Storing and Organizing Christmas Decorations for Less Stress Next Year

Today I want to share with you how I organize and store my Christmas decorations.

Putting decorations away is an important step to decorating the for next year. Each Christmas for the past 17 years I have tweaked and worked on my system and I have a great system for putting away decorations easily and effectively. By doing this I am ready go for the next Christmas and it eliminates a lot of stress right off the bat.

My system is not perfect but in the past 5 years I have been doing it this way. I've noticed that with this system everything is easier to find. My sweet family can help me. I don't have to start from scratch each season, but instead can rely on the tradition of where things have gone in the past.

Here is the core idea behind my system:

Organize and Store Items Away By Room

Ta-Da!

I used to spend so much time trying to put like items with like items. Or themes away together. I finally decided it was for the birds.

With kids around we have a strong twine of tradition that runs through our home. Meaning that for the most part, things stay the same. Sure, I have a different theme for the mantle or the kitchen color scheme may change. But all in all, it usually stays about the same.

By storing everything room by room I've found it is easier for my family to help me decorate. Before I was the only one who knew where I wanted anything. This way the bins can simply be taken to the room they go in, and the kids and Nick can help to start unpack everything.

Then I can go through to help. If they finish without me I can help tweak decorations, add, take away, whatever. Sometimes Cal will get really into decorating something (this year it was the grand piano where he set up the Christmas train and a forest of bottle brush trees) so I let it be. I will only have so many years of sweet boys excited to decorate for the season.

There are some additional things to mention about this system:

What Is Not Being Used

There are some items in each room's bins that we either don't have room for or just don't want to use. We can easily take inventory of those things and decide that what to get rid of, what could be moved to memories (more on that later!), or what would work in a different room. We now have a fireplace mantle in our mater bedroom. I was able to move a small Christmas tree that didn't have a home anywhere else to up there. So this year when it gets put away it will go in that bin rather than the solarium's bin it had been in.

Easy Storage

When I put the living room's throw pillows out I can easily grab any throw pillows I don't want out for Christmas and put them in the living room bin. Then when I undecorate and open the bin, the everyday pillows (or whatever else) will be waiting in the bin for me to put it back out. Easy, peasy. I store a lot (read that as A LOT!!!) of picture frames to make room for Christmas, so these bins are a great way to keep it all straight while they're being stored.

Sharing Bins

Inevitably some rooms will not require a full bin (I'm looking at you guest bath). In that case I keep the bin open and available until I have a room needing additional space or I have another room without a lot of decor. You can merge rooms together in a bin. We have a bin with our dining room and downstairs bath together. This works for us. Find what works for you!

Extra Bins

We do have some bins that are not for rooms. For us we have:

Ugly Sweater Bin -

party supplies for our annual party, and of course...ugly sweaters.

Extras -

extra bulbs, ornaments, cards, blank invitations, floral stems, etc. that have no purpose but I may want to use someday. I've limited these items to this one bin. Once the bin is full, something has to go.

Fun Things/Books-

This may sound weird but this bin is basically the glitter for the house. When everything is decorated I can get this bin out and I feel like a kid on Christmas morning!

What is in this magical bin you may ask? Well it's all of the fun things for Christmas. Think puzzles, activity kits, special books, activities, etc. This is where the advent countdown is stored, the fun things. I will choose books to put in the school room, the children's bedrooms, the reading nook, the morning basket. I'll select fun games and puzzles to put around the house where they may be chosen on a cold, blustery day. I love adding items like this around our home because it's like sprinkling glitter of coziness around. Everyone wants to sink into a chair and find a special book waiting on the side table for them. Right? That's the height of special and I love moving things around to make everyone feel the magic of the season.

Memories-

This bin holds books my children held with pudgy fingers back in the day, Christmas cards I've recevied and cherish, Sunday School crafts, you name it. Anything that brings me joy from Christmas' past stay in this box.

Food Storage-

Thanks to the generosity of a family member I have cookie bags, bins, boxes, and wrap coming out of my ears. I noticed that each year I was wading through all of this when it was in the "Kitchen" bin. I finally separated it out three years ago and it's been so much easier since. I get this bin out on our annual cookie day. It then gets put away but I keep it in the attic at a place I could send the kids up if we quickly need a few more cookie containers to give gifts or to make more cookies, of course! ;)

I hope this system works for you, sister! There are so many aspects of Christmas and for so many years, decorating was way daunting for me because of how everything was stored. When I found a system that worked for me, I found it became so much more enjoyable and just plain fun!

We now look forward to decorating, and taking the decorations down is a breeze. It's nice to be able to sit down and savor the season without the added stress of not being able to find decorations.

Feel free to tweak my system to work for your home. I hope this provides you with a great base of an idea to get your decorations under control. You can do this! You are amazing!