Storage Solutions for holiday and seasonal decorations

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Colleen in PA

Retire Member
Aug 20, 2008
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I use colored tubs for each holiday as well...but I learned the hard way NOT to use the large ones with wheels...we had a flood one year and water seeped in...yuck! Now I keep the totes in the basement on heavy duty shelving from Loews. I also number them and try to keep a detailed list of what is in each - some years I am better at this than others. One thing I can't live without is my OPEN FIRST Christmas tub...this one has my Christmas tote bag, purse and wallet and other things that I want very early or just prior to the season. I start changing over the bed and bath linens just before Thanksgiving, so these are always in low numbered tubs.

I keep my wreaths in wreath boxes - bought on sale 75% off after Christmas one year. they are not the heavy duty plastic kind...more of a treated corrugated cardboard from the Container Store. it keeps the dust off. My mom always hung hers up in the garage (in trash bags) She used Sharpie markers to label the bags.
 

aggy

Santa's Elves
Oct 11, 2007
3,733
24
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Baltimore, Maryland
I recently downsized my Christmas decorations to three large bins and my fall decorations into one large bin. I have a double closet in my hallway where I keep them. I used to hang my wreaths on the wall in the back of the closet but now they go in the bin with all of my holiday greenery.
 

ejagno

MHH Member
Premiere Member
Aug 31, 2010
1,616
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83
SW Louisiana
Colleen, I really love the idea of the OPEN FIRST box. I certainly could use this for my fall decorations since I begin with a fall theme in September and just add to it for Halloween and lastly Thanksgiving. This will be a tremendous help. Thank you!

I really appreciate all the ideas and suggestions. Keep them coming. I opened one box of badly tangled lights and threw them away yesterday. If I remember correctly many had burnt out sections and most were the old non energy efficient lights. I will start watching the sales and using those 40% off coupons to replace the lights. This time I will use some of the organizational ideas to prevent this from happening again.
 

candysprinkles

Retire Member
Jan 29, 2011
565
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Indiana
Colleen, I really love the idea of the OPEN FIRST box. I certainly could use this for my fall decorations since I begin with a fall theme in September and just add to it for Halloween and lastly Thanksgiving. This will be a tremendous help. Thank you!

Agreed. I need an open first box, too. Christmas and Fall. I decorate for Autumn, then Halloween and finally Harvest/Thanksgiving; so why haven't I ever thought about putting fall into separate boxes and categories in order of when they will be put out?! *slaps head, code V8*
 

snowgoose

MHH Member
Colleen, I was intrigued when I read that you changed out your bedlinen etc for Christmas. I do have a few Christmas towels (bought in the US of course:) ) but I gather you must have special bedlinen as well. Would love to learn more about what you use - and other people as well. There is so much more seasonal stuff available in the US than here in the UK.
 

Colleen in PA

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Aug 20, 2008
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Colleen, I was intrigued when I read that you changed out your bedlinen etc for Christmas. I do have a few Christmas towels (bought in the US of course:) ) but I gather you must have special bedlinen as well. Would love to learn more about what you use - and other people as well. There is so much more seasonal stuff available in the US than here in the UK.

I have been collecting for years...I have holiday flannel sheets for all of the beds...snowflakes for mine, reindeer for older DS, snowmen for younger DS and penguins for the guest room. I also have holiday quilts for the boys beds and I change my duvet cover to a blue velvet one (with snowflakes...of course!). The guest room has a cranberry colored quilt and a white dust ruffle with cranberry snowflakes. I also add holiday throws at the foot of each bed for extra "snuggles"

Each bathroom also has a theme... For the master bath I use my regular navy bath towels, but change out the smaller towels for ones with silver embroidered snowflakes. The boys bathroom has a santa theme - gold/yellow bath towels with coordinating cranberry colored towels that have a series of Santa patches on the bottom with the yellow trim and a Santa soap dispenser. I switch out the shower curtain for a gold one and a cranberry colored bath mat. The guest bathroom is penguins...red bath towels and white hand towels and washcloths with penguin patches along the bottom...penguin soap dispenser etc.

We have a lot of overnight guests during the holidays...often staying in the boy's rooms as well, so I think it's fun to decorate for them. I change the boys bathroom for Halloween as well...but not the others. They do have Halloween sheets though...they were a gift from my SIL, the self-proclaimed Queen of Halloween. Older DS has Jack Skellington and younger DS has ghosts (unfortunately, they glow in the dark, but DS loves them!)
 

MrsSoup

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Premiere Member
Oct 13, 2007
19,146
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Missouri
When we were packing to move, my mom came to visit and we went through everything in our storage room. We went tote by tote. I got rid of a bunch of decorations that I didn't really use anymore because of space and little kids hands on easily breakable items. I also went ahead and tossed some decorations that I had just because they were my grandma's, but I never used them. There just wasn't any point moving stuff halfway across the country that I didn't use anyway. I had a yard sale and got rid of some and the rest went straight into the truck and got donated.

I also have flannel holiday bed linens for everyone except Eli because he's still in a toddler bed. I just store them in the cloth bag they came in and put them in the linen closet with everything else. They don't have holiday quilts or blankets yet, but i'm on the lookout for them.

I store my Christmas stuff in red/green totes and I have some clear totes as well. They are all labeled Christmas and now they have a general label of what's in them, not an itemized list by any means. When we were packing them we tried to put like items together, like lights and such, but eventually we put items where they would fit.

We did the same with the Halloween stuff, although it's a little more separated like outside stuff in one tote, costumes and accessories in another, and then inside decorations together. Those totes are all orange.

I don't really decorate for any other holidays and if I do it's usually just with simple constructon paper hearts or something that get tossed when the time is over.

DH built two suspended floor type storage areas in the garage, similar to those that they sell at Lowe's that hang from the ceiling, only he used 2x4's and built a frame like a floor and put plywood on top of it. The 2x4's are bolted into the studs and then he used a heavy duty ratchet strap to help hold up the middle. There are no boards that go to the floor for support so it's completely out of the way.
 

JayOkie

Retire Member
Oct 19, 2007
732
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16
NE Oklahoma
I don't decorate to the extent many/most of you do. However, I'd like to pass on something I "discovered" years ago re; lights. I got SOOO tired of having to untangle them every year. Guess desperation was the mother of invention or something like that.

I notch the ends of a paper towel roll; drop one end of the string inside the roll, letting it catch on the notch. Now, wrap around, around, around the roll. The lights will have to double back on themselves, but they won't tangle. Drop the remaining end into a notch. I use strings of lights w/100 bulbs. These can either be placed into a box or tote. I've also used the empty decoratiave popcorn cans for storage. 4-5 strings of 100 in the cans gets heavy!!! but they don't tangle. When I didn't have cans, etc. I gently laid the lights in a circle, slid into a plastic zip bag & stored flat. No tangles.

I also mark on the cardboard rolls with the number of bulbs & the year. "100/2011". I use the mini-lights, but only for 3 years as the wiring is thin, & I'm concerned it'll break after being wound round & round a tree several times.

Hope this helps a little.
 

aggy

Santa's Elves
Oct 11, 2007
3,733
24
38
Baltimore, Maryland
Colleen, I was intrigued when I read that you changed out your bedlinen etc for Christmas. I do have a few Christmas towels (bought in the US of course:) ) but I gather you must have special bedlinen as well. Would love to learn more about what you use - and other people as well. There is so much more seasonal stuff available in the US than here in the UK.

I have a set of flannel sheets with pine cones and everygreens. I like them because I can use them from autumn through Christmas. They feel so warm to slip into on a cool crisp night. I would like to get another holiday theme set of sheets. If I'm not mistaking, there is a thread about bed linen.

I also have Christmas throws, pillows and bath linens.
 
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priyandy

Retire Member
Dec 26, 2012
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If your seasonal decorations are scant, use an old shirt box for each month. For example, everything for Halloween and Fall should be placed into the October box; everything for Spring and St. Patrick's Day (and maybe Easter) go into the March box.
 

candysprinkles

Retire Member
Jan 29, 2011
565
0
0
Indiana
Thanks, priyandy. The shirt boxes might actually work in the holiday storage center armoire thing I have in the garage. I think it would work well for Easter, Valentines, St Pats, 4th of July and maybe even Thanksgiving. I probably have too much Autumn/Fall and Halloween stuff for shirt boxes, though.
 

missjane

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Premiere Member
Oct 13, 2007
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Louisiana
I like Priyandy's shirt box idea! I know I need to downsize much of what I have.