7 Easy Steps for Organized Holiday Storage
Wouldn't it be nice if you could find your decorations,
costumes, cards and wrapping paper in just seconds and put them
away just as quickly after the holiday? You can with a plan! Use
these steps below for organizing holiday storage and you'll
spend less time on this mundane task and more time celebrating.
And don't wait until the holidays, or worse, after the holidays,
to read these tips. That's too late. Plan ahead. Start now.
Start here...
STEP #1: COLOR CODE STORAGE BOXES. You can buy holiday storage
bins, or even ordinary plastic storage bins, in different
colors. Or buy containers with different color lids. Or spray
paint the exterior of your existing lids appropriate colors. Use
all purple for Halloween ornaments and all green and red for
Christmas items. That way you'll know at a glance which storage
bins to pull for each holiday.
STEP #2: TAKE INVENTORY. List each item in an individual holiday
storage container on a sheet of paper. Then put that paper in a
translucent sheet protector. Tape the sheet protector to the
outside of the bin. You won't have to open each box now to know
what's inside.
STEP #3: MAKE A BLUEPRINT. Have you ever struggled to repack
decorations into boxes only to find what came out doesn't seem
to fit on the return trip? Solve this by mapping the "location"
of the items in the boxes in blueprint drawing fashion. Of
course you'll have to get everything to fit just so in the boxes
the first year. But next year you'll easily be able to duplicate
the repacking process by following your packing blueprint.
STEP #4: USE A CODING SYSTEM on holiday storage boxes that tells
you in what order to open them. Put the number one on the box
that contains the items you'll work with first. Or write "open
first" on certain boxes. For example, at Christmas you may
typically start with your tree stand, tree lights and/or outdoor
lights. Other things you might use first are holiday cooking
related items (e.g. Santa or pumpkin cookie cutters), gift wrap
and gift tags. Keep other boxes closed until you're ready for
those items.
STEP #5: CLUSTER. Two columns of stackable bins that are all
orange (for Halloween) in the back corner of your garage are
easy to spot. Always group storage boxes together by holiday,
even if you can't fit all of the holidays in the same section of
the garage, attic or closet.
STEP #6: KEEP A HOLIDAY PLANNER. Keep one three-ring notebook
with the inventory sheets mentioned earlier. (This can be in
addition to taping the inventory sheets to the individual
storage boxes.) You can put all holiday inventory sheets in one
notebook and separate the different holiday information with
notebook dividers and tabs (sold at office supply stores)
labeled Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
Keep the notebook on your bookshelf year-round. You also can add
divided sections to this notebook for holiday recipes, holiday
collection lists (so you don't buy duplicate collectibles in a
series), holiday gift ideas and holiday card mailing lists.
It's best to do all of these "printables" on your computer and
print them versus hand-writing them; that makes for easier
updating. You can either put the paper in three-hole punched
translucent sheet protectors or leave a wide left margin and
three hole punch the paper yourself.
STEP #7: START NOW. Work on your storage plan through every
upcoming holiday so that when year two arrives, your plan is in
place and complete. It's an investment of time and patience that
will benefit you next year and every year thereafter.