I'm hearing reports of holiday decorations (and trees!) still hanging around, so I figure it's not too late to share Veronica's Christmas decoration storage tip:
I use recycled boxes to store our Christmas decorations. Until last year, I labeled them by writing on top of the box with a Sharpie, but a year later, when I have forgotten which boxes are what and they get mixed up in the storage room, I have a hard time reading my labels. When it's time to decorate for the holidays, I sometimes miss a box, until later when I realize I haven't found the stockings and need to run back to the storage room. It can be frustrating!
This year, as I was packing everything away, I realized I had tons of recycled Christmas wrapping paper, so I cut long strips about 5 inches wide and taped them around the boxes horizontally. Now, no matter which way I place the box, I will be able to identify it. Next year we'll open our boxes from the top as usual and the boxes will already be nicely marked.
I put enough clear tape on top of the wrapping paper in the corners of the box and on any spots that i considered sensitive to the rough handling in the storage room. I am sure that no matter what happens in that storage room during the year, next Christmas I will find my boxes much more easily than I did this year!
Related: Beer case inserts as Christmas ornament dividers
More: Holiday hacks
Also – after Christmas, big box stores typically will mark down the “red and green plastic tubs” quite drastically. I picked up some fall colored ones for Halloween/Thanksgiving decor last year on the cheap, and bought some red and green ones for Christmas. Nothing get missed, and it’s all easily stackable.
One thing I do to avoid forgetting any of the boxes of our xmas decorations, I label them ‘Christmas Decorations 1 of 5’, ‘2 of 5’ etc., so I always know how many boxes I’m looking for.