Packing Up Christmas
After all the jingle bells have jangled and the chestnuts have been properly roasted on that open fire, you may find yourself surrounded by the decorative aftermath of the holiday season. Not to worry, all you serious decorators, when it comes to clean up its all about the organization. Taking the time to pack up Christmas will not only help to usher in a clean and orderly new year, but it will serve as a preemptive strike against next year’s mayhem of merriment. The following are our top four tips for packing up Christmas.
The Power of Red and Green– Store your holiday cheer in color coded containers. Most multipurpose and container stores sell red and green boxes for storage. Sticking with these colors to designate the location of your favorite snowman collection and other festive bits will save the guess work when you are searching next November. Another good idea is to use seasonal colors for other decorations ie- Black for Halloween, Orange for Thanksgiving and Pale Green for spring decorations.
Original Packaging– The secret to good storage is original packaging. The box that it came in is your friend especially for easily damaged items. The original box is usually created to withstand some form of transport. Breakables such as ornaments, bulbs and lights are obvious package savers as these items are often fine and fragile. Also purchasing durable wreath holders will save them from experiencing the crunch over time.
Make a List & Check it Twice– Next year when you want to pull out your nutcracker place holders without having to look through your 6 Christmas boxes, you will be glad that you took the time to create a detailed list of each boxes contents. Number the boxes and be as detailed on your inventory list as possible. Type your list up and save it somewhere that you will know to look next year such as a file on your computer called “Christmas”.
Box Writing– If you want the contents of each box actually written on the box, use clear wide packing tape. Write each item on the box with permanent marker. This is a great way to make the box re-usable and more importantly re-packable.
