While you’ve probably just finished getting all your holiday decorations up not that long ago, a little planning now about how to organize and store them when you take them down this year will 100% make decorating faster and easier next year.  Read on for 11 simple tips your future self with thank you for!

11 EASY Tips To Pack and Organize Holiday Decorations For Easy Decorating Next Year

1) Take photos of where you display your decorations.

Snap photos of your decorations on your phone before taking them down to use as a reference when decorating next year.  You’ll speed up the decorating process by not having to spend time trying to remember where everything goes.

2) Use appropriate storage containers. 

Size matters here.  If the containers are too big, you may not be able to lift them when they’re full.  If they’re too small, you’ll end up needing too many containers to store everything, defeating the purpose.

You also need something sturdy enough to hold the weight of the contents and something that will protect your decorations from possible water, mildew or mold damage.  Finally, containers with lids are ideal for stacking.

I use the pictured 63 litre bins I got from Canadian Tire along with a couple of larger Sterilite 114 litre bins from Rona.

3) Store “like with like”.

I store my decorations by the room they’re displayed in.  It makes it quick and easy to get the right bins into the right areas of my home.  But some people prefer to store decorations by type of decoration or by colour.

Determine what “like with like” means to you and go with it.

4) Use Labels.

Labels let you know in one quick glance what decorations are in what bins.  It doesn’t have to be a detailed inventory, just enough for you to know what’s inside.

Labelling the rooms the bins go in with one or two descriptor words work for me (i.e. Lower Level Family Room Tree and Lower Level Family Room Decorations).  Again, find what works for you and go with it.

Just make sure the labels are facing OUT when you put the bins away.  For your own free printable holiday storage labels, click here.

5) Take the time to neatly store your lights.

I promise, 11 months from now when you’re getting your lights out again and don’t have to spend 45 minutes untangling them, you’ll be SO happy you took 10 minutes to pack them away neatly.

I kept the spool our lights came on and re-use it every year.  You could also keep some cardboard from holiday gifts and store them as pictured above, or use a Holiday Light storage box like this from Canadian Tire.

6) If you have the space, store your tree upright and decorated.

I know this is a luxury many people won’t have, but if you do have the space,  store your tree(s) assembled.  In our current house, I’m lucky enough to have the space to store 2 of my indoor trees and my two porch trees completely assembled with lights and garland on them.

I take the ornaments off the larger tree (because they fall when being moved), but leave them on the smaller tree and put an inexpensive king mattress cover over the trees to protect them.  This is a HUGE time saver and if you have space, I highly recommend it.

7) Determine if you’re ready to let go of any decorations.

When packing decorations away examine them for damage and consider whether they’ve served their purpose for you.  If they have, don’t pack them away to be dealt with next year.  Set them aside and discard or donate them.

8) Keep fragile ornaments protected.

Specialized (a.k.a. expensive) ornament boxes aren’t necessary for fragile ornaments.  You can wrap each in tissue paper or use stacks of plastic cups in bins separated by layers of cardboard to keep them protected.

Because I have a 7-year-old, 99% of our ornaments are “unbreakable” and I just store them in these plastic zipper bags some sheets came in many years ago.  You can use Tupperware, shoe boxes, plastic bags, whatever keeps the ornaments together and contained inside the larger bins.

9) Contain large and bulky decorations upright.

Use a tall laundry basket (or other tall basket) to store large and bulky decorations that don’t fit in storage bins.  It keeps the decorations AND you safe from damage/injury as a result of falling, which is far more likely if they’re just stacked loosely against one another.

10) You don’t have to put it all away or up at once!

I have a LOT of Christmas decorations.  I use to spend an entire day putting them all up and an entire day taking them all down.  I was happy when each task was done, but also exhausted.

So, I let go of the self-imposed requirement it had to get done in one day and started decorating and “undecorating” over a few days.  It’s such a simple tweak that has made a huge difference.

I no longer stress about finding a whole day to complete the tasks and I’m not exhausted (at least not from decorating-related tasks 😉).

11) Colour code your bins by holiday/occasion.

Although they’re labelled, colour-coding is a quick and easy visual cue that lets you go right to whatever holiday bins you’re looking for.

Conclusion

Follow these 11 tips to pack and organize your holiday decorations this year to make it faster and easier to get them out and decorate next year.  I promise, your 2021 holiday-decorating-future-self, will thank you!

Happy organizing!