Take the hassle out of storing your holiday lights and other Christmas decorations with these simple, inexpensive tips.
From The Family Handyman
Easy Ornament Storage
It’s hard to store fragile ornaments without breaking them. Our best tip for how to store Christmas ornaments is this easy solution: Use a plastic storage tub and store each ornament in a separate plastic cup (the 6-oz. party size works great). By using cardboard to separate the layers of cups, you can stack a lot of ornaments in one sturdy tub without any tangling or breaking. You can reuse the same cups and cardboard year after year.
Store Your Artificial Tree in a Tube
Now that the holiday is over, what’s the best way to store an artificial Christmas tree? Many people 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.-diameter concrete form tubes, wrap each layer of the tree in twine and shove half of the tree 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!
Corral Your Gift Wrap
Want to know how to store wrapping paper in a neat and orderly fashion? 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 the 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. Just slide the rolls in and out of the corral?they won’t tumble over or get lost behind the coats.
Make Cardboard Storage Spools for Your Holiday Light Strings
Next up: How to store Christmas lights. Here’s a great way to recycle cardboard and keep your strings of holiday lights from getting tangled when you store them. Just use strips of cardboard and cut out a slot on each end to make a ‘spool’ to keep the lights from slipping off.
Keep Your Lights in Labeled Plastic Bags
This has got 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!
Make Holiday Light Storage Stands
Storing holiday light strings without wrecking them is tough. Here’s a great idea: Just 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 how many light strings you can wrap around the stands without them getting tangled or damaged.
Hose Reel for Holiday Lights
To keep holiday lights from getting tangled and make it easy to string them around the yard, roll all the strings of lights onto a portable hose reel with wheels and a handle.
Labeled 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!
