Before Disaster Strikes: Protect Your Decorations

Ornaments bought for a white tree

I bought my first boxes of ornaments in 1984. As one who relishes the Christmas season, naturally I’ve collected ornaments, garland, knick-knacks and other shiny and colorful decorations every year since then, in additional to six artificial trees of various sizes and colors, so you can just imagine the amount of Christmas stuff I have to store! I have a holiday storage room in the basement, partially set under the stairs but larger than just that space. Some items are stored in plastic boxes with lids, but other items were stashed in cardboard boxes with their contents written on the sides along with some creative doodles to illustrate the category of contents. A set of shelves and some nails in the wall afforded me some extra storage space, but most things are stacked on the floor. And they were safe...until this summer.

In June I had the first flood ever in my basement. It’s not a leaky place. I love it so much down there that when I moved in, I put my bedroom suite down there and have been quite happy. The problem came not from rains but from my combo furnace/central air unit located on the other side of the wall, in the unfinished side. The drain pipe got clogged, and water ran over the drip pan and seeped everywhere—including into that storage closet. 

The decorations in the plastic boxes were safe, but my cardboard boxes got wet. A friend came over and helped me empty out those boxes to save the contents. Fortunately, our quick response prevented anything from being ruined. 

I learned my lesson. I bought some large plastic containers with lids to replace the cardboard boxes and packed up the now-dry decorations in those. No more cardboard storage for me!

Today I discovered more water. I don’t know what the HVAC man did the last time he was here, but apparently it wasn’t enough! While I’m unhappy to have a stream across the concrete floor and into the storage room, I’m relieved that 1) I discovered it before it could really get into the carpet on the finished side of the wall, and 2) I don’t have to worry about my decorations, some of which are family heirlooms. 

Are your Christmas things stored in a safe place, away from possible rodent or water damage? If not, take my advice and make plans to upgrade your storage, the sooner the better. You DON’T want to arrive at the holiday season and discover that your cherished decorations have been damaged or ruined. Some things, like your children's handmade ornaments and your mother’s wood and plaster nativity set, can’t be replaced.

#5 - April: Your Christmas Stash and Items to Stock Up On

This month I want to focus on your Christmas “hiding place” and the things you can start filling it with. Do you have a place where you stash the gifts you make or buy throughout the year? Do you need a place to store materials for gift ideas? Without such a place, you probably hide things and then forget where you put them. One year it was two months AFTER Christmas when I found a big gift I’d gotten for my son. I’d hidden it behind a chair that sat behind my bedroom closet door that always remained open. He never looked there — but neither did I after I chose that as my hiding place!

Now I have an old, black metal, two-door supply cabinet with three shelves inside. It sits in my home office, where I spend most of my day. That’s where I stash gifts. My kids are old enough not to care what’s in there (or maybe they’ve never figured out what I keep in there besides old coloring books and boxes that once held office software), so I don’t lock it. If you have junior detectives in your house, you may want something that you can lock. Do you have a closet, cabinet, or shelf that you can use (and even disguise) as your Christmas storage? A solid color (not clear) plastic storage bin with alid is better than playing hide and seek for your gift stash. Having everything in the same place will save time later.

Now let’s turn our attention to items we can stock in our storage place. Gifts already bought or made are a given; any sewing supplies related to your gifts could be placed there, as well as any recipes that you’ve gathered for making a family cookbook. Maybe you are gathering supplies for making pretty soaps or candles. What else? This month we enjoyed the Easter holiday. What does that have to do with Christmas? Baskets are for sale now at clearance prices! If you want to make gift baskets for Christmas, stock up now. Easter grass is also on clearance and would make nifty packaging material in gift bags or boxes in place of tissue paper. You can also use the grass in clear plastic ornaments - hiding a small gift in the middle. What a pretty and unexpected surprise!

Some items may be readily available now but hard to find in the fall. Canning jars are such an item. One year I wanted to bake jar cakes as Christmas gifts, but I couldn’t find wide-mouth jars for sale anywhere in November! If you want to can homemade food items as gifts or make mix-in-a-jar gifts, now is a good time to pick up a supply of jars and stash them where you can find them. Don’t forget small jars to fill with bath salts or other homemade bath supplies as well.

Do you have a special place where you store your Christmas gifts and craft items? Share it here! This blog is set to post all comments, so feel free to comment, offer advice, or ask questions of your own.