All the presents have been unwrapped and the last batch of leftover spaghetti has finally been consumed. Now comes the hardest part of every Christmas season: cleaning up and putting away all the holiday decor.
We round up a few suggestions on how you can properly store your Christmas trimmings, keep these in good condition until you need to take them out when the -ber months turn up again.
Categorize
Whether it’s by theme or color, storing your Christmas trimmings according to category makes the process of decorating and cleaning up simpler and faster. Let’s say you decide to go for a Filipiniana or an all-pink theme, knowing that you placed all local themed decor or all pink ornaments in one container makes both tasks less daunting.
Place in see-through boxes and bags
Nothing is probably more frustrating than getting confused in the clean up and having to open up each and every box and bag to check where you put which ornament. Store everything in transparent plastic bins and ziplock bags so you can easily see where everything went.
Mark with labels
Label each storage box and bag with its contents. Be specific and detailed in your labeling, indicating the theme or items inside, especially if you have a ton of Christmas decor. This will save time when retrieving decorations for the next holiday season.
Fragile items
Wrap delicate and vintage ornaments in tissue paper, old newspapers or bubble wrap to ensure that these are safe. You can also recycle your discarded paper egg cartons to store small and fragile trinkets, especially Nativity set figurines and glass Christmas balls.
Remove all batteries
Make sure you take out the batteries from all battery-operated decor such as lanterns and other tabletop ornaments before storing these away. Keep in mind that you will be keeping these in storage for several months. You wouldn’t want to end up with a busted Christmas train because the forgotten batteries have leaked.
Wreaths
You can store your wreaths in the closet. To keep them from getting flattened or deformed, hang them from wire hangers and cover each with a see-through garment bag or plastic dry cleaning bag.
Lights
Wrap your strings of lights around a piece of cardboard to avoid tangled messes. You can also use store-bought specialized cord organizers. Another option is to put each string of light in separate ziplock bags.
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Christmas tree
Disassemble your tree according to instructions. Keep it in a tree storage bag or box to prevent damaging its branches. If you have enough space in your store room that you don’t have to take your tree apart, lucky you! Just make sure to keep the tree upright and put a covering (an XXL trash bag or a car cover might do the trick) over it to prevent it from being covered with dust.