Christmas Storage

Q & A from Ali Edwards Blog: You often write about storing your holiday-stuff all together. That means not only decoration but also albums, books and much more. I’m a little curious how your store all these things. In boxes labeled and with a list maybe? And another question came to my mind: do you toss away and sort out things when unpacking the holiday boxes? Or how do you manage keeping the amount of holiday stuff manageable?

AE & my agreements: I’m a big fan of tubs. Ali Edwards has these holiday tubs (and everything you see in the photo above) is stored in her garage. Everything else holiday goes into these tubs at the end of December: movies, ornaments, December Daily albums, Christmas books and other decorations – it all comes back out again the following December. I don’t have any lists to go along with these tubs – just a label on the outside that says “Xmas.”

In addition to putting it all away, I’m also a big fan of only having things that we really love. Over the years we’ve collected things that are just extra – extra decorations, etc that I’m not choosing to pull out of the tubs for one reason or another. This year one of my goals as I pull stuff out of the tubs is to have a box on hand for donations. I’ve attempted to do that at the end of the season before but usually by then I’m so over the stuff that I just end up putting it all away in the tubs (even the things that we might not really love and enjoy).

I would LOVE TO have these!! Ornament Storage Boxes from Amazon (one stacked on top of the other on the right side of the photo). They are pricey but they would be really nice and secure and sturdy OR something like them. My plan would be for one to be for Ian and one will be for Mark & I’s ornaments.

I really don’t want any more than this amount of tubs (4 tubs + the 2 ornament boxes).
This is really a transition year for us in terms of decorations. I’m taking it slowly as I pull out each thing and thinking more about where (and if) I want to have it here in our new place.

Do you have a holiday storage system? Any favorite tips to share?