11 Best Ways To Store & Organize Christmas Decorations

As January 1st rolls around each year, putting away Christmas decorations is definitely NOT the most popular project on anyone’s to-do list. Trying to plan the best ways to store holiday wreaths, trees, & lights, and organize wrapping paper, Christmas cards, stockings & ornaments has you failing before you even get started. It’s basically like hanging a piece of chocolate cake on your treadmill the first day of your new diet!! So, let’s change things up this year and create a solution!! Here are the 11 Best Ways to Store & Organize Christmas Decorations.

11 Best Ways to Store & Organize Christmas Decorations

I wanted to start off with the two most important tips before we get to the good stuff.

2 Helpful Tips:

TIP #1: The best way to store and organize Christmas decorations is to have a system.

You develop a plan, and then follow it. Every. Single. Year.

I’ve been using our system (the one I’ll be sharing with you today) for about 12 years, and it’s still working.

It might be tweaked here and there, but the basic plan remains in place.

TIP #2: Keep your holidays decorations in one place.

We store our decorations in the garage and outdoor attic.

Designating one area of our home helps us to save time AND money.

We know where to find everything, which saves us time when setting things up each year.
This helps us save money because if our outdoor (shelving unit) & attic are full, we won’t buy any NEW decor.

Plus, if we do want to purchase new decorations, something has to be donated or given away to free up extra space.

And….that goes back to having a PLAN.

Ok – Let’s get to the good stuff!

11 Best Ways to Store & Organize Christmas Decorations

#1 – Take a Picture of Your Christmas Decorations in Each Room

Take pictures and then save them onto your computer. This is truly a life saver for me every year.

By taking a picture of each room, you won’t have to sort through boxes trying to figure out what decorations you used the previous year, and which room you put them in.

This will save you a ton of time next year when you’re pulling it all out. If you want to keep some rooms the same, then BAM – all you have to do is put them right back in the same spot.

If you want to change things up, you’ll know what you used last year.

Here is a picture of our living room bookshelves from our home tour.

best ways to store & organize Christmas decorations — source: thetarnishedjewelblog.com

#2 Label All Storage Bins & Boxes (on both sides)

By labeling your storage boxes on both sides, you’ll be able to see the label no matter how it is stacked.

Most years, our boxes fit into our shelving unit exactly the same direction. But for those years when we had to tweak it, they had to be shuffled around to fit.

This will help make sure that you can always see your label from the front side.

#3 Store Wreaths in Trash Bags

We store our smaller wreaths (12″ – 18″) in kitchen-sized trash bags, and our larger wreaths (24″+) in lawn-sized trash bags.

Label all of your trash bags so you know which wreaths are in which bag, and store smaller wreaths/bags in boxes.

Also, attach the nails (in baggies & measurements) with wreaths so you know where you put the wreaths.

Click here for more info on Christmas Wreath Trio.

#4 Use Both Clear and Colored Storage Tubs

If you can, use both types of tubs to help you when organizing your decorations.

Store items that you need to see in the clear tubs, and things that you don’t need to see in the solid colored ones.

You can also store tubs by color this way too.

Clear tubs might be designated for “indoor” Christmas decor whereas the solid colored tubs can be used to store “outdoor” Christmas decor.

#5 Store Christmas Cards in Large Ziploc Bags

Keep Christmas cards (and envelopes) in ziplog bags and label them each year.

By keeping some of your cards each year, you can have some “fillers” while you wait for some new cards to come in during the holiday season.

Saving the envelopes will help you double check addresses from the previous year with your current address book. Then once you’ve checked them off, you can throw the envelopes away.

#6 Use Shoe Boxes for Smaller Decor

Try to save any leftover shoe boxes, Amazon boxes, even pop tart boxes throughout the year for smaller Christmas decorations.

We store garland beads, floral picks, pine cones, vase fillers, breakable ornaments, Christmas cards, wrapping paper labels, ribbons, and more.

Boxes fit together nicely making organizing almost anything, so much easier.

Remember our snow village table setting, these ornaments fit perfectly in this Amazon box. All we had to do was add some paper towels to protect them.

#7 Save Wrapping Paper Clippings in Paper Towel Rolls

If you don’t want to waste all of those extra wrapping paper clippings, you can save them in 2 different ways.

1. Take 5-10 larger pieces and roll them all together into one, and then slide them into a paper towel roll. (You could also cut down a wrapping paper roll once finished with it too).

2. Roll each smaller wrapping paper piece and tape together. Then put all of the extra pieces into a shoe box.

Don’t forget about shoe box lids also (bottom left). They are great for storing extra Christmas gift cards, small boxes, labels and gift tags, etc.

#8 Tape Ribbon Pieces & Pin Ribbon Rolls

Remember my staircase Christmas sprays? I wanted to make sure I saved those ribbons properly so that I can use them again next year.

This technique will work for extra ribbons and bows you want to store also.

1. To store longer ribbon pieces together, just gently fold and secure with a piece of tape. Then you can store groupings into a plastic ziploc bag to protect them.