It’s over for another year! Is it sad to pack up all your pretty Christmas things or are you like me and want to get it over and done with?
By the time New Year’s Eve comes around my husband is dying to take down the Christmas lights and put everything away. This year, honestly, I had to stop him doing this on Boxing Day!
I managed to stretch it out until New Year’s Eve then they were down. I took down the Christmas tree and decorations the same day.
It's so frustrating when you think you’ve packed up all the decorations and then you find you’ve missed something!
In years gone by, I have packed up all the Christmas décor and stored them carefully in the basement, only to find odd bits and pieces I’ve missed.
Do you do that?
This year, I decided that a new process was required so that this didn’t happen – I wanted to make sure that everything was put away in one go and I didn’t find odd Christmas baubles or signs in the coming days.
So, here’s are the steps:
The first thing I did was take all of the Christmas decorations from every room in the house and put them all one room.
I did this very systematically, one room after another.
Next, I went back and checked that every room was clear.
Make sure you look high and low - I find these are the places where Christmas decor hides from me.
Sort the decorations as to how you wish to store them.
For example, I put all my red baubles into one box and my silver baubles into another.
Medium sized cardboard boxes and shoe boxes are good for this.
Note: These boxes will be placed inside larger plastic boxes.
Bubble wrap anything that’s more fragile into their own little packages before placing it in its own box.
As I pack things away into their smaller boxes, I write a list the contents on the top of each box.
The last thing I do is pack everything into their final storage containers. I use large plastic stacking containers for this. This will vary depending on where you store them and how much space you have. For me, I can stack these up in my basement and no-one will see them until they are retrieved next year.
I try to store like with like. For example, this box is filled with the greenery – wreaths, garlands, etc.
Over the years, I’ve collected a variety of smaller boxes that fit my decorations perfectly and also fit within these boxes. You can buy these plastic boxes from your local hardware store or on Amazon.
I have a few pieces that are too big to fit into these boxes. For example, I had a sign that was too large.
I bubble wrapped these, labelled them and stowed them on top of the boxes.
Here you can see I’ve also stored some Christmas wrapping paper with the sign so that I know where it is when I need it next year. I also added my unused gift tags here.
The last thing you need to do when you close up the boxes is label them. That way, when it comes time to decorate next year you can decide what you need. If you decide that next year you don’t want those gold baubles, then you know exactly where they are stored.
So,what do you think of my new process?
We used exactly the same process for our outdoor lights and decorations.
It worked really well. Our decorations are now neatly stowed away for next year.
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January 14, 2021
Hi, my name is Carol Karl. I live in little old New Zealand. My family and I strive to live the most ‘real’ life we can – by that I mean that we eat real food, we live real lives and just generally be our most authentic selves.
