Packing tips.

[putrid]

You can't have a discussion about decorations without discussing what to do when it's time to pack it up. These are some of the things I've done to make it easier to find things next year. and NO you wont remember that box is over there. Or what's all in it. LOL Give yourself a break. It'll be a good 10 months before you need it again.
Avoiding the "So that's were that was" syndrome

If you don't decorate the same way every year don't pack things according to the way you did things this year. But if you do have items that always go together then pack them together.

Try to keep all like items in the same box.
If possible keep boxes of like items packed in different boxes together when stored.

Duct tape a zip lock bag to the side of the box that faces out when stored. Keep a sheet of paper with a well described inventory of what's in that box. This keeps you form having to dig through to see witch of all the bows you meant.

The more you separate by the easier it is to find things. You'll have to find what works best for you. I separate ornaments by,
glass
plastic
old plastic
antiques
hand made.
things to make things out of.
I do it this way only because I have enough to do 3 full size trees. Also I'm always collecting so I can easily separate and store things as I get them.

If your already packed up and get more items you can...
....add new items to stuff you already have like them in the same boxes. Remember to update your inventory sheet.
....Pack in a new box and list everything that's in it as well. On the inventory paper write in big letters NEW STUFF and the year.

If your life is simple and you only have one box for each of ornaments, room decorations and one for lights I salute you! I have 19 boxes in the room I'm sitting in now. And more in the basement that need to come up to be refilled. I have a room in the basement that's 90% Christmas stuff. The other 10 is mostly Halloween I can't store in the attic. If you've seen my Halloween stuff you know what my attic looks like. LOL And yes I store Christmas stuff in the attic as well. Six trees, all the wreaths and all the evergreen garland. The aluminum tree and an old odd plastic tree I don't have the center poll for are the only ones I keep in the basement.

happy packing. LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

All very good tips, Putrid! I may use some when putting stuff away today!

[Mistress Muffy]

Hi Putrid,

I'm just catching up on reading here a bit & just wanted to commend you on some very good tips here. I pretty much pack that way.......what goes up last goes in the storage 1st. All my boxes are grouped by areas. For instance....one box has dining room china cabinet & in it is everything I need to finish the china hutch. My stuff is all set up that way so I can pull a box & complete something.

This year we lost the box with the lighted garland that goes around my living room ceiling....it held up the entire "Put Up" operation by 2 days......certain things have to go up before others. This year I am really getting a handle on getting organized. BUT I will admit......there were quite a few boxes again this year that never got opened plus all the stuff my Aunt sent from Chicago. I still have enough stuff to decorate a house after my house is finished. One year I came into some money & bought hords of outdoor lights so if any went out I would have extra's, they are still sitting in the boxes they came in.

I don't worry about having to much as if my health improves for sure candy stores are in our future.....so I'll need the extra decorations I have! Besides I love all my stuff.

the Merry Muffster

[putrid]

.......
This year we lost the box with the lighted garland that goes around my living room ceiling....it held up the entire "Put Up" operation by 2 days......certain things have to go up before others. .....
the Merry Muffster

Not only does the garland around the ceilling have to go up first. You have to move almost everything in the room to get it up. LOL Not everything went up smoothly here either. Took a wile to find my 50's tree top angel, mis-placed lights, Had ornaments spread out in different boxes that didn't get marked. Spent time looking for boxes that didn't get marked......and the list goes on. LOL The more trouble I have the more organized I get for the next year. And now I've managed to make a new problem for the packing. Knocked that plastic Santa off the bookcase. I'll have to remove all the books and then move the unit to rescue em.

Getting things more organized as we speak. Going threw boxes and combining things together that should be. Found a box in the process. I'm the proud owner of at least 400 poinsettia 'bushes'. LOL Bought 60 or more after Christmas this year to make a tree with. Oh well. Now I gotta find something to do with 2800 flowers.LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

Make a poinsettia suit. what better Christmas costume? :D

[putrid]

They'd be chasen me down with Round Up and a weed wacker. LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

Better to look good than feel good. :D

[putrid]

I'm darn ugly looking so I'd rather feel better than I look. I don't break mirrors but I do turn heads.... away. LOL

Tagging and inventorying everything takes time. Especially if your doing it for the first time or catching up with lots of new or misplaced stuff like I am now. But if I'm looking for something all I'll have to do is pull a piece of paper out of a plastic bag taped to the side of the box. Beats opening and going threw 8 or 9 to find it. I know at a glance what lights I have and what doesn't work. Yes, I even have a box for half lit or non working lights. The best part about using the paper and sandwich bags is what will happen next year. No scribbling out stuff written on the side of a box to store different stuff in it. No digging threw boxes for a few hours looking for stuff I need. And being able to tell at a glance what boxes need to be dealt with first. If this becomes fun to do does that mean I'm becoming annul retentive? LOL

[putrid]

Still have a few boxes to get and fill but almost done. Wish I would have taken a before and after shot of the Christmas storage room in the basement. After reorgenizing and re packing I have ROOM! LOTS of room. So much room that most of the lights went down there instead of up in the attic. Can't wait to start adding to it. LOL Went to an auction over the weekend. The only Christmas item they had was an old broken plastic Santa. Had all the broken parts been with it I would have stayed.

[Clarice]

A couple of years ago I started making up separate containers for our boy's ornaments that I've been collecting for them. I bought white tissue paper and sent it through the shredder and packed their ornaments nestled in shredded tissue paper.

[Nephew Fred]

I do about the same as putrid.Each tree has its own boxes, so when its time to decorate that tree,you grab only the boxes tagged as such.Each room has its own set of boxes,as do the nutcrackers and stuffed animals.If I didnt have to work so much in November,the entire house could be done in 2 weeks working 8 hours a day.So far...that has never happened.LOL

[AngelEye]

Each type of decoration has its' own box to an extent. The ornaments are all together in one ster-lite plastic locking lid container (red and green of course). The tree has its' own box, my 4 ft nutcracker has its' own box, and my smaller nutcrackers have their own box. But the rest, I just packed it all nicely into the rest of the plastic containers I had... no rhyme or reason, just wherever it fit. Seems to work for now.

[putrid]

Clarice, al the glass and breakable stuff gets wrapped in paper. The only ornaments that stay in the original boxes are the antiques and a few of the newer ones that came in them.

Nephew Fred, totally cool idea keeping each tree and room decor in a separate boxes. Do everything in 2 weeks at 8 hours a day? It always seems to take longer taking stuff down, for me anyway. I'd have to measure it by the month to put all that away. LOL

AngelEye,"... no rhyme or reason, just wherever it fit. Seems to work for now."
ya, you say that now. It starts out with a few boxes. Each year you add a little more, and more, and more..........LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

Then you have a boxing match! :p

BTW did you know in England, the day after Christmas is called Boxing Day? It's where the servants and bigshots switch roles for a day.

[putrid]

LOL Sickie Ickie. The only real fight is finding places to put them all. And if they all match how will you know what you put where? LOL

Boxing day? Now we know where the sport originated. "you want me to do what?" LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

It's my turn! You already had a turn last year! No, it's not fair! I'll show you fair! :p

[putrid]

Finally uploaded a shot of my basement storage room. Seen at the link below.

http://home.earthlink.net/~jazzfusion/id25.html

Now hopefully next year I'll know where everything is. Or at least should of been. LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

Dude! That's amazing! Hmmmm....The tips I could pick up!

[Mummy deer-est]

That is crazy, putrid!!! I think I would go insane if I had that many decorations, though. Just too much to do! Not enough time to do it! But I know it looks great!

[putrid]

Years my friends. It took years to get to this point. Not an over one year stint at all. And speaking of all, that's not all. The rest is in the attic. And I'm sure I'll add more to it, and more and more and........LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

how old are ya Putrid?

[putrid]

Not old enough to know not to answer that question. LOL I'm 45. I am old enough to turn on all the noisy robotic things at Wal marts every time I walk by and get away with it.

Been making and collection sense I was 18. Lost a lot of what I've had in two events. Tree fell over and wife left. Both took quite a bit of it. Making and collecting more each year. This year alone I've made 55 feet of garland. 3 wreaths and one 20 inch pine cone tree. And that's the stuff I completed. Now about those unfinished things......LOL

[Sickie Ickie]

I'm 38, soon to be 39 in May. I still feel young most times, but I've never been into collecting anything over a period of years like you. I get interested in stuff, then other stuff takes my interest and so on andso on and so on. LOL

[putrid]

I feel younger when I get enough sleep. LOL I've tried to make something new every year. Not always the case. Guess I'm making up for the past few years. LOL Christmas isn't my only hobby. Halloween, gardening, Jazz, drums and I'm a real geek when it comes to science and outer space. Isn't it possible that dark matter is just that. Dust? Not some supernatural all powerful sub particle moving at the speed of light? And if it is moving at the speed of light how can you claim to map it's position in the universe? And don't even get me started on the -400 calv. theory. That would be like saying matter can exist without energy.......I don't always agree with "experts". LOL

.......is there space in the universe where no light of any kind has reached yet?....

[Sickie Ickie]

Sounds like quantum physics would drive you crazy! LOL

[putrid]

Isn't that what you use to fill out tax forms with? JK LOL The shows I get the biggest kick out of are the ones based on speculation. What dinosaurs were like. For the most part and for what little evidence we have it would be just as scientific to say they all had long hair and lived in grass huts. That's my theory anyway. And I have a high school edg. to back it up! LOL

[putrid]

All right! Everything is in boxes and away. I ended up with 2 catch all boxes. Some of the stuff that's in them were left out of the boxes they really needed to be in. So I marked both these boxes with green ink. Guess it would have been better to re open the right boxes and put this stuff where it belongs. But that wouldn't be any fun. LOL When I get more stuff over the summer I'll repack all this stuff. No sense in making work out of it now when I know there'll be more later.

[Snowgal]

Great Tips there! I always have used totes. I got sick of being so disorg....lol We have three of them for just Christmas:) I have ornaments and garland in one. I have my gingerbread in another adn the lights and all that are in another one. Matter of fact when we take down our tree the garland is going out the door....it is on it last leg...lol We have had that so long that it just need to be replaced. So I will be looking for it on sale....I think it is now!!!:) Shopping time....lol

[putrid]

Totally cool Snowgal. I'm fortunate enough to work in a factory that gets things shipped to it in heavy cardboard boxes. However your totes will last a lot longer and be cleaner. Hope you can find good garland. It's one of those items that usually goes quick around here.

As ya'll can see my last post on this thread was last year. I got 8 boxes packed now. I'm also re sorting some of the boxes of stuff I didn't use. Running our of storage room. If I Keep adding stuff I'm going to have to keep it out all year just to have room for it. LOL

[Snowgal]

Oh How wonderful for you to get boxes like that!!:) Yes I have to admit the totes are cleaning and do last a long time. We have had them over 12 yrs and so far they are in great shape so far!!!:)
Thanks I am sure hoping to find some this weekend! I am hoping...lol But if not we will still keep looking and one day before Chrismtmas 2009 we will have new garland....lol I am surprised that it lasted as long as it has...lol