Plan Your Holiday Decoration Storage Before the Holidays
The holidays are almost here. It’s time to dig out the holiday decorations and transform your home into a festive winter wonderland. As you decorate for the holidays, now is the perfect time to start organizing and sorting through your decorations and plan for their storage after the holidays. Not only will this help you reduce the amount of decorations you need to store, but it will also make it easier to access your decorations next year.
Start by throwing out any items that are broken or missing pieces. Now is also the perfect time to eliminate anything you don’t like or no longer use. Try to keep only those items that have sentimental value or that you truly love. You can give items that are still in good condition to a relative or donate them to a charity.
Once you’ve decided what you’re going to keep, take inventory of those items. Group them into categories. Potential categories might include:
- – Light strands, both indoor and outdoor, along with extra bulbs and extension cords
- – Artificial trees, wreaths, and garland
- – Tree decorations and ornaments, including extra hooks
- – Holiday dishes and serving pieces
- – Holiday linens, including towels, table linens, pillows, and throws
- – Candles
- – Miscellaneous decorations, including freestanding decorations, nativity scenes, and Christmas villages
- – Outdoor and lawn decorations
- – Wrapping items, including paper, bows, gift bags, gift tags, tape, and scissors
Once you have a general idea of the decorations you need to store, you’ll need to get the appropriate containers. You can opt for containers made specifically for ornaments, wreaths, Christmas trees, and gift wrap, or you can use generic containers. Keep in mind that each container should contain like items, such as indoor and outdoor lights. Be sure the container will hold your decorations while leaving plenty of room. Don’t forget to account for tissue or bubble wrap used to protect your decorations from damage. Red and green containers are festive, while clear containers make it easy to see what’s in each container. You can also opt to use the original packaging that the items came in, but keep in mind that plastic containers are sturdier than cardboard packaging. Make sure you also have tissue, newspaper, or bubble wrap on hand to wrap individual pieces.
Once the holidays are over, it’s time to start packing up all the decorations. Use the inventory you created before the holidays to help you remember what goes where. Take the time to store everything properly. Wrap ornaments and other breakables and wrap lights around a storage reel to eliminate the need to untangle them next year.
As you pack items into containers, label the containers with a category on the outside and include a list of contents to store inside each container. Number the containers and keep a master list of what’s in each container and where you’ve placed each container in your storage unit.
As you’re packing all of your decorations away for the season, make a list of anything you’re missing or that was damaged over the season. Keep this list handy for after-Christmas sales or for shopping next year.
If you’re like most people, your holiday decorations take up valuable space in your home. Even if you have invested in the perfect storage containers, they still take up space and leave your home looking cluttered. If you’d like to have that space available year-round for a more productive purpose, consider keeping your holiday decorations in a self-storage unit. Your decorations will be safely stored until the next holiday and you’ll regain usable space in your home. AAA Self Storage of Lansing has a variety of self storage units available to handle all of your holiday storage needs.