How to Go All-out With Holiday Décor (Even if You Don’t Have Much Storage Space)

Decorating for the holidays is one of the simplest, purest pleasures of adulthood. Decorations bring joy, whether it is the winter season and your home is spangled in lights or you are throwing a springtime celebration filled with bunnies and eggs. Usually, a handful of baubles doesn’t bring forth the holiday cheer the way going big, bright and bold does — but considering that you are storing your holiday decorations for most of the year, how can you reconcile buying tons of décor if you don’t have much storage space to spare?

Fortunately, we have answers. Read on for some critical tips and tricks for economical holiday storage:

Throw Away Damaged or Short-lived Decorations

While we definitely don’t recommend buying all-new holiday decorations every year — the waste! the expense! — there are almost certainly some decorations that didn’t survive the season. For instance, those thin, plastic tablecloths can go right into the trash, and any homemade crafts that aren’t sentimental might be thrown out, as well. As you gather all your décor in preparation for packing it away, you should use a critical eye to weed out what you probably won’t want next year. There is no sense storing items that are busted or that you don’t like.

Keep Original Boxes

Especially for large or fragile items, you should always store decorations in the boxes they came in. Not only are these boxes the perfect size, but they often contain protective packing material that is specially shaped to keep your decorations safe in storage. The key to utilizing the original boxes is to disassemble your decorations in the reverse order of assembly. If the boxes are not otherwise marked, you should label them with detailed descriptions of what they should contain, so you don’t accidently dispose of them or pack up the wrong décor.

Invest in Purpose-built Containers

There are some décor items that most efficiently stored in purpose-built containers, which you will need to build or purchase. For example, wreathes tend to be bulky and delicate; you can’t compress them without damaging them, and putting them in boxes wastes too much space. Fortunately, there are wreath containers of different sizes, which help to preserve the wreath’s shape and shield the wreath from heavy loads placed on top. You can find specialty containers for many other types of holiday décor, such as artificial trees, ornaments, wrapping paper and ribbon and more, which use space more economically so you can pack more decorations into less storage.

Use Vacuum Bags for Soft Goods

Some holiday décor will compress without causing permanent, giving you more open space for other storage. Vacuum storage bags are the perfect solution for items like holiday linens (towels, tablecloths, cloth napkins) as well as holiday plush toys and even holiday-related clothing. You should use your best judgement when determining what décor is best suited to storage inside vacuum bags; if you don’t think pressure will cause damage, you might go ahead and use them. Then, you can shove these storage bags in hidden corners of your home, like under beds or in the backs of closets, without disruption.

Take Advantage of Vertical Space

You aren’t limited to the storage spaces built into your current home. In fact, if you are only storing holiday decorations on existing shelves, you are missing out on some serious storage opportunities. Especially in storage areas like garages or sheds, you should look up to find more storage space. Hanging shelving all the way up your walls and suspending boxes from the ceiling are good ways to maximize your space and thereby maximize your holiday décor.

Splurge on a Storage Space

If you don’t expect to be in your current space for long, it might be worthwhile to pay for extra storage space in a storage facility. Especially in dense cities like Los Angeles, storage facilities make sense because apartments and rental homes usually do not have much available square footage for superfluous belongings like holiday décor. Until you find your forever home, it isn’t too inconvenient to travel to your storage space to pick up holiday decorations when the right time of year comes. Then, you can conserve your on-site storage for everyday necessities.

Your holiday cheer shouldn’t be limited to the boxes you can pack into your closets and garage. By thinking economically about your space and utilizing the right storage solutions, you can fill your home with holiday décor all year long.