Ready to Haul Your Holiday Items Out of Storage?

By Valerie Walker



It's almost time for the holiday season. Soon, you will feel the excitement growing and get anxious to head to the storage area and retrieve your holiday items.

First, you grab the fragile holiday boxes so as to make sure they are not at risk of being damaged, then stack the boxes according to content: a pile for the sets of ornaments, one for the family keepsakes, one for the lights, stockings, candles, etc.

It all sounds wonderful, but let's be honest - is that really how it is for you?

Or, will your excitement bottom out when you go for your holiday items because of the chaos that is your storage area? Are the boxes labeled? Correctly? If a box takes a tumble, will you know at a glance if it contains breakable items? Will you work your way through a pile just to pull a box out that is not even holiday stuff?

Just add the above to the yearly shuffle of furniture that comes with finding a space for the tree. It sounds stressful, I know. I can admit that, for several years, I vowed that "this will be the year that I get all my holiday stuff organized before I put it all back."

One way or another, the holiday items can end up being something that causes some stress each holiday season. It can happen before or after, because you will probably just throw all of the empty boxes back into storage with the intent of dealing with it after the holidays.

But before you know it, the holiday season will end. By the time you are ready to take the tree down, you will find that you either don't have the time or interest to deal with it, because you will just want to get all that stuff out of your living room and get life back to normal.

But you can make this the year that you make a plan and see it through. You will reap the reward this time next year, and maybe sooner, if you end up freeing up some extra space in your storage area. There are many items available today to help you get organized, like containers especially made for storing string lights to keep them from breaking and getting tangled, boxes that have individual sections for each ornament, storage bags and boxes for artificial trees, bins designed just for holding your gift wrap and supplies, and much more.

And, by the way, be sure you use a permanent marker or a label to write what the contents are for each container.



Valerie Walker is the owner of Destination Organized in Ellicott City. She can be reached at 410-203-0338 and valerie@destinationorganized.com.