If you haven’t taken down your holiday decorations, you will probably be doing that shortly. And to make it easier on yourself next year, store carefully.

You may want to do a quick run through of the holiday boxes of decorations you didn’t put out this year. Do you really plan on using them again? If not, it might be time to get rid of some of them. Think about how much storage space you have and how much decorations you use once a year are taking up.

Make sure all your boxes are labeled so you can find them later. My preference is for red boxes so I know at a glance which are for Christmas. But, other people like clear boxes so they can see what is in them. If possible put boxes on some kind of shelving rather than on the floor.

Most of the holiday decorations keep best in their original boxes.

If you always put certain items in certain rooms you can label your boxes by room (kitchen, foyer, living room.) I tend to mix it up every year so I store by type (garlands, ceramics, tree accessories.)

The first thing I like to do is the advent box. This box gets opened first in late November. It has the nativity scene still in its original box, the advent wreath, holiday mugs and towels and the card wall display. For years I had to open all the boxes to find what I needed first. Then the light dawned – how about keeping them all together!

We have one box for ornaments that holds each of our four family members ornament boxes and a box for generic ornaments. Dust the ornaments before putting them away to keep them lasting longer. We wrap ornaments that no longer have packages in paper towel, Christmas washcloths, towels or pot holders. You can create your own ornament dividers or buy them. Small ornaments can be stored in egg cartons. We also keep the original packaging when possible, especially for the Hallmark ornaments.

I love wreath bags to keep the wreath nice. Though big pillowcases work as well. Use canned air spray to clean wreaths off before storing. And garland usually goes in plastic bags rather than boxes just for easier storing. Plastic bags that things like pillows come in are great! Label the ends of the garland or the plastic bag for where it goes so the right size garland ends up in the right place.

Lights can be wrapped around paper towel tubes or they now have light boxes.

Wrapping paper and ribbon can be put into a hanging garment bag or an under the bed storage container.

Tree Storage bags are helpful for keeping artificial trees nice without the holes end up in plastic bags. And they keep fresher than stored only in the box. I actually like putting the tree in the bag then putting it in the original box.

Time to start putting away my decorations!