How to Properly Store You Holiday Decor This Year

Decorating for the holidays is always fun and exciting. Everyone is eager to help set up. even make it a party. After the holidays, however, is a different story. Visiting friends and family are gone, the new year is approaching and everyone is ready to move on and get going with new goals and plans for the year.

For those reasons, it’s unfortunately all too common for people to quickly deconstruct their beloved holiday displays of expensive decor and priceless heirlooms and cram them into plastic tubs or cardboard boxes in any way that all allows the lid to close. While this method is certain a fast way to make last year’s Christmas disappear, there are significant downsides.

Negative effects of hastily and improperly packaged holiday decorations:

• Improperly stored decorations take up more space than necessary.

• You’re more likely to find damaged decorations the following year.

• It takes more time to find and untangle decorations next year.

• Money is wasted when you’re forced to replace things that broke.

• You run the risk of irreplaceable family decorations with sentimental value being damaged.

  
  

We know you’re excited to get going on the new year! But taking just a little time to plan ahead will set you up for success. Our team decorates, disassembles, and packages Christmas trees, garlands, and ornaments for countless residential and commercial clients every year. In the rest of this article, we’re going to outline some of the tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way.

---

Artificial Christmas Trees

Artificial Christmas trees are an easy way to streamline the decorating process compared to live trees, and you know that your tree will look perfect every year. That is, if it is packaged correctly for storage. To ensure your artificial tree looks just as full and elegant next year, follow these tips when boxing it up after the holidays:

• Remove the top section from the tree and fold all arms or branches upward toward the top. You will find that each section is typically tagged  to denote the order in which they are to stack (“A”, “B”, etc., for example).

• Fold all branches flat and forward so they are straight against the main metal arm of their section.  This will need to be done for all sections of the tree.

• Repeat the first two steps for each section of the tree

• Tightly wrap cord or string around each section to help compress all the branches and needles so that the tree will fit back in the box.

• Put the sections in the box in the same order they had been removed, typically with the bottom or largest sections going in the box first and the top section,  going in the box last or on top. For middle sections which may look similar in size, refer back to their tags to determine the order in which they should be boxed.

• Gently press down on the sections to compress them in the box so that the box can close and then be taped back together.

• We recommend storing artificial trees, especially ones with lights, in a temperature-controlled space to protect the longevity of your tree and its components.

Please note that we’ve found some of our customers prefer tree bags that can simply be zipped up over the tree.  While tree bags are more flexible than boxes when packing up the tree, and some even come with rollers, tree bags do not provide as much protection as traditional boxing methods. If you choose to use a tree bag, please be sure to respect the space needed to store the tree in order to avoid damaging branches during storage.

Beaded Garland

Due to the thin strings which make up these types of garland and the affinity for the beads to hook onto one another, beaded garlands are notorious for becoming tangled within themselves and breaking during the untangling process. To prevent this, they can be wrapped while in storage.

Leading up to Christmas, begin to save paper towel rolls that are generated around your home. The more strings of beaded garlands, the more rolls you will need. Gift wrapping tape will be needed as well. When the time comes to wrap up beaded garlands, often seen on Christmas trees and worked into greenery garlands, begin by taping one end of the bead string into the opening of the paper towel roll. Wrap the garland around the paper towel roll and secure the other end of the string to the remaining opening on the paper towel roll.

Greenery Garland

We see countless garlands that have been stored year after year ‘as-is” with all added decor items still intact. Similar to the way stored Christmas trees must have each stem and brand smoothed forward, this too must happen with garlands, an impossible task when ornaments and berry sprays are in the mix. Not to mention those berry sprays and added stems should be smoothed out themselves.

Begin by removing all items you placed into the garland. Set aside in like-item piles. Take care to smooth and face forward each layer of stems, from the short distal stems to the largest arms of the garland. From here, garlands can be conveniently wrapped into circles, similar to the way you would coil a hose or electrical cord. If you have a few garlands with minimal extra decorations, specially designed garland storage boxes may work for you. If you have five or more garlands which you adorn with extra sprays, bows an ornaments, we suggest using round plastic lidded trash cans. As you roll up your garlands, simply place them face up into the trash cans, stacking one on top of the other. Safely wrap your supplemental items used in the garlands and place them in the open center of the trash can, where they will be safely surrounded and padded by the garlands.

An extra bonus goes to those who have artificial wreaths and opt to store their garlands in round trash cans! Simply place them wreaths in as layers on top of the garland. If your wreath has frost, flock, berries, or fragile pieces, we recommend placing it in a trash bag and then layering it on top of the garlands.

Ornaments

Ornaments and tree decorations come in every shape, size and material imaginable. Thankfully, there are multiple ways to store your ornaments and you don’t have to choose just one. Each packing style has its pros and cons and we’ve learned that matching each style of ornament with the most complementary packing style is the best way to ensure each item is safe, while simultaneously taking up the least amount of space, and saving as much money, as possible.

For uniformly shaped round ornaments and small items, you can purchase special ornament storage boxes which come with plastic, or adjustable cardboard dividers. If there is space in a compartment with an ornament, tissue paper is an excellent insulator for padding. While these work for a broad range of ornaments, they don’t work for every shape and size. Plus, they allocate more space per ornament than basic plastic storage bins. For households with a smaller amount of ornaments or traditionally shaped pieces, these boxes are a good choice and the clear versions make assessing your inventory every season even easier.

For less fragile ornaments, standard plastic storage bins work for most items. Allowing the ornaments to touch one another lets you fit more ornaments per container, thus occupying less storage space. Additionally, oversized or uniquely shaped ornaments will not be forced into awkward dividers. Any tissue paper that can’t be saved for next year can be used to flexibly divide and protect ornaments using this method. Be sure to use light colored paper only to prevent the risk of color transfer onto light colored ornaments.

For flowers, sprays, and berries, we recommend using the “smoothed out” method used on garlands and trees. Close flowers in on themselves and layer items, starting with the flattest and most durable first, into plastic storage bins. Pro tip: box these items separately from your traditional hanging ball ornaments. Since they’re added to the tree first, you can easily have one box out in the living room at a time as you add your decorations in the correct layers.

Wrapping

It’s common, and considered environmentally chic, to reuse gift bags and tissue paper. To effectively pull this off, however, you want your materials  to be as wrinkle-free as possible and still match. As gifts are opened, have a designated place for tissue paper and bags

versus wrapping paper, which is harder to reuse. Don’t throw the wrapping paper out just yet, though. When clean up time begins, first flatten and press tissue paper, looking for torn pieces, which can be discarded. Match tissue paper up with gift bag and place the paper within the matching bag. This way, your paper and bag sets are already paired up for use next year.

While it might not make for good packaging for gifts next year, spent wrapping paper is still useful. Fragile decor such as ceramic, glass or other breakable figurines: use the user holiday wrapping paper as the protective buffers for these items. One method is to conventionally wrap the paper around items, similarly to the way paper towels are wrapped around dishes during a move. For added protection, you can ball up smaller pieces of paper and use them as supplemental padding between items.

---

For all of your holiday decorations, whenever possible, store them indoors. Extreme heat and cold can be rough on electric items and the glue used on many decorations. If you don’t have excessive indoor storage space, consider separating your items into a heat tolerant and indoor category to ensure the most vulnerable items make it indoors.

We hope these tips on how to safely package holiday decorations were helpful as we know how special and meaningful decor items can be. These methods will help to keep your most valuable and sentimental holiday decorations looking just right for years to come while occupying the least storage space possible, and you can know you’re packing like a pro.

If you have any holiday storage secret not outlined in this article, please share your tips with us! For any questions, advice or service inquiries do not hesitate to contact us at info@dei-zinz.com or by phone at (480)-368-2254. If you’re local to Arizona, the public is always welcome to stop in for service inquiries and to shop our Scottsdale showroom as well.