Decorating for the holidays is a wonderful thing. Your Christmas tree, all those lights, and the dozens of handmade decorations your children and grandchildren have made for you over the years only add to what makes this time of year so special. But alas, all must be packed away when the Christmas season is over. The task can be enough to make you promise you are not going to do it all again next year.
That’s no way to end a wonderful holiday season. A better choice is to employ a few key strategies that make putting away the Christmas decorations more efficient. The less time you spend on the actual job itself, the more enjoyable the holiday season is.
As you have probably guessed, we’ve come up with some helpful tips. It is what we do. As you start thinking about putting away the Christmas decorations this year, consider the following:
Plastic Freezer Bags
We previously published a post with tips for making your life easier when decorating for the holidays. One of those tips was to use plastic freezer bags to store your Christmas lights in. It is a great idea that will be reiterated here. Freezer bags packed with individual strings of lights keep the strings separated from one another so that they don’t tangle in the box. Next year you will find it is a lot easier to unpack them.
Plastic freezer bags are ideal for all sorts of other decorations, too. For example, they are a great option for storing your advent candles. All those handmade Christmas ornaments will last longer in plastic bags than merely thrown in a box. Use plastic bags for your star tree topper, your garland, and anything else that will fit.
Stackable Storage Tubs
For our money, stackable storage tubs are one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. These are plastic tubs with lids. Some of them offer locking lids while others do not. What is most important is that they stack on top of one another. They are great for storing Christmas decorations.
You might only have one corner of one closet for your decorations. That is not a problem when you use stackable tubs. All it takes is one corner and three or four tubs to put everything away. Your Christmas decorations are kept safe, organized, and out of the way.
Bag Your Tree
Believe it or not, we have worked with clients who never bothered to take the decorations off the tree. And because they were using an artificial tree, there was no need to ‘un-decorate’. They just used large garbage bags to cover the tree before moving it into storage. Setting it up next year was as easy as pulling it out of storage and removing the bags.
Put Out Other Decorations
Our last tip is less about efficiency and more about not leaving yourself feeling empty after all the Christmas decorations are put away. If you are like most people, the house feels bare to you once everything Christmas is put away. That can make you feel a bit down. The solution is to put up other decorations in place of the ones you’ve taken down.
If you are big into Valentine’s Day, January is a great transition between Christmas and the February 14 date. Replace some of your Christmas decorations with Valentine’s Day alternatives. If Cupid’s favorite day is not something you like to celebrate, put up a small handful of spring decorations to get you in the mood and carry you through the final eight weeks of winter.
That day you take down the Christmas decorations does not have to be long and disappointing. Indeed, it will be what you make it. Hopefully, the tips offered here will help you make it a wonderful day. If we can help, do not be afraid to give us a shout. We are standing by to help you with all your personal organizational tasks.