Day #13: Storing Seasonal Decorations

I have been asked many times how to organize and store seasonal decorations.  Since we are starting 2012 clean and organized I thought this would be a good time to tackle this subject.

I store my seasonal decorations in three different locations: baskets above the laundry room shelves, the storage closet in our guest bedroom and the garage.  Let me explain.

There are three different types of seasonal decorations:

#1 Holiday decorations that are only used once a year

#2  Candles and small accessories that can be switched out throughout the year

#3  Vases and artificial flowers, plants, etc.

Since I only use my Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas decorations once a year, I store them in the garage on the top of our shelves.

 Don’t you love my trash bag wreath holders?  I know I should invest in some nice plastic wreath containers but I’m just too cheap!

The rest of my seasonal decoration are stored in the house.  I get bored with my house looking the same all the time so I make sure that decoration types 2 and 3 are easy to access.

Candles and other small accessories are stored in my laundry room above the shelves.  When I organized my laundry room a few months ago I decided to utilize that space for candles and nick-knacks that I’m always getting in and out of.  I’m not kidding you, I change things up all the time.  It’s kind of game I play with my hubby, it’s called “can you tell what I changed today?”.

Larger decorations, such as vases,  artificial plants and picture frames, are stored in our guest closet.  I use the top shelf of my storage shelves for smaller items and the top of my filing cabinet for taller items that won’t fit anywhere else.

 

My other little trick for storing artificial flowers and plants is to store them in a wrapping paper storage container.  It is the only storage container I have found that is tall enough to store them without having to bend them or squish them.  Plus it is quite large so it holds a lot of flowers.  {You can see mine hiding behind the potted orchid}.

So your challenge for today is to organize your seasonal decorations!  Pull everything out and then divide them into the three categories.  Well, you don’t have to pull out your holiday decorations, just make sure that they are organized and stored nicely in the garage or attic.  Gather the rest of your decor items and use baskets, plastic containers, old boxes, whatever you have, to organize them so that they are easy to access and easy to switch out.

Make sure that when you are looking through your decorations, that you throw away, or donate, any items that you haven’t used in over a year.  Our styles change so if you haven’t used it in the past year then you probably won’t use it again.  Get your friends to join this challenge with you and then have a decoration swap night!  My friends and I do this at least once a year and it’s so fun getting new things for free!

Have fun organizing your decorations today!  Tomorrow is the last day of the challenge and I have a great printable for you!  Can’t wait for you to see it!!!

You can find the full list of the 14 Day Challenge HERE!