Making Christmas Decorating Easier

I posted this last year, but thought it might be a good thing to re post in case you missed it.  It may be too late to simplify things this year, but here are some tips to help you next year. 

I love to decorate every room in our home for Christmas. When I started expanding into all the rooms it would take over a week to do the whole house. After a couple of years I looked for ways to simplify putting things away and making it less time consuming. In doing so, it made setting up a breeze..... well, almost! Here are some things I learned about artificial trees and storage.

Artificial trees can be a pain to assemble and take apart. Just trying to plug one section into another can be a trial. Each time you take one apart to pack it, you risk breaking a branch or breaking the lights, and they never quite fit back in the box; storage bags tear. I have found most trees 6 feet and under can be stored standing up and with many decorations intact. The determining factor is if the width of the tree will fit through the door. I actually have a slim 8 foot tree that is stored standing with all the decorations on it. We just have to tip it to get it through the doorway. If you use florist wire to attach the ornaments they will stay in place. I only remove ornaments that are breakable, leaving the rest including garlands on the trees. If you use an extension cord, simply leave it attached and pull it up into the branches for next year so you don't have to "find" an extension cord when setting the tree out.

If the stands aren't attached, glue or tape them to the tree trunk so that they don't fall off when you lift the tree to move it.

All my artificial trees are wrapped with a heavy mill clear plastic drop cloth. I wrap it around and cut it to size and secure it with packing tape.

We are fortunate to have a storage room in the basement where the larger trees are stored. The smaller trees are placed in the closets in their designated rooms. They could also be stored in an attic or on garage shelves.

I love being able to pull the trees out, just plug them in and fluff if necessary.

Rubbermaid style bins are marked for the different rooms and hold nativities, centerpieces and other decorations. It makes it easy to carry them to the correct area and also to put things back where they came from when Christmas is over.

I do not keep manufacturers boxes that things come in for storage unless the object is a collector's piece. Even then, if it is something that will never be sold, there is no reason to keep it. Warranties and instructions go into a file folder. Everything is placed in the bins and wrapped with bubble wrap if breakable. All of the storage boxes are uniform in size and stack well, keeping everything dust free.

You don't need to go to the extremes that I do with my trees but it works for even one.

By simplifying the work that goes into setting up, it allows me more time to enjoy my family and friends. Hopefully, this will give you some ideas of what you can do this year to make next year easier.

I posted the picture of our live Christmas tree to show how to utilize space.  We elevate the tree so we can put the village and train around the base and still place gifts on the floor around it.  Below are pictures showing how we build the base.

We place cement blocks on end, protecting the wood floor with a cloth.  Then a 48 inch round particle board is placed on top.  It is draped with a cloth.  A sheet works well.  Be sure to put a block in the center to help balance the weight.

This can work with a lower ceiling and a shorter tree.  If you try this, I would love to see your pictures!