags or one of my favorites, dry cleaning bags for storage.
• Label the outside of the containers. (I also try to make sure all my plastic containers are the same size and shape so I can stack them easily).

Good luck organizing and storing your holiday decorations:)

Thank you for stopping by,

Roni♥