How to Put Away Christmas Decorations So They’re in Great Shape for Next Year

When you’re excited to add a bit of holiday sparkle to your home, you labor over the garlands, string lights, and oversize inflatable lawn ornaments. Then you’re proud of how festive your home looks—as you should be! But when the holidays end, it’s tempting to just dump all of it into a box. Don’t do that. Take as much care putting your decorations away as you did putting them up. This way, everything will last longer, and you’ll have an easier time setting it all up again next year. Think of the extra work to do it right as a gift to Future You, sort of like that wad of cash you rediscovered after you left it in your coat pocket before the summer (everybody does that, right?).

Make Christmas lights last

An average set of incandescent lights has a life span of about five holiday seasons, and a string of LED lights will last for twice as long—if you take care of them correctly. Our top-pick Christmas lights are all well wound and durable, but you’ll still want to store them in a way that won’t weaken the wires or crack the lights. Even if you saved the original plastic frame that the lights came on, it’s not easy to get them back on there so that they’re tightly packed away.

You can buy reels or spools to aid in the wrapping process, but Jason Woodward from Christmas Designers advises against it. “They are cumbersome, add unnecessary cost, and actually make reinstallation more difficult,” he tells us. “You will never see professional installers using this method.” In fact, Woodward suggests simply wrapping the lights on their own, without using any kind of mold or guide, and then tying them off in the middle with a twist tie or rubber band. He also recommends that you don’t keep them in uninsulated spaces (attics, basements), because extreme temperatures and humidity can reduce the life span of incandescents and LEDs. The ideal storage location is in a plastic bin in an interior closet.

If you’re worried about keeping the coils tight, there are some DIY solutions you can try, using common household products, that will keep your Christmas lights sorted. For example, you can cut a piece of cardboard, making a notch on one side, and neatly wrap the lights around it, following the natural memory of the wire. A similar strategy works with a plastic coat hanger or an empty can or toilet-paper tube.

When your Christmas lights finally reach the end of their natural life span, it’s actually better to recycle them than to toss them in the trash. In fact, there’s a whole international industry dedicated to Christmas-lights recycling. But the easiest thing to do is to check with your local waste-management services. If that’s not an option, both Home Depot and Lowe’s usually offer holiday recycling programs—although, again, this depends on your specific location. You can also search Earth911 for other local string-light-recycling services. Or, if you’re feeling particularly crafty, you can repurpose them into jewelry, wreaths, or other decorations.

How to store an artificial Christmas tree

Like LED lights, a good artificial Christmas tree can last for a decade, but only if you take care of it. It’s important that you disassemble it carefully, folding the branch tips back toward the trunk to make it compact for storage, and making sure the small branches don’t get bent in the wrong direction. We think it’s wise to invest in a dedicated storage bag, such as the Elf Stor Premium Christmas Bag, which will help keep your tree safe from dust, moisture, or other elements that could wear down its pristine plastic pines. It’s a small price to pay on top of the hundreds of dollars you’re already sinking into your tree. Some companies also sell rolling duffel bags, which may be easier to move.

Even though we haven’t tested any of these storage or duffel bags ourselves, we feel confident that they’re generally a safer bet than just sticking the tree back in its original box—the cardboard can contribute to the tree’s continued decay as the pieces rub against it. You can mitigate this somewhat by wrapping your tree in a tarp or a dedicated tree cover, but a cardboard box is still susceptible to water, sunlight, mice, and other things that might damage it.

Leave yourself clues for next year’s setup

Before putting everything away, set yourself up for success next season by keeping track of how you installed things this year and what worked (or didn’t).

“Before taking down your lights and decorations, take pictures and make notes as to how everything should be reinstalled and how you have the power cords running,” says Woodward of Christmas Designers. “Be sure and attach a label clearly detailing where it was removed from. This will avoid a lot of headaches when it’s time for putting [everything] back up.”

Think of this effort as a gift to Future You in the form of the Christmas spirit. Or, again, like that money you accidentally left in your coat pocket—except this time, do it on purpose.

Other helpful tips

Dedicate some plastic bins to decorations. A lot of the original packaging for decorations is made of cardboard or is oddly shaped, and neither is great for storage. Stackable plastic storage containers will let you consolidate space, and they will help protect your decorations from moisture, dust, heat, and anything else that could ruin them. If you can, get separate bins for lights, one for stockings and ornaments, and another one for miscellaneous, non-light decorations like garlands or wall hangings. And remember to label them.

Remove the batteries from your electronic decorations before storing them away. Otherwise, you’re going to find a corroded mess of battery acid when you dig that dancing plastic reindeer out again next year, and that kind of ruins all the holiday glamour.

Clean your inflatables with a damp cloth, and let them fully deflate on their own. Home Depot recommends keeping all of the original packagings, and carefully refolding or rolling your deflated snowman, Santa, and candy canes before putting them away. Storage bins work for these; some companies sell dedicated storage bags for inflatables, too (just make sure they fit before you commit).

Don’t toss out tinsel. Unfortunately, those sparkly strands are not recyclable, and that shiny material doesn’t do so great in landfills. This doesn’t mean you can’t use tinsel at all; it just means you should try to get a few years’ uses out of it before you dispose of it.

Save the bows from your presents (assuming that your overeager gift recipients don’t destroy them first). Like tinsel, bows can’t be recycled, and the plastic-coated paper can take a long time to break down. Set aside and reuse them with fresh adhesive next year.

Reuse wine boxes or egg cartons to store large or small ornaments that are too fragile to be stored loose in a bin. Label the outside of the boxes, especially if you store them separately from the decoration bins, so you’ll know what’s inside without having to open each one.

Give away unused decorations. If you didn’t use them this year (or last year), you’re probably not going to change your mind the next holiday season.

Reference: https://nyti.ms/3mdxOYH