Tips for Stress-Free Organization

The holiday season has officially come to an end, and the time has come to finally take the lights down and get your home looking back to normal.

But we all know the dreaded feeling of having to put all your decor back into storage. Basements are great places to keep seasonal decorations, but if you use your basement as another living space, it can be challenging to figure out how to optimize it.

At Erie Home, we have compiled our best tips and tricks for holiday decor storage solutions to help you make the most of your home’s space.

Preparing for Holiday Decor Storage

Ultimately, preparation begins with checking out your basement. Before you start stacking boxes against the walls, give your basement a once over to ensure that everything is looking good. Any cracks or gaps need to be taken seriously, especially if you are storing precious items in your basement.

Erie Home can come out to perform a basement inspection to give you the peace of mind you need to move through the rest of the winter season. If we see areas that need attention, we can let you know and schedule a basement waterproofing or basement repair service, depending on what your home needs.

Once your basement has the all-clear, it’s time to start considering what needs to be stored and what needs to go. Holiday decor accumulates faster than we’d like to admit. Each year, we buy a new knick-knack at the store and it adds to the already-large pile of decorations we have.

Decluttering holiday decor items each year makes storing things easier and allows you to add something fresh to your collection each year! As you go through your home and look at your decor, consider the sentimental value of all of your decorations. If you have an emotional attachment, keep it, and if you don’t, discard it! This frees up tons of storage space in your home.

Once you’ve finished decluttering your holiday decor, take inventory of all the decorations you are keeping so you can determine the best storage solutions for what you have. Planning ahead like this ensures a smooth and stress-free storage process!

Choosing the Right Storage Containers for Seasonal Decorations

When it comes to storing your seasonal decorations, you want to make sure you invest in high-quality, durable storage bins. If you store your decor in your basement, you want to make sure that it’s been waterproofed to avoid any damage to your things, but if your basement isn’t waterproofed yet, durable storage bins can help protect your belongings.

When buying bins, consider the shape and size of the decorations that you have. Separate compartments help keep smaller items organized and can even help prevent breakage.

Packing and Storing Holiday Decor

Once your storage bins have been acquired, it’s time to get to work!

It helps to start from small to large, wrapping fragile items like ornaments in bubble wrap or tissue paper to protect them. If your storage bins have dividers, you can keep your ornaments and smaller trinkets organized in whatever way makes sense to you.

Storing your seasonal decorations in a cool, dry place is crucial to preserving them. A closet or basement makes for the perfect place to stack your bins so they are out of the way until you need them again.

**Pro Tip: Get your basement waterproofed during the holiday season while all your decor is out! No need to worry about moving tons of boxes and not knowing where to put things.

Labeling and Organizing Holiday Decor Storage Containers

After all of your holiday decorations are sorted into their bins, it’s time to label them! Putting a label on your storage bins makes finding what you need much easier for the holidays next year.

You can get as detailed as you’d like with this step. For some people, it’s best to just throw the holiday name on the box, and for others, they may want to use a color-coding system to categorize storage bins by season, holiday, or even type of decoration (e.g., lights, ornaments, etc.)

For those who go into fine detail, keeping a master list of your storage bins and their contents makes your life much easier in the event that you need to access something in particular.

Maintaining Your Holiday Decor Storage System

Building your storage system is one thing, but maintaining it is another. Putting the work in this year will make life easier next time around, but that doesn’t mean the organization won’t slip through the cracks.

A few tips for maintaining an organized holiday decor storage system include:

• Check on your stored holiday decorations periodically to ensure that they are still in good condition.
• Consider rotating your holiday decorations every few years to keep them fresh and prevent boredom.
• Make sure to update your storage system as your holiday decorations change or grow.
• Keep your storage area clean and dust-free to prevent damage to your decorations.
• If you store seasonal decor in your basement, keep an eye out for leaks, cracks, or gaps in the flooring or in the walls to avoid moisture from getting in.

Creative Storage Solutions for Holiday Decor

Looking for a way to store things without it being an eyesore? If your basement also serves as another living space, or you are out of closet space, consider using vintage suitcases or trunks to store your seasonal decorations. This storage solution adds to your home’s style instead of distracting from it.

Alternatively, you can use storage ottomans or find a coffee table with storage in it to help keep items out of sight but easy to reach when needed.

Keep Your Basements Protected

We all tend to store seasonal decorations and other things in our basement since we only use them once a year. Christmas trees, wreaths, and lights take up a lot of space, which is why the basement is the perfect spot to keep it all.

But Christmas decorations and craft supplies can easily get damaged from excess moisture. Keeping your basement in good shape is key to extending the life of your decor. Work with Erie Home to get your basement waterproofed so your belongings can stay in the best condition possible.

When it comes to post-holiday cleanup, it can feel overwhelming. With the right storage solutions, a little planning, and a protected basement, it can be a simple, stress-free process for you and your family.

Happy decorating!