How to Store Your Holiday Decorations

The holidays are over and it’s time to pack up all of your decorations until next year. Holiday decorations can be a challenge to properly store and hide away during the year. Open up your attic or basement space by choosing to store your holiday items in Albuquerque Self Storage. 

Before you store them, pick your boxes wisely. If your cardboard boxes from last year are in rough shape, consider replacing them with new boxes or plastic containers. The integrity of what you store your fragile items in will be the main factor on if they will make it through a year of storage unscatched. 

Do not pick up used boxes from grocery stores. Though their cost of “free” is tempting, they are often weaker due to moisture and can attract pests, which will eat through the box and get into your decorations.

Make the end of holidays easier on yourself by following these storage tips. 

Fake Christmas Tree Storage

Fake Christmas trees are perhaps one of the largest items in your holiday arsenal. If you choose to take it apart each year, the original box it came in works great for keeping it all together. If you don’t have the original box, buy one that is taller and deep, so you can stack the branches in an organized fashion.

If you don’t like taking it down and prefer to store it fully assembled, Albuquerque Self Storage suggests that you store it on the same floor, as going down stairs or getting the tree into your attic adds a lot of strain on your body, especially if your tree is heavy.

 This Old House recommends a Tree Keeper Bag with a rolling base so you can easily push it to its storage destination. The bag goes over your fully assembled tree to keep it dust and bug free until next year. The bag also has a heavy duty hook, that allows you to hang the tree to keep it off the ground.

Christmas Ornament Storage

Ornaments are fragile and are prone to breaking if they’re not securely packed in a box or wrapped up. Keep the original boxes for your ornaments! Most of them should be divided or have holders designed to keep your ornaments from moving around. 

Group all like ornaments together to make it easy to find them later – all spherical baubles go in the same box while sentimental decorations such as homemade ornaments and photo ornaments stay together in a separate box. 

When you’re organizing your ornaments, take note of what ones are damaged or missing and mark it on the box or throw away anything that is broken. If one of the hooks comes off an ornament, reattach it before you pack it to save you time next year and to prevent any further damage while it is in storage. 

When everything is securely and tightly packed into the box, label the box so you know what you’re going to be opening next year.

Remember to not overload any of the boxes! Ornaments are fragile and should be tightly packed so nothing moves around, but too much weight and strain can cause cracks over time. 

Christmas Lights Storage Tips

First and foremost, throw away broken light strings and fix all of your broken bulbs before you store them. This will save you the hassle of finding out your lights don’t work before you try to hang them up next year. 

Secondly, don’t wrap them in a tight bundle or throw them haphazardly into a box. Used gift wrap tubes or a flat side of a discarded present box work great for wrapping lights around. Tape the ends of the lights to the cardboard to ensure nothing gets undone and tangled. 

Gently place the lights into the box and add padding, such as used wrapping paper or newspaper, and store them on top of your other holiday decoration boxes, or in a hard plastic container. If the container isn’t see-through, be sure to label the box for indoor and outdoor lights. 

Storing Wreaths and Garland

Due to their abnormal sizes and shapes, wreaths and garland can be difficult to store. A large box can do the trick, or use a heavy-duty garbage bag.

Moving.com recommends using twine or zip-ties to attach your wreath to a wire hanger, then to slip the garbage bag over it from the bottom and secure it at the top. The hanger will allow you to hang the item out of sight, without any worry of it getting flattened over time. 

Where To Store Your Holiday Items?

You only use them once a year, so why let your holiday decorations take up a large space in your home? Having large boxes and plastic containers laying around is unsightly and takes up room you could be using for daily hobbies. Whether you keep them in your basement, attic or spare bedroom, there is a better option for you. 

Albuquerque Self Storage offers long term discount rates for all of their storage units. You can choose a unit that just fits your holiday decorations or one that you can use year-round to declutter your home. Their units are secured and car accessible. Contact Albuquerque Self Storage today free up space in your home.