Undecorating

Soon it will be time to pack away all those holiday decorations for another year. Ugh! I doubt if anyone really enjoys this step. We all know it is essential to get holiday decorations put away in a relatively organized way so that all of these treasures can be preserved for another year of use.

Recently, I came across some incredible videos at HGTV.com from organizing expert Star Hansen. The videos below have some awesome ideas for putting away your holiday decorations in a compact and organized way.

Here she uses a trunk and fabric layers to put away outdoor decorations.

Here she takes her organizing magic indoors into the typical basement:

If you still have a few days (or weeks) until you pack away the holiday décor, here are a few organizing tools you might consider adding to your arsenal.

	These are the most useful boxes for packing away your Christmas treasures. They are large and fit a wide variety of objects. They have a green and red top so they are easy to identify as holiday storage bins and (my favorite!) they have a clear base so you can see what is inside without having to unpack it.
	If you have a large number of breakable ball-type ornaments, a box like this is a must. Since most of our ornaments are the child-friendly non-breakable kind (i.e. plastic or stuffed animals), we just toss them in a big storage box and wrap in tissue any that happen to be fragile.
	Those who insist on fresh Christmas trees each year have a storage advantage over those of us with artificial trees. At the end of the holiday season, you just pitch the tree for garbage pickup and/or recycling. If you have an artificial tree, like we do, you have to find a place to store it for the year. We used to store our large artificial Christmas tree in the cardboard box it came in. Over time the cardboard deteriorated and it was also VERY heavy to lift. One year, we picked up some tree bags at an after Christmas sale and packed away the tree in two sections. This both made a more attractive and durable storage option but more importantly, it reduced the lifting weight of the tree into two more manageable portions. The tree bags are also easier to lift than a box and you can either sling the straps over your shoulder backpack style or have two people each carry one handle. For a little more money, you can get a rolling duffle bag for your tree, which would be great if you don’t have to lift your tree up and down stairs.  If you store your tree upright instead of disassembling it, they make a bag for that too! A friend recently joked that the ultimate Christmas tree storage would be a trap-door in the ceiling where a fully decorated tree could be raised up at the end of the season and lowered down the next!
	There are few tasks more frustrating than untangling holiday lights. This set of reels lets you roll up your lights for tangle-free, stress-free decorating next year.
	If you have artificial wreaths to store, this clear bag is a great way to protect the wreath from dust and still be able to see the contents inside.

Now is a great time to assess your own holiday storage needs and see if you need to buy any specialized storage supplies. Many of them are on sale now. For my part, I really need a better holiday card display solution. I love all the creative ideas out there.

	This cute flower-inspired holder would be great not only for the holidays but throughout the year. It could hold birthday cards, notes, bills, reminders, etc.
	This one is a bit small for my needs but I love the “mobile” aspect of it and that it looks like the Calder mobile at the National Gallery of Art. Wouldn’t something like this be fun suspended temporarily in your foyer during the holidays?
	This one can be used as either a photo tree or if our photo cards ultimately stop coming as people transition to digital delivery, this could be used like a modern Christmas tree for ornaments or other decorations as well.

Have an undecorating or holiday storage question or tip? Please share in the comments.