10 Tips and Tricks for Storing Christmas Decorations

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A Yearly Tradition

Family Handyman

Easy Ornament Storage

It’s hard to store fragile ornaments without breaking them. Our best tip for storing Christmas ornaments: Buy a plastic storage tub and store each ornament in a separate plastic cup (the six-ounce party size works great).

By separating the layers of cups with cardboard, you can stack a lot of ornaments in one sturdy tub without any tangling or breaking. Then reuse the same cups and cardboard year after year.

Store Your Artificial Tree in a Tube

Many of us like the convenience of an artificial Christmas tree, but storing it can be a pain because it takes up so much space.

Here’s an idea: Buy two 8-in.-dia. concrete form tubes. Then wrap each layer of the tree in twine and shove half the layers down each tube. Mark the layer numbers on each tube and slide the tubes up in your garage rafters for a perfect storage solution.

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Corral Your Gift Wrap

Propping up rolls of gift wrap in the corner of a hall closet often means wrinkled, torn or lost rolls. Here’s a way to keep those rolls neatly organized and easy to reach.

Make a wrapping paper ‘corral’ by screwing a small section of wire closet shelving vertically to the side of a closet wall. Then just slide the rolls in and out of the corral. They won’t tumble over or disappear behind the coats.

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Make Cardboard Storage Spools for Your Holiday Light Strings

Here’s a great way to recycle cardboard and keep your strings of holiday lights from getting tangled when you store them. Take strips of cardboard and cut out a slot on each end to make a spool. These keep the lights from slipping off.

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Keep Your Lights in Labeled Plastic Bags

This has to be the easiest way to store strings of holiday lights. Just put each string in a separate plastic bag and write where the lights go right on the bag. No wrapping or coiling necessary. It’s in the bag.

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Make Holiday Light Storage Stands

Storing holiday light strings without dangling or breaking them is tough.

Here’s a great idea: Screw a dowel to each end of a wooden base cut to the size of a large plastic bin. Then wrap your lights around the dowels in a figure eight and place the stand in the bin. You’ll be amazed by how many light strings you can wrap around the stands without tangling or damaging them.

Hose Reel for Holiday Lights

String holiday lights around the yard easily and tangle-free from getting tangled by rolling all the strings onto a portable hose reel with wheels and a handle. Store them in the garage or shed, someplace where they can’t be bumped or broken.

Label Tree Layers

Artificial Christmas trees are assembled in color-coded layers. After a few years, the colors rub off or you lose the instructions, and putting the tree together gets confusing.

Try this simple trick. When you disassemble the tree at the end of the season, do it one level at a time. Once all the branches from one level are off, duct-tape them together and number each layer with a marker. Next year, the tree will go together in a snap.

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Wrap Tree Branches

Keep your tree’s branches safe and contained by wrapping them up before storing. If you just want to keep them tucked in, try adhesive bandages. If you’d rather focus on protecting the branches from moisture, go with plastic wrap instead.

Wrapping Paper Sleeves

To keep your wrapping paper rolls tight before putting them away, pop a sleeve over them. A simple toilet paper roll will work and save you a trip to the store! When you need the paper again, the edges will be crisper than if they were put away unsecured.