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Home Organization7 Easy Steps for Organized Holiday Storage
by:
Karen Fritscher-Porter
Wouldn't it be good if you could find your decorations, costumes, cards and wrapping paper in simply seconds and put them away simply as quickly after the holiday? You can with a plan! Use these steps below for organizing holiday storage and you'll spend less time on this mundane task and much time celebrating. And don't wait until the holidays, or worse, after the holidays, to see these tips. That's too late. Plan ahead. Start now. Start here...
STEP #1: COLOR CODE STORAGE BOXES. You can buy holiday storage bins, or even as ordinary plastic storage bins, in some colors. Or buy containers with some color lids. Or spray paint the exterior of your existing lids appropriate colors. Use all purple for Hallowe'en
ornaments and all green and red for Christmas items. That way you'll cognize at a glance which storage bins to pull for each holiday.
STEP #2: TAKE INVENTORY. List each item in an individual holiday storage instrumentality on a sheet of paper. Then put that paper in a semitransparent sheet protector. Tape the sheet preserver to the outside of the bin. You won't have to open each box now to cognize what's inside.
STEP #3: Do A BLUEPRINT. Have you ever struggled to repack decorations into boxes only to find what came out doesn't seem to fit on the return trip? Solve this by mapping the "location" of the items in the boxes in blueprint drawing fashion. Of course you'll have to get everything to fit simply so in the boxes the 1st year. But next year you'll easily be able to duplicate the repacking process by following your packing blueprint.
STEP #4: USE A Secret writing SYSTEM on holiday storage boxes that tells you in what order to open them. Put the number one on the box that contains the items you'll activity with first. Or write "open first" on certain boxes. For example, at Christmas you may typically start with your tree stand, tree lights and/or outdoor lights. Else things you strength
use 1st are holiday cookery related items (e.g. Santa or pumpkin cookie cutters), gift wrap and gift tags. Support else boxes closed until you're available for those items.
STEP #5: CLUSTER. Two columns of stackable bins that are all orange (for Halloween) in the back corner of your garage are easy to spot. Always group storage boxes together by holiday, even as if you can't fit all of the holidays in the same section of the garage, attic or closet.
STEP #6: Support A HOLIDAY PLANNER. Support one three-ring notebook with the inventory sheets mentioned earlier. (This can be in addition to tape recording
the inventory sheets to the individual storage boxes.) You can put all holiday inventory sheets in one notebook and separate the some holiday information with notebook dividers and tabs (sold at office supply stores) labeled Halloween, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.
Keep the notebook on your shelf
year-round. You likewise can add divided sections to this notebook for holiday recipes, holiday collection lists (so you don't buy duplicate collectibles in a series), holiday gift ideas and holiday card mailing lists.
It's better to do all of these "printables" on your computer and print them versus hand-writing them; that does for easier updating. You can either put the paper in three-hole punched semitransparent sheet protectors or leave a wide left margin and three hole punch the paper yourself.
STEP #7: START NOW. Activity on your storage plan through every forthcoming holiday so that once
year two arrives, your plan is in place and complete. It's an investment of time and patience that wish benefit you next year and every year thereafter.
Just simply about the author:
Tibeto-burman language
Fritscher-Porter publishes http://www.EasyHomeOrganizing.comwhere you'll find organizing products to buy plus free articles and tips to support you organized year-round. Likewise go there to subscribe to the free news report that keeps you au courant simply about organizing products you can buy year-round in stores.
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