Christmas Decor Storage

It's almost time to begin pulling the Christmas decorations out of storage.  Here's a peek at how we store our large collection of holiday decor.  These photos show the boxes last year, after they were pulled out of the basement storage room.  At last count, we had about 25 boxes of varying sizes and types.

In the corner of the room is a tall, hulking form of an artificial tree that is covered in a protective wrapping that also is on wheels.  The tree is a big, heavy, beautiful one with hinged branches and permanently wired lights.  The tree spends the off-season still assembled, sitting in a wheeled frame. The canvas wrapper then is pulled up from the bottom, covering the tree and providing dust protection.  

In front of the windows, you might be able to see a low, long, dark rectangular container.  This is what we affectionately call our "tree coffin".  It's a 6'x3'x3' canvas box that has a zipper top.  In it we store our original artificial tree that was given to us long ago, early in our marriage.  It's an old-fashioned one with branches that completely disassemble, and so it can't really stay assembled all year.  So we take it apart and throw it in the "coffin".  There is so much room in the "coffin" that we also store two big thick artifical garlands that we use on the front door, plus some wreaths, indoor garlands, and a wide variety of artificial poinsettias and other florals.  It's huge!  It has made the storage of our artificial greenery much easier.  

Both of these items can be purchased from FrontGate (tree stand and large wheeled storage bag).  Catch them on sale for a better price.  They are pricey, but they are workhorses that will last for decades.

The plastic storage bins were purchased at Target, Walmart, and Bed Bath and Beyond at various times on various sales.  They hold our ornament collections, figurines, candles, etc.

And finally, there are some old cardboard boxes holding some of the older, less used items.  We are gradually replacing these so that eventually our Christmas decor collection should end up mostly water-proof.  We had an unfortunate experience with a broken water pipe that led us to make the switch from cardboard to plastic a couple of years ago.  This year I think we'll buy just a few more bins, and be rid of the cardboard for good.

It's just a few more days until we'll begin bringing the boxes out of storage for this year's decorating.  I'm looking forward to it!