Guide 路 Christmas
How to organize and store Christmas decorations, so next year is easy
The best time to organize your Christmas decorations is the day you take them down. Here's the system we use at 3351 Labs, under the close supervision of George Bailey 馃惥, our yellow Lab, who has opinions about every ornament at nose height.
1. Sort before you pack
Before anything goes in a box, put it all in one place and make three piles: keep, fix and let go. Plug in every light string and inflatable now, while you still remember which ones flickered. Anything broken goes in the fix pile with a note, or out the door. Packing away decorations you'll never use again is how a two-tote collection becomes eight.
Then sort the keep pile by where it goes, not by what it is: porch, yard, mantel, tree, kitchen. Next December you'll unpack one area at a time, so pack the same way.
2. Pick containers that stack and seal
Lidded plastic totes beat cardboard boxes. They keep out dust, moisture and pests, they stack without crushing, and they last for years. A few tips:
- Buy the same bin from the same store, every time. Brands change their shapes and lids from one to the next, and even "the same size" from two companies rarely stacks. We use the HDX 27-gallon Tough Storage Tote (black with a yellow lid) from Home Depot, and nothing else. Our first ones are over ten years old and have held up extremely well, even through Texas summers. Because every new bin is the same model, they all still stack, year after year, as the collection grows.
- Pick a size you can carry. Around 27 gallons holds a lot but is still manageable down a ladder when full.
- Don't overfill. If you have to sit on the lid, split it into two bins.
- Use the right container for awkward shapes: a zippered wreath bag, a tree storage bag, and a sturdy box with dividers for anything fragile.
3. Pack ornaments and fragile pieces
Glass ornaments do best in a divided ornament box, or nestled in egg cartons and plastic cups. Wrap anything sentimental in tissue paper (not newspaper, which can transfer ink) and pack it near the top, so nothing heavy sits on it. Put heavier items like village houses and figurines in the bottom of the tote, and pad the gaps with the tree skirt or a holiday throw.
Keep small parts with the decoration they belong to. A zip bag taped to the base of the village church, with its bulb and adapter inside, saves a lot of searching later.
4. Take every battery out
Few things ruin stored decorations like a leaking battery. Batteries left in for eleven months can corrode, leak or swell, and the mess can wreck the decoration and anything packed around it. Before anything goes in a bin, take out every battery: light-up figures, candles, timers, remotes and music boxes. Put the good ones in a labeled bag in your "first out" bin.
If a battery is small and sealed in, think about how the decoration came when you bought it. Many have a little plastic pull tab that keeps the battery from touching the contacts. If you saved it, slide it back in. If not, a small piece of plastic or tape over the contacts does the same job.
5. Store lights so they come out untangled
Wrap each string around a piece of cardboard, an empty wrapping-paper tube or a cord reel, and secure the end with a twist tie. Then tag each one with where it went ("porch railing, 2 strings, plug at the left outlet") and whether it works. Tested, tagged lights are the single biggest time saver of the whole season.
6. Make a "first out" bin
Every year starts with the same things: extension cords, timers, light clips, hooks, zip ties, spare bulbs and fuses, and the stakes for the yard decorations. Put them all in one clearly labeled bin and store it in front. It comes out first and goes back last.
7. Label every bin, and give it a QR code
"Christmas stuff" isn't a label. Every bin gets two kinds of label: a name on the outside, and a QR code that tells you everything inside.
The name: on all four sides
Give every bin a short name, like "Christmas 3: Porch" or "Attic tote 1," and put it on all four sides. Bins get turned around on the shelf every year, and a name on every side means you can always tell which one it is without pulling it out. A label maker makes this quick and tidy. We use the Brother P-touch Cube (PTP300BT), which prints from your phone over Bluetooth. A marker on masking tape works too.
The QR code: the label that does the real work
A name tells you which bin it is. It can't tell you what's inside, and a written list taped to the lid never keeps up with what actually moves around. A QR code label fixes that. Scan it and see everything in that bin, even standing on a ladder in the attic with the lid still on.
In Sit Stay Decorate, name your bins and the app prints a QR label for each one. Scan a label with the phone that has your collection, and you'll see what's in that bin right now, with photos. Move the wreath to another tote in the app, and the next scan shows it. Anyone else in the family can scan the same label with any phone camera, no app needed, and see the list as it was when the label was printed. After a big repack, print a fresh label for that bin.
How we put them on: print the QR labels on regular printer paper and cut them out. Tape each one to the side of the bin that faces out when it's shelved, then cover the whole label with clear packing tape, overlapping the edges. The tape holds it on and protects the paper from dust, moisture and the attic heat, and the code still scans right through it.
8. Take setup photos before anything comes down
This is the step almost everyone skips, and the one you'll be most glad you did. Before you take anything down, walk around with your phone and photograph each area: the mantel, the porch, the tree, the yard from the street. Next year you'll know exactly how the garland draped and which outlet the timer was on.
Close-ups help too: how the village was arranged, which side of the door the wreath hook was on. In Sit Stay Decorate, you can attach setup photos to each decoration, so the picture is right there when you unpack it.
9. Keep an inventory
An inventory is just a list of what you own and which bin it's in. It answers "do we already have one of these?" in the store aisle, and "where did the nativity go?" in December. It's also useful for insurance if a storm or a leak ever damages your storage.
You can keep one in a notebook, or let an app keep it for you. Sit Stay Decorate prints a photo inventory by bin, by holiday or for your whole collection, with a checkbox next to each decoration. Tuck a copy in each tote, keep one in a binder, and tick things off as they go up and come down.
10. Choose where it all lives
Heat and humidity are what ruin decorations in storage. Candles warp, glue softens, and some plastics turn brittle. Attics and garages work for most things, but in hot climates like ours in Texas, attics can get extremely hot in summer. Keep candles, anything with electronics, and the irreplaceable ornaments somewhere cooler, like a closet or under a bed.
Store what you use first in front, and what you use last (or every other year) in the back. And write down where each bin went. "Attic, left of the stairs" is easy to forget by the following December.
Quick checklist for take-down day
- Photograph every area before taking anything down
- Test lights and inflatables, and toss or tag what's broken
- Take out every battery
- Sort by where things go, not what they are
- Wrap lights on cardboard and tag them
- Pack heavy at the bottom, fragile at the top
- Fill the "first out" bin last
- Label each bin's name on all four sides
- Tape its QR label on the side that faces out, covered in clear packing tape
- Update your inventory and note where each bin is stored