How-to Pack Up Christmas Decor (so it’s easier to decorate next year!)
Looking for a simple guide on how to organize your Christmas or holiday decor?
My goal is to help you develop a plan of attack on how-to pack and organize your Christmas decor to make it easier on yourself next year!
You know that week following Christmas when we tackle packing up and organizing our Christmas decor?
It’s always a chore, but if we have a plan as we pack up everything it will make decorating MUCH easier next year.
Sharing my best tips for packing and organizing your Christmas decor this year. We will cover:
- Different or new locations to store Christmas decor.
- How to organize and maximize closet, attic, and garage storage.
- Types of storage containers to invest in to make packing easier
- How-to categorize your Christmas decor as you pack it to make it easier as you decorate next year.
Contains hand selected products, with affiliate marketing links where I may make a small commission if a purchase is made. {full disclosure here}
Places to Store Christmas and Holiday Decor
Hopefully, you have a space dedicated in a closet, attic or garage that can safely house all of your Christmas storage containers.
In my home, I’ve worked on two specific areas which are my attic and an un-used closet in my upstairs loft area.
It previously was a dumping ground that I decided to make work for me not against me!
Project: Creating a Home Decor Closet
To make this space work for me, I added an adjustable closet shelving and over the door system.
Not only does this space store things, but it’s also a gift wrapping station! We use it all year long to wrap presents.
Fast forward and yes, I’m like everyone and let this closet get CLUTTERED and found it wasn’t working for me any longer.
After YEARS of use, I found a better way to organize this closet and it will make you say WOW!
Project: Decluttering Holiday Decor
It’s important every few years to re-think and reorganize your decor.
Donate or swap with a friend what you no longer use.
Then as you buy new holiday or seasonal decor, you will have open space to store it!
Think through how you can maximize the same space and use it more effectively.
It’s amazing with a little thought and effective storage solutions you can completely transform a closet into this!
You can see I used the SAME moveable closet shelving system and over the door organization kit, but updated the layout.
Plus found new containers that are crystal clear so I can SEE everything inside.
Organizing and grouping like items and seasons together is a game changer.
Decorating during the holidays has been MUCH easier!
Now I can see my faux florals and keep them organized as I update my arrangement each season.
Next up is the attic! I did a MASSIVE makeover to my attic and use it more wisely.
It is easier to see what is stored and keep it neat and tidy every season.
Project: Creative Ways to Add Attic Storage
Using the SAME moveable shelf closet system and some peg board I created “walls” where there was open space into attic insulation.
Then I added hanging storage for my wreaths. Now I can see everything I have before I get decorating.
Can I tell you how much time and money this organization saved me!!!
All of my wreaths, garlands, and cords are stored in one location that I can see!
Plus seeing what I had stopped me from buying new wreaths this year.
If you don’t have an attic or closet, maybe you have unused space in the upper third of your garage?
Why not install shelving in the ceiling
? A great option to used unused space!
Now that you have thought through different locations around your home to store stuff, let’s talk about how to pack and organize it!
Products to Organize Christmas Decor
Think about the different types of containers you will need based on how you plan to pack and organize your Christmas decor.
Many of these items you will see throughout this post!
- Large clear tote bins
- Divided clear tote bins
- Wreath bags
- Tree bags
- Clear shoe boxes
- Clear boot boxes
My suggestion is to buy in bulk to save money.
The clear shoe boxes and boot boxes are the best and can be used to organize your closet too 🙂
Pin it for Later!
Categorize Christmas Decor Prior to Storing
Look around your space and think about what items you use pretty consistently from year to year.
Those are the items to focus on and get organized as you pack them away for easier installation next year.
You can group them in a variety of ways, but in all practicality group things into buckets and the way you decorate.
How to group and pack holiday decor:
- By Area or Room
- By Project
- By Type of Decor
- As it Is!
What’s important about going through this process is to help you pre-plan the storage space, tools, and containers you you will need BEFORE you get packing up.
We will go through each type of packing project in detail to help get those organization wheels turning in your mind.
Packing, Organizing, and Storing Christmas Decor
Here are a variety of ways ways to think through organizing and packing your Christmas decor.
Something to also think through is if items can be stored where the temperature fluctuates (attic or garage) or if it needs to be inside in a climate controlled space.
Candles are a good example of something that needs to be stored in a climate controlled space, so they don’t melt during the heat of the summer in an attic (yep, it’s happened to me too).
By Area or Room
When I say area or room, think about an area such as the fireplace mantel or a room could be everything for your kitchen.
For my Christmas mantel, I pack that area all together for easy installment.
The garland, lights, extension cord, and candle sticks get packed in one large clear tote with a lid.
The main thing is TO LABEL the project bin, once you fill it, so you know exactly what is inside.
From lights, garlands, tree skirt, and neutral decor all of them are organized and labeled in the attic so I see EXACTLY what I have.
Each year as I pack up my Christmas decor and decide to group things differently, I just peel off the label and add a new one with the updated contents.
Here is my favorite labeler:
Everyone who wants to be organized needs a label maker I think!
I used it for EVERYTHING, not just my Christmas decor.
The stockings, hangers and candles I want stored where the climate is controlled.
So I store them in a cabinet right next to the fireplace.
Due to how organized the decor pieces are it makes it easy to put up the mantel decor in only 15 minutes!
The breakable glass trees are stored in my home decor closet.
Literally, the holiday home decor closet is set up like a shop!
I do this because every year I like to see what I have and repurpose it.
It makes it easy to get inspired by what I already have and create new looks each Christmas.
Some other areas to consider packing by room or area that you decorate: dining room table, staircase, kitchen counters, or bedroom.
By Project type
Exterior Christmas decor is the perfect type of project to organize packing all of the pieces together.
I typically do just about the same thing each year and have an outdoor Christmas organization station.
My exterior decor consists of wreaths, garland, and lights.
In my attic everything is grouped together in one location in the attic.
The Pottery Barn boxes house my wreaths and garland.
The green crate houses everything for hanging the wreaths and garland plus it’s labeled too!
Crates are a great option for items you just want to throw in and don’t need to be protected.
This literally is my MOST favorite piece of the outdoor station.
I’m able to grab the crate and know that all of the cords, timers and ties are there ready to go!
What is in my exterior Christmas decor crate:
- Extension cords
- Timers (photo sensor)
- Wreath hangers
- Railing hangers
- Plastic ties
It takes me 30 minutes to hang my wreaths and garland because I have all that I need together for the project.
The other thing I pack together as a project is a Christmas Village I place each year on my foyer table.
All of the buildings are grouped together and the brown box contains everything I need for set up:
Christmas Village Kit
- Extension cords
- Surge protector
- Light cords
- Extra light bulbs
- Mini-accessories for the village.
It sits on a shelf under my stairs and right by where I will set up the village versus in the attic.
That way it is in close proximity to the project and is climate controlled.
Think about what items you use over and over and store them together so it’s easy to access and portable.
By Type of Christmas Decor
Your Christmas tree ornaments are the most obvious choice for organizing by type of decor!
Every year you put ornament on trees, so why not organize as much of that together as possible?
Since I change colors each year on my various trees, it works for me to organize my ornaments by color.
Each divided storage bin is labeled with what colored ornaments are inside.
I’ve even found smaller ornament bins that snap together and have, so the ornaments that are you every year as base ornaments are grouped together.
As you store the ornaments, try to keep the layers a consistent color so you can hang them on the tree at the same time.
At my home, this method works perfectly for the dining room tree because it’s always decorated with the same gold and pink ornaments.
The solid red and blue totes have been with me forever and house my family ornaments, with the blue one having the most precious ones!
You can see how easy it is for me to grab each tote bin as I need it, for the trees that I decorate.
Downstairs I have two Christmas trees, so it is important to keep the ornaments separated or it would be chaos!
Another Christmas decor type are the Christmas trees and collars. I store them in one area of my attic.
The main tree is stored under my closet stairs, so I can wheel it out when it’s time to decorate.
In this space, I have the flocked dining room tree and collar, the small office tree, and mini pre-lit trees that I use in random locations each year.
Other things to pack and organize by holiday decor type are string lights, garland, ribbon, and small wreaths.
That tree you saw wrapped in a garbage bag takes us to our final packing type!
Pack Christmas As Is
Yes, pack it so you can pull it out next year and place it! This truly is the easy button of packing and organizing Christmas decor.
A couple of things I pack like this are mini-trees and arrangements.
My blue and white themed Christmas tree is always packed with ALL of the lights and ornaments on it.
Yep, I just tie a big black garbage bag under the tree and put it in the attic just like that!
Another item I pack up like this is a pretty reindeer and sleigh.
The sleigh portion is filled with greens and ornaments and place it in different locations each year.
It’s nice to have such a substantial piece of decor ready to go each year!
The only thing I have to figure out is where I want to put it!
To protect the antlers I wrap them in tissue paper and tie a grocery bag around the sleigh to keep everything in place.
Then I place it in an oversized Pottery Barn shopping bag. To keep it safe, I store it on a shelf in the attic.
Takes me just a few minutes to pack and un-pack this pretty piece each year.
What items do you have like this or smaller trees you can store with the ornaments and lights in place?
It really makes decorating SO much easier!
My hope is to inspire some new ideas and help get you organized this holiday season!
Need more storage and organization ideas?
Are you wondering how I hang all of my Christmas decorations too? Read these posts:
Please consider following me on Pinterest and Instagram for daily inspiration.
Until next time…
Porch Daydreamer
Tracey
Such easy ideas!! Thanks so much!! This is our 2nd Christmas in our home and this year I am determined to be more intentional when putting it all away so that I don’t feel so overwhelmed getting it all out next year!! Thanks again!!
S
So glad it helps! Once you have a system, you can get better packing up each year and you will thank yourself as you go to decorate 🙂 It’s a gift that keeps on giving.
Omg, you have left me blowing away. These ideas is exactly what I need to organize my holiday decorations. I love all these wonderful ideas, and will be using them. Thank you so much for sharing. 🍾🍸my new year toast to you.
Yay! So glad it helps and Happy NEW YEAR cheers to you!
This post came at the perfect time for me. I’ve said it before but this year I’m really going to organize the Christmas decor! First I will have to thin it out! Thank you!
Maureen, I’m SO glad this helped! It felt great taking a SUV full of stuff and organizing the rest to ultimately make life easier 😁