How to store Christmas ornaments after the holidays

One of my most asked questions in December was how I store my Christmas ornaments and décor since I obviously have so much of it. In this short post, How to store Christmas ornaments after the holidays, I share all my favourite tips for packing up and storing my Christmas décor. It’s a fairly simple process and not elaborate at all- I think anyone can do it with just a few essential supplies.

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My first tip is to keep the original packaging where possible. It’s more environmentally friendly and easier on the wallet than having to buy all new items. Sometimes this isn’t always possible, so prior to Christmas start saving shoeboxes or any nice-looking boxes, particularly if they have separate compartments.

Supplies

• Large (18 gallon) stackable plastic storage bins (buy at least 5 of the same bin colour and style and choose a colour you associate with Christmas). We have 7 bins for all our Christmas décor including lights and garlands.
• Medium-sized (8-12 gallon) plastic bins for storing plastic ornaments that don’t need to be individually wrapped
• Unprinted newsprint (I save the packaging materials from my Homesense trips) and scissors for cutting it into pieces
• Bubble wrap (saved from recent deliveries)
• The original boxes that your ornaments and décor items came in (alternatively you can use shoe boxes or cardboard boxes with divided sections)
• Large sealable bags
• Sharpie marker
• Label maker or sticky labels to write out your own

Storing the Décor

Put on some good music or an interesting podcast.

Have all your ornament boxes open and laid out on a table or sofa near the tree. Have the medium bins handy so you can just toss in the plastic ornaments as you come across them. Group by colour if you have a lot of plastic ornaments.

Take off the ornaments one-by-one and place them in the ornament boxes or plastic ornament bins. Depending on the style of the original boxes, you may or may not need to wrap the ornaments in newsprint. Once a box is full, close it up and place it in the larger plastic storage bins- grouping by colour or style.

Continue until all the ornaments have been removed from the tree. I like to group all my white and silver ornaments in one large bin. Coloured ornaments go into other bins.

I remove garlands and ribbon from the tree last and keep these together in labelled shoe boxes.

Grouping Items

If you have multiple trees and you plan on keeping the same tree décor from year to year, make sure to group all décor from individual trees together. I tend to group by colour, since I change up my colour scheme each year and it’s easiest for me to select next year’s décor if the ornaments are sorted by colour.

Reserve a bin for soft items like tree skirts and stockings. If you have extra space in this bin, then larger fragile items like ceramic trees or tree toppers wrapped in newsprint and bubble wrap can be placed on top of the soft items.

Group Christmas lights in a bin together, carefully labeling what the lights are for (e.g. main Christmas tree, bedroom tree, etc.).

Group garlands together in a bin. If the garlands happen to have battery-operated lights, remove the batteries before storing.

Labelling

Once all your Christmas décor is in bins, then label all the bins using a label maker or simple white labels and a sharpie.

Final Thoughts

Hopefully, you have someone who can help you move all your boxes into storage- ours are kept in the basement. The red colour helps us remember which bins are for Christmas décor.

I hope you have enjoyed reading about how to store Christmas ornaments after the holidays and that you’ve picked up a few useful tips.

Now that your Christmas décor is down, you’ll likely want to shift some of your décor around to fill in the gaps left by the Christmas tree and other décor. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, Cozy Winter Décor for after Christmas, where I share how I transitioned from Christmas décor to inviting winter décor.