Maybe you already have your Christmas decorations down and neatly stored?
A nasty bout of bronchitis kept this Christmas elf from getting my after Christmas clean up…well…cleaned up!
But I had a few emails from folks about a couple of my Christmas projects.
Especially how I manage to keep the ornaments for 4 separate trees straight…
How to Keep Christmas Tree Ornaments Organized
I’ve admitted before that we do have more than one Christmas tree in the house. I know a lot of you do multiple trees too.
A couple of ours are just small trees but the one in the family room is fairly big.
Having a system that makes it easier to keep the ornaments for each tree organized is key.
Most of you likely have the ornaments for your trees in separate boxes.
I take it a few steps further to make decorating a little easier and faster.
Yes, I do believe I have long since needed to be tested for OCD, thank you for asking. But its the hand I’m dealt…so I play it.
My System for Organizing and Storing Christmas Tree Ornaments
When I first started blogging at Christmas time a year ago, I shared how I go about decorating the big Christmas tree.
(It actually won a contest Michael’s Crafts was having at the time…and the prize was…an even bigger tree! I gave it to my parents who gave it to my cousin’s son who just got married. Its how family works right?)
What I was too embarrassed to share is how I organize and store all of the decorations for the tree.
Here’s the skinny:
To make it easier to keep track of Christmas decorations in the midst of our jammed packed basement, I’ve slowly invested in green and red boxes over the years.
For my Snowman Christmas tree, I use one regular storage box with a red lid and two ornament boxes with the cute little cardboard sections you can resize as needed.
Then a few extra steps I take make it so much easier to decorate the following year…
Tip #1: I sort, store and label my decorations in the order they go on the tree.
(You like how I tried to fix my spelling? Too many cold meds…)
Because I start with the topper, garland and boots (yes, our tree wears leopard boots) when I decorate, those are all stored together in one box.
Luckily our tree is pre-lit so no bunches of tangled up lights to contend with!
I list everything on a piece of paper that gets taped to the top of the box.
Tip #2: Next up are what I consider my “base” ornaments… the box of Christmas tree ornaments I tackle next.
While they aren’t the most exciting ornaments, they are necessary for every tree.
Once I have the “base” ornaments consistently hanging all around the tree, I move on to the “fun” Christmas tree ornaments…
I get to hang the fun ones!
Tip #3: Group all the “fun” ornaments together in a separate box. These are all the ones that give your tree personality!
Since I rarely ever buy just one of any ornament —usually at least three and almost always in odd numbers —I group them together and then pack them away.
While it does take a few minutes longer to do it this way, the time I save the following year is more than worth it!
And once you have the boxes set up and labeled, they last for years.
Unless you go crazy and change your tree’s theme.
Tip #4: Make a Christmas Decoration “Purgatory Box.”
Because we love, love , love Christmas stores… I made a rule that for every new decoration or set of ornaments that comes in, one has to go.
Sometimes that’s tough to do. So I move them to the Purgatory Box. If they aren’t used in the next 2 years, they go to Goodwill for someone else to use and love.
And that’s really it! How I juggle so many Christmas trees and soooo many ornaments!
And in case you are wondering… where you see “Christmas Box 5” or “Christmas Box 7” on a storage box… I’ll be explaining that in a post soon.
It’s part of the whole getting organized and packed up to move this spring process…
If you like my blog, I hope you will consider following me on Pinterest and Facebook. I’m trying hard to spread the word about my blog so maybe one day…this can be my full-time gig!
Thanks for stopping by for a visit…
Shelley
This is a great image to Pin and Save to help you stay organized next year!
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