14 Creative Ways To Store Your Holiday Decorations

After all the festive parties, gifts and delicious feasts, the winter holidays eventually must draw to a close. The end of this season signals a return to normal life and routine. It also means it’s time to pack up all your decorations and tuck them away for another year. If you struggle to pack and store your holiday decor, you may want to find creative ways to keep your decorations safe from year to year.

Some unique ways to safely store holiday decorations include using a clothes rack to hang wreaths or wrapping paper. Use egg cartons, paper or plastic cups, or coffee filters to help stack and protect ornaments and small decorations. Find a container to store an artificial tree that keeps it compact and safe, and remember to save tissue paper from gifts to wrap your fragile decorations.

Packing away the holidays is sad and sometimes tedious, but it must be done. If you have a lot of holiday decor or limited space, you may need unique and creative ways to keep your decorations safe and secure until the festive season returns. Below is a list of the best creative storage hacks and tips that will help you store your holiday decorations safely. 

14 Clever Ways To Store Your Holiday Decorations

1. Use Egg Cartons For Fragile Ornaments

After you bake your holiday cookies and quiche, remember to save the cardboard egg containers. The cardboard compartments can be used to store your small Christmas decorations. These containers have anywhere from 6 to 24 shallow pockets that can fit many of your small and breakable holiday decorations.

Egg cartons are a great way to secure your fragile holiday mementos. These cartons may feel flimsy, but they keep eggs from cracking, so as long as you don’t place anything heavy on top of them, your ornaments should be safe.

2. Store Holiday Wreaths On A Clothing Rack 

Holiday wreaths constructed of man-made or dried materials can last for several years if stored correctly. The problem is that it’s easy to squish a wreath and render it lopsided or flat and useless.

To avoid this issue, hang wreaths in the back of your closet. You can place one or two on a hanger in a garment bag. Since wreaths are fairly thin and mostly vertical, they shouldn’t take up much space. Consider placing the wreaths beside your holiday sweaters. This will help designate a small area of hanging space for the holidays.

3. Save Tissue Paper To Wrap Your Ornaments

Tissue paper is great for stuffing gift bags, and it’s very plentiful around the holidays. Instead of throwing all the tissue paper away on the Christmas holiday, consider saving it to wrap your breakable items.

Tissue paper (and leftover bubble wrap if you have any) is great for wrapping fragile and precious ornaments. If you have any ceramic or porcelain holiday figurines, use the tissue paper to create a soft barrier around them to help prevent breakage.

4. Leftover Disposable Cups Can Protect Small Decorations

If you throw parties during the holidays, there’s a good chance you purchased plastic or paper cups. You may even have some cups leftover. Instead of stashing them somewhere deep in your kitchen pantry, give them a second life as small storage containers.

Place ornaments, decorations, or even small beads and garland in the cups, and stack them in a container. This is an easy and free way to create small compartments in large bins.

5. Utilize Coffee Filters To Add Ornament Protection

Coffee filters are another easy and cheap way to create separate small compartments within a larger bin. Coffee filters can be used to wrap ornaments and fragile items, and then you can also use them as organizing vessels. Place a wrapped ornament in a filter, and then stack them as needed within a storage bin.

6. Consolidate Wrapping Paper 

Whether you are in the habit of saving gift bags, or are always buying too much wrapping paper, there seems to be a lot of leftover holiday gift wrap come January. Don’t throw away this paper, as you will surely use it next year.

Instead, consolidate it. Stack the bags neatly, place bows in one small box or bin, and try to fit all your wrapping paper on one or two rolls. Consolidating holiday gift wrap keeps things organized and makes the most of your storage space.

7. Organize Holiday Decor Bins By Room

If you decorate your entire home for the winter holidays, then ensure you are smart and strategic when packing your bins. One great way to make unpacking and packing for the holidays simple and organized is to pack room by room. If you label and pack your boxes according to the location they belong in, you will easily set everything up again each year.

8. Get A Special Container For Your Artificial Tree

Artificial trees can last many years if you care for them properly. They can also take up a lot of space. To ensure your artificial Christmas tree stays new for many years and takes up minimal space, get a container made for your tree.

There are many totes and compression bins that are designed specifically for artificial trees and other large decorations. Buy one to consolidate space and keep your fake tree safe.

9. Use Airtight Bins So You Can Store Decor Anywhere

Remember to use quality storage bins when you pack away holiday decor. Winter holiday decorations spend almost 10 months packed away. Use airtight and locking bins. 

This will keep moisture and pests out of your decorations while ensuring they aren’t damaged, regardless of where you decide to store them.

10. Buy Clear Containers To Make Everything Visible

In addition to using locking and air-tight bins, consider selecting clear bins. Clear bins are sometimes a few dollars more than other plastic locking bins, but they are often worth the price. If you don’t always take out all your holiday decorations each year, you’ll want to know exactly what’s in each bin. Clear bins make it easy to see what's in each bin.

11. Use Leftover Gift Labels To Label Bins

Another way to know exactly what’s stored in each bin is to label them. There’s a good chance that after you finish wrapping gifts, you'll have some leftover gift labels. Instead of writing “to” and “from” information on these stickers, you can stick them on your bins and use them as labels.

This allows you to easily recognize which storage bins are holiday decorations and helps add an extra layer of festive organization.

12. Buy Narrow Ornament Bins That You Can Tuck Under A Bed

Everyone knows that the space underneath a bed is a great place to tuck away and store items you don’t use often. The only problem is there isn’t always a ton of vertical space, and usually not enough for a storage bin.

Consider buying a low-height ornament bin, or a low-height bin on wheels to store ornaments. In many cases, you can fit all your ornaments, lights, and garland under one queen-sized bed in your guest room.

13. Wrap Lights Around Something Firm To Avoid Tangles

Christmas lights can last many years if stored properly. They can also turn into a tangled mess, and cause lots of frustration. To prevent this tangled headache, wrap all your holiday lights around a rectangular piece of cardboard or wood. This will make untangling them in the fall simple and easy.

14. Purge What You Don’t Need

Instead of rushing the packing process, take your time and go through all your holiday decorations. Have a “keep,” “donate,” and “trash” pile. Throw away anything that is broken and can’t be fixed, and donate anything that no longer excites you. This is an effective and easy way to consolidate your holiday storage and make room for new festive treasures.

Concluding Notes On Creative Ways To Pack Up The Holidays

Putting away all your holiday decorations can be difficult and irritating, but it doesn’t have to be. Instead of stressing, use some unique and creative methods to help maximize space and keep your holiday decorations safe. 

Use egg cartons, disposable cups, or coffee filters to store and protect fragile ornaments. Use airtight storage bins, and label them using leftover gift label stickers. Consolidate all your holiday gift wrap, hang wreaths in your closet, and buy ornament bins that you can tuck under the bed.

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