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Although you may still enjoy your holiday decorations, the time when you have to consider storage options will come soon. Except for Marie Kondo, Clea Shearer or Joanna Teplin (their collective enjoyment and organizational skills are impressive and legendary), organizing seasonal decorations is usually not what people expect.
However, as we learned from the organization guru on Netflix, each project has its own special position, which makes us feel somewhat satisfied. To help guide the time to restore holiday decorations, certified professional organizer Amy Trager and UNITS mobile and portable storage founder and CEO Michael McAlhany shared their ideas on how to successfully and rationally organize and store seasonal decorations Skills.
Trager and McAlhany suggested one room for one room, rather than arbitrarily concentrating all the seasonal decorations in one bunch (albeit tempting).
“Pack all the tree decorations together-decorations, lights, tinsel, tree skirts,” Trager said. “Then put the village scene on the mantelpiece in one container, and the garland and wreath in another container. Label the container accordingly to make decoration for next year easier.”
“Even if you use a transparent plastic storage box to store decorations, the label can help you identify the items in it,” McAlhany said. “Separate the trash bins according to the holidays, and put a label on each trash bin to indicate the contents.”
To better protect larger single items, McAlhany offers a strategy of using transparent pockets (the kind designed for storage hooks and hangers) to help keep the decorations free of stains and dust.
Although many people’s holiday decorations are sentimental, sometimes you just buy (or give away) past decorations out of date. And often a gingerbread man lacks a leg or a snowman lacks a part to let go. But letting go does not always mean going to the trash can one way.
“First, check your decorations and throw away anything you don’t want to keep,” McCal Hanney said. “This way, you have time to evaluate what new things you need (or want) to buy next year.”
Moreover, he added a good rule of thumb: “If you didn’t use it last year, then you don’t need it this year. Donate unopened or slightly used decorations.”
“Store anything covered with glitter in a large zipper bag and keep it sealed to prevent the glitter from spilling everywhere,” Trager said. “Wrap light strings or fine garlands in empty paper towel rolls or paper tubes so that they won’t get tangled next year.”
McAlhany said he even used clothes hangers and cardboard to help prevent the lights from becoming chaotic.
“Just make sure to put the heavier decorations on the bottom of the trash can and the box,” Trager said, and put the carton on the top (like bagging in a grocery store).
Trager recommends reusing any post-holiday wrapping paper and tissues that cannot be used as beautiful decorations for future gift wrapping. Likewise, McAlhany said to keep any original packaging.
“Why waste money and time to buy special boxes or containers for decorations because they are already packed in a box?” he said.
Basements and attics are usually common places to store holiday items. However, these seemingly innocent spaces do not always have climate control, which can lead to melting and distorted holiday accidents rather than attractive or usable decorations.
“If you are lucky enough to have a spare bedroom or office with closet space, this may be an ideal storage area, as long as there is enough space to store all the decorations together,” Trager said.
And, if you have no space at all, McAlhany said: “Store your decorative hooks, ribbons, and decorative baubles in Mason jars. They look attractive on the shelf, and they can protect fragile items.”
As a sweet parting reminder, McAlhany has a brilliant idea to store a sentimental but often thrown away item during the winter holidays: holiday cards. He recommends not to throw them away, but to make holes in the ones you want to keep and make a small coffee table book to enjoy the next vacation.