Clever storage makes holiday clean-up a breeze
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Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Hanukkah have come and gone, and 2010 is winding down. Caroling, trimming the Christmas tree, lighting the Menorah and spending time with family and friends are memories to treasure.
Along with the memories comes mounds of new stuff: clothes, coats, CDs, video equipment, sports equipment, stuffed animals, toys and snow blowers, to name a few examples.
After the holidays, it’s time to pack away the ornaments, the Christmas lights, the stockings and the decorations. Some families begin packing away holiday decor immediately after Christmas, some wait until New Year’s Day and some until Jan. 6, Epiphany, when the Magi reached Bethlehem.
Regardless of the date, the decorations need to be stored.
Boxes or duffels with layers of small cardboard grids for ornament storage are available for purchase.
All sizes and shapes of plastic tubs are also available and usually are on sale in January. They stack well and protect their contents as long as items are dry when they’re stored. Buying red or green tubs means no labels are necessary, too, since the traditional Christmas colors hint at the contents.
Even wreath-shaped plastic containers are available to keep artificial wreaths uncrushed.
Some stores offer canvas duffels with handles that are just the right size to store an artificial Christmas tree.
Leftover wrapping paper can be corralled in tall plastic bins. If you need more wrapping paper, ribbons or bows, now is the time to stock up during after-Christmas sales.
Strings of lights can be wound around plastic spools specifically for lights or around big pieces of corrugated cardboard to keep them tidy and ready to put on next year’s tree or garland. If the lights don’t work, toss them and replace lights during the 70 percent off after Christmas sales.
Thriftier ways to store holiday items include wrapping fragile item in newspaper and nestling them in fruit boxes with a foam layer in the bottom, boxes with cardboard bottle separators or even recycled light bulb sleeves. Just wrap an ornament in tissue paper or newspaper and slip it into the sleeve.
A file folder placed against the side of a box can be home to kids’ holiday drawings or photos.
Wrap fragile ornaments and pad bulky items with tissue paper and store them in cardboard boxes.
Pretty gift boxes can be flattened and recycled next year if they’re not torn or covered with tape. Tiny cardboard jewelry boxes are worth sticking away in a gift closet to be used throughout the year.
Organizers on the Internet and in magazine advise throwing out any broken items or repairing immediately. Otherwise the Santa without a beard will languish in the junk drawer until either he is lost or his beard has vanished.
After all the packing is done and you feel virtuous, sit down and read a couple of chapters in the novel you got for Christmas.
