How many times have you been to the attic to get your lovely Christmas decorations and lights to find them all tangled and broken? Then you regret not storing them away properly in the first place. So this now costs you more money as you go shopping for more decorations to fill your house and tree.
The thing is that when we put our decorations up, we are so happy and full of excitement for Christmas. Then when it comes to taking them all down, it becomes a chore. Then it all just gets thrown in a box and not stored properly. It is so easily done and we think that they will not get damaged, but they do! So we wanted to share some ideas on how to store your lovely Christmas decorations ready for the following year and many years to come.
Fairy lights
These are the worse for getting tangled up. We put them up in so many different places like our stair bannisters, around mirrors. They go on the Christmas tree and even outside. But then left to tangle when they come down. We all know that the boxes they come in never last.
So you can wrap them around something cylindrical. For small fairy lights with battery power, you can wrap them around a loo roll and place the battery pack inside the tube. Then they will stay tangle-free until next year. Make sure you take the batteries out of the battery pack, otherwise they could leak.
For bigger sets of Christmas lights, you can wrap them around a Pringles tub. Then place the plug inside the Pringles pot. The lid should still fit on there but if not, add a little tape to the lid. You can also pop any extra lights that you have inside the Pringles pot.
Looking After Fragile Decorations
Fragile decorations are usually the most important ones. Maybe they are ones from your baby’s first Christmas or the lovely Christmas decorations that you have had since you were a child. Whatever the reason. You need to look after them as you store them away for another year.
When you open your Christmas gifts on Christmas day, keep the tissue paper or bubble wrap. If you get a gift in a sturdy box, keep that for storing a precious ornament. Wrap the ornament or decoration in the tissue paper that you saved and bubble wrap. Pop it in the box that you have saved too.
This is great recycling and it is protecting the most precious decoration. Seal the box with tape. Also make sure you pop the unbreakable decorations on the bottom of the pile of decorations and the fragile, precious ones on the top. Then they won’t get bashed or squashed.
Storing Bows And Gift Tags
If you have leftover bows or gift tags, pop them in a glass jar. then you can see them at a glance. You don’t even need to store these away as you can use them all year round on birthday gifts. But as they are in a jar, you can see the design and colour that you need.
Gift tags can easily fit in an envelope and are placed in a box of decorations but then they can easily be lost. Or they might even get thrown away by accident. But if you get a file with Polly pockets, you can pop the tags in these and they will stay flat. You are less likely to throw a file away. You can also use this file to put any unused things like tissue paper or even your Christmas to-do list.
Storing Your Christmas Garland
Christmas garlands look beautiful over the bannister or the fireplace. They make your home look cosy for the Christmas period but they need storing away at the end. When you hang your garland, you make it look so perfect with the swags (the way it lays) in it. So you want to remember this for next year.
This is easily done by using cable ties or twist ties with numbers written on them. Or write numbers on cards and attach them to the garland. Starting with number one for the top of the stairs and working down to the bottom of the stairs.
This way you won’t have to work out how it falls when you put it up again. Then store it in a box, saying where it belongs like ‘the stairs’, ‘the windowsill’ or ‘the fireplace’. Then you can put the correct garland in the correct place next year.
Hopefully, these tips will help you to be more organised next year and you can get your Christmas decorations put out easily.
