Easy Steps To Keeping Holiday Decorations Organized

Why is Santa in the same box as the Easter Bunny? It is that time of year when you are pulling out your elaborate Fall/Halloween decorations and prepping yourself for the big time…Christmas! It doesn’t matter if you have a chic one bedroom loft or a standard ranch in the suburbs, most people don’t know how to organize their holiday décor. I will be honest and tell you since I am a single woman, without many holiday decorations, I have them all stuffed in one box on the top shelf of my hall closet. I know it probably is not the best way to store them but it works for me. The more people I talked to about this and the client whose homes I’ve visited all seemed to have the same attitude; “it isn’t perfect but it works for me.”

What really brought my attention to this topic was my mother. She is the queen of holiday decorations. Whether it is her pumpkin light covers for Halloween or her snowman village (with hundreds of snowmen figurines) for Christmas, she has decorations for every occasion (Which just happens to be one of the many things I love about her!). For years I’ve listened to her complain about the way her holiday décor was stored. When she had them in cardboard boxes mice and bugs could get into them (even though I don’t think they ever did), and no matter who put the decorations away it was never done exactly the way it was before we put them out. It was a poor system but it was the only system we knew. That was until one day when she and I were in a store and found the glorious color Rubbermaid storage bins!

I have always loved organization so I was on a mission to help my mother overcome her décor conundrum. We had decided that Rubbermaid bins would be the best way to keep the decorations safe from critters, kids, and water. However, we really didn’t want the standard silver or blue bins. Before we went to the store we estimated the number of bins we would need per each holiday. Once that was decided we were on our way. We also decided to designate colors for each holiday. We started with the biggest holidays first. This is how we separated everything:

• Valentine’s day = Red
• St. Patrick’s day = Green
• Easter/Lent = Purple
• 4th of July = Blue
• Halloween/Fall = Orange and Black
• Christmas = Red and Green
• New Year’s = Silver

It didn’t matter what size box we used to store the decorations the only requirement we had was color. We had to use two colors for Halloween/Fall and Christmas because of the amount of decorations and the limited supply of boxes.

Once this was complete it was so easy to organize the storage room. We labeled each box and wrote down which decorations went in each box. This ensured there wouldn’t be any confusion when putting the decorations away. I recommend using labels then putting a strip of clear movers tape over it so the label doesn’t get ripped off or damaged. When all the decorations were labeled and in a box we were able to neatly stack the boxes in order of when the holiday occurred. Now it is easy to set up for any holiday!

Find out how you can save money, time and space by downloading your own Personal Closet Inventory Worksheet. Browse our project gallery for some inspiring ideas.