Well, it’s the beginning of the new year. That means the Christmas decorations are coming down and the studio will be back to normal (or what passes for it). This year I thought I’d revisit the organizing of the decorations. I think I talked about it before, the image above coming from a previous article, but new people come along storing their old decorations so why not look at some new techniques involving the process?

This is the blue box where I store my decorations. Usually I put the stuff in the smaller boxes that they’ll fit in and call it a year. Some boxes were dedicated to a particular set of decorations but not really officially, meaning I didn’t always remember where they go. This year I opted to bring Operation: A Place For Everything into my decoration organization. (Hey, that rhymes!) I also made sure that this year I actually remembered to put everything away, as a couple of items skipped out and I had to place them somewhere else rather than having to dig the thing out for two items. This year they all (looks around room) are put away. Here’s some things I decided to try this year to make it easier to find what I want next year.

There were boxes already used for certain items. Others got put into different boxes. For example, this is just for a set of Christmas present tree decorations I instead put around the miniature tree to make it look more Christmassy. I had a few other items there as well but they weren’t put in the same box. For example a mini Little Golden Book of a Mickey’s Christmas Carol adaptation (a more pamphlet sized one I had seems to have disappeared or maybe it’s in one of the other boxes and I didn’t look hard enough) and a decoration version of a book with Twas The Night Before Christmas, which at least this year I also put around the tree. When I had more room (not as possible this year with the new lamp) I had some of the larger Transformers reading the stories to the Mini-Con “children”, so I put them in the same box with the “presents”, and labeled it for under the tree. I still put the tree skirt with the tree itself.

Then there’s my manger display. The original box the set came in still holds the manger fine but I’ve never been able to get the boxes for the figurines back in with it. So I had them off to the side until the boxes fell apart a few years ago. So instead I wrap them in bubble wrap and put them in a different box. Notice how I’ve been marking the boxes so next year I know which one has the decorations I want to put up next.

However, a few are a bit too big to be stored with the intended box. The power cord for the tree and some of the larger decorations like the two here or my Santa and sleigh set based on the Rankin/Bass Rudolph I reviewed some years ago will have to be kept out separate in the larger box. I do have a box for the other around the room decorations though.

Come next year it should be easier to find everything I need and I won’t have to try to remember where I had it at the end of December/early January to put them away. It’s a lot more organized but we’ll see how well that works out next year.

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