Christmas Storage — The System I Finally Implemented!

This post is long overdue and while most of us have likely moved on from Christmas, I knew that if I waited until a more seasonably appropriate time to share our Christmas storage, it likely wouldn’t get done. If you’re totally in over your head with holiday decor, it may be easier to save this post for when you start hauling everything out to decorate later in the year, but if the need for Christmas organization has been haunting you for a while, it may not be bad either to carve out time to get into it, get your Christmas storage solutions in place once and for all, and then, come Christmas, you’ll be thanking yourself!

Whatever mindset you’re in, hopefully some of the strategies I used in wrangling our Christmas decor will be helpful to you in your journey.

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First things first. Let’s go ahead and set the stage, answer a few questions, and throw out some caveats.

1. Where do I store our decor? Our basement.
2. My main goal in coming up with a Christmas storage solution — making everything easy to access and easy to locate. While there are some aesthetic benefits to some of my strategy, making our basement storage pretty is not the primary goal.
3. I have purged and purged our decor but I likely still have more Christmas tree decorations than most. While I’ve made progress in letting go of decor and even trees, I switch up tree color schemes so much that it’s hard to part with ornaments. Having so many colors really does require a lot of storage but I do repeat each ornament somewhat often, in different ways. If you aren’t around for the holidays, here’s a peek at what I mean…

You can find what we’re all about during the holidays in my full Christmas gallery HERE.

Where We Started

Honestly, this is a “nice” photo of where we started. Probably because this isn’t actually where we “started”. This photo was taken in 2022, after we had purged a bit, sorted, and this was the “organized” after of our Christmas storage efforts. While there wasn’t as much there, it was far from being easily accessible and I still wouldn’t be able to locate much. There was a lot included we wouldn’t use again (that I was in denial about) and I would go on to have to open each and every bin to find exactly what I was hunting for. Not good. There are trees stacked in front, on the sides, standing up, and the totes are all different sizes and shapes — most are at least two-deep from the back wall.

Christmas Storage Goals

Aside from it being confined to one section of the basement, there wasn’t a “system” in place. My biggest general objectives, before starting were…

1. Pare everything down to a more manageable volume.
2. Be able to locate what I needed, with minimal effort.
3. Implement a somewhat cohesive system.

My presumptive solutions were…

1. Get rid of things that haven’t been used, personally, in the past 5+ years or that I was hanging onto out of guilt.
2. Figure out a better labeling system.
3. Determine the best storage bin and stacking methods/racks and get rid of all the mismatched bins of varying sizes and shapes.

And finally, we addressed each of those!

Christmas Storage Solutions

As a note, most nonprofits and donation centers won’t accept Christmas items immediately after the holiday. I’ve made that mistake more than once. I’ve been able to successfully unload some items to neighbors but ultimately, it’s up to you to make the call. Only you know your capacity, patience, and bandwidth to donate/sell/trash.

1. Specialized Organizers

In terms of actual storage bins, before we get to the primary bins, it was really important to me to have ornament organizers, independent of my big bins, so that our nostalgic ornaments stay isolated and more protected. I found the bins I use a few years ago, and while they aren’t currently in stock, THESE on Amazon seem to be pretty identical. The cardboard dividers are adjustable to accommodate any ornament

Sources: Ornament Storage Bin | (SIMILAR and in stock)

Our 7.5′ tree is pretty well covered and I believe we’ve fit everything into three bins (SIMILAR), with one extra one to spare.

I also like that the ornament bins are small, lightweight, and easy to manage. And speaking of individual storage solutions, I really like our holiday gift organizer bags, too. I have most of my gift wrap set up in my office closet (see that HERE) with it being organized in bins and on the back of my door, but I prefer to keep the Christmas wrapping paper stored separately. You can find a single bag HERE or two bags (a better value) HERE.

Sources: Ornament Storage Bin (SIMILAR and in stock) | Wrapping Paper Storage Bag (Set of 2 HERE)| Scissors (similar) | Wingback Chair | Textured Linen Pillow

We also swear by the Christmas tree bag on wheels from Costco!

2. Christmas Ornament & General Storage Bins

Admittedly, before I began really investigating my options, I assumed we would end up with the standard (large) red and green after-Christmas bins. But, while that would solve the uniformity wishlist item, it did nothing for accessibility and most of the lids for our former bins were too flimsy and eventually cracked. The bins we ended up with are really thick and durable, but are smaller dimension-wise than I had planned. I’ll share why we ultimately went with them in just a bit.

In terms of Christmas storage packing methods, instead of grouping and storing items by space or tree, I collect all like items together across the entire house. I switch locations of items each year, and as I mentioned, never maintain a consistent theme/color so this makes the most sense. I’ve attempted to store specialty tree decor together and can never remember what all it includes. So, when it’s time to take down the holiday decor, I go around and gather everything together in like piles.

Sources: Storage Bin | Area Rug

When all the ornaments were sorted by color, this is what I ended up with.

Some ornaments are glass, some are plastic, but I’ve stored them together for the most part like this for years with little issue. If there are any precious ornaments, of course wrap them or store them like I store our nostalgic ornaments. Bins with individual dividers for this many ornaments would be wild, though!

Only in one bin did I create quick cardboard dividers with a random box I lazily found in the basement — it just didn’t make sense to have full bins dedicated to orange/yellow.

But colors I have a lot of, I did separate some out by color tones. Colors that were more sparse got lumped in together.

Gathering and storing like items also means resisting the “this bin still has plenty of room so I should pack it until its full” practice. If I start making each bin a free for all until it’s packed, it starts becoming difficult keeping up with what’s in which bin.

As a note, while the Christmas tree decor (and some additional Christmas decor) was stored in the black bins (again, I’ll share why in just a moment), I used THESE large clear bins on wheels for general decor. And similar to how I set my ornaments against each other in the bins, I do the same with my bottlebrush trees.

160 Qt. Wheeled Storage Bin

For these bins, Dave hung an overhead rack, which works PERFECTLY to get bins off the floor, while still leaving them accessible.

Sources: Overhead Storage Rack | 160 Qt. Wheeled Storage Bin

3. Christmas Storage Racks

But the Christmas storage I was most excited about… those black bins? Well, this is why I ultimately decided to use them!

Sources: Storage Bin Rack | Storage Bin | Ornament Storage Bin

This storage bin rack is designed specifically for these bins. The bins aren’t stacked on each other — they are supported by individual rails so you can slide out each bin individually! We have four individual tower racks here. We found the racks and bins at Costco but if you aren’t a Costco member, you can find the bins HERE and the racks HERE.

4. Christmas Storage Labels & Organization

So, once we determined what to store, how to store it, and how to make it accessible, I had to decide how to make the contents easy to identify. In holiday seasons past, I would literally go through 50 bins looking for a single item. Bins were labeled, re-labeled, and mis-labeled after years of switching and combining and I had no clue where anything was. Along with having black opaque bins that I couldn’t see inside, coming up with an easy way to identify was even more imperative. Enter, the organization QR code labels and content logs.

THESE QR labels have been BRILLIANT and while the rest of our basement still needs major help, I’ll be using these label stickers all over the place.

Sources: QR Code Smart Labels

The QR labels work alongside an app that you use for scanning and documenting. You can be as specific or generic as you want but the way I chose to implement our system was…

• Stick a label on a bin.
• Title the contents/general theme.
• Document individual/key items contained.
• Take a photo of the inside of the bin.
• Describe the type of bin and the location of where it’s stored.

You can cross-reference both by scanning a bin’s label and seeing what’s inside, or, you can search your app to help locate the physical been your looking for.

For quickness, I also added a text label description with my label maker.

Sources: Storage Bin Rack | Storage Bin | QR Code Smart Labels | Label Maker

I can’t get over it. And, I love not having to guess or un-stack five bins just to get to the one I need.

Sources: Storage Bin Rack | Storage Bin | QR Code Smart Labels

If I add any more facets to our Christmas storage system in the 2024 holiday season, I’ll be sure to update but my goal will be to work to keep the volume of contents manageable.

OTHER POSTS TO CHECK OUT

• 2023 Christmas Home Tour
• Organizational Systems & Spaces That Have Worked (& Why!)
• Five 50-Minute Drawer Organization Ideas
• Decluttering The Office Closet — Reclaiming & Conquering
• My Bathroom Vanity Is Organized! A Look Into Each And Every Drawer & Cabinet
• 5 Pool Storage Solutions And Simple Ideas To Keep All Stuff Out Of Sight!