It’s that time again. Time to take down all the Christmas decorations and pack them away for 11 more months. First things first though. I get my mini vacuum, damp cloth and label maker out to help with the cleaning and organizing of the totes. Do you organize by rooms or decor? It really doesn’t matter. Which ever way works best for you is what you should do. I organize by decor, because I change my rooms up a little every year. Such as Nutcrackers:
Small Trees and Wreaths:
Plastic ornaments (I use these in glass bowls, in greenery, at the base of plants, under cloches, etc.):
Also totes for Reindeer, Santa’s, Greenery, Large Ornaments, Big Tree Ornaments, etc.
When I’m packing away the ornaments on the big tree I try to make it as easy as possible. I have a separate box for every child’s ornaments and pack them away so they can put their own ornaments on the tree next year. Here’s how I lay them out to make it easier for me as I take the ornaments off the tree. Then all the boxes go in a large tote labeled Big Tree Ornaments:
This is how I store those vintage and special glass ornaments. I saw it on Martha Stewart, I think. First I put paper towels or tissue in the bottom of a plastic or paper cup. Add the ornament:
Then cover the ornaments with tissue or paper towels and place in a smaller tote. Put on the lid and place in a larger tote. Safe and sound till next year:
I label all the front of the totes, then stack them as close as I can to what order I might need them in next year:
I store all the Christmas totes in the cold storage area, in our basement, under the front porch. It’s pretty narrow, but wide enough that I can stack totes on each side and have enough room to stand in between them and get the one I want.
I cover trees, large nutcrackers, and other large items with garbage bags, so I don’t have to vacuum them too much next season. I also keep a tote labeled “new decorations” for Christmas items I find throughout the year. This way I don’t have to take down totes, add things, then put them back. Now is also a good time to evaluate what decorations you didn’t use this year and probably won’t next year. Donate them to a charity, give to a friend or repurpose them for next year.
I hope some of these ideas have helped you with organizing your holiday storage. Tomorrow the kids go back to school, hubby goes back to work and I start training for a half marathon and get to deep cleaning the house. I guess it’s back to normal here.
I really like the idea of storing more delicate ornaments in the plastic cups. Mine are all put away, but I’ll be keeping this in mind for future storage projects.
I so wish I would have seen this a week ago when I took my decorations down. I used my label gun to label everything but the plastic cup idea is brilliant! I’ll have to do that next year. Blessings in 2010!
I love your organizing post!!!
You know I’m a bit of a “neat nut” too. I bought more bins this year so I’d have room for the old and new. I store all my tinsel/garland/toppers in one,
tree skirts/stockings/santa hats in another,
lights and extension cords for them in another,
older glass ornaments for my hurricanes and shelf decor and the kids special ones in a specific ornament box, the rest of the ornaments in another now bigger tote (all shatterproof thanks to too many broken ones from kids and cats),
and finally a few boxes with other decor based on size and object, pillows together, wreaths together etc.
I keep all my stuff labeled and under the basement stairs in red/green totes. Halloween is black/orange. Spring in blue and fall in tan.
I was putting it all away when I noticed that my plan to use red/gold next year left me short on red ornaments, so I had to go buy more and ended up buying more stuff altogether so next time I’m out I need to look for yet another container.
I just remembered I have another 4ft tree in the garage. I was at goodwill and a lady next to me was unloading it and I jokingly told her you are supposed to keep the trees up until January and she said she had too many and asked if I wanted it, that she’d rather give it to me than take it in the store. Take it I did!
I have found that my artificial trees and wreaths tend to smell ‘plastic/chemically’ after storing in plastic bags.
So this year I bought a queen sheet for $1 at a thrift store and made a “treecase” for the 4′ tree – dropped it in after folding it up, tied the top closed and used a king pillowcase for the tabletop tree. I stacked the 4 wreaths, wrapped them like a package in the remaining piece of sheet and tied them up with household twine. As they are compact and non-shifting I was able to put them on the top shelf out of the way with the other trees laying on top of them.
You are so much more organized that me. That said, I had to comment and thank you for sharing the ornament in the cup idea. I love that and may just take some tubs back out and reorganize that way.
My WFMW Post:Works-For-Me Wednesday: New Year’s Tradition