Pack It Up

I’ve never really been a big collector. I mean, if you consider headbands and barrettes and fabric and ribbons and everything else I’ve ever bought but somehow can’t seem to part with (see # 80). But other than just general stuff I am emotionally attached too (which is pretty much anything, up to and including my grocery receipts for some reason), I really only collect one thing. Christopher Radko ornaments.

I started collecting them our first Christmas married. I don’t know why I felt the pressure to collect something, and being that I love Christmas and his ornaments are beyond gorgeous, that’s what I chose to go with. And I have not been sorry (has my bank account been sorry? Well, yes.) I can still remember purchasing my first Radko myself, at Neiman’s. I went for the classic wedding bells, to signify our first Christmas married, and I get nostalgic every time I look at that ornament. And don’t laugh, but I keep an inventory of them in an Excel spreadsheet by name and #. Current count has me right around 52. Yahoo! I said don’t laugh.

But I do realize so many of you probably collect other Holiday items as well, that you will need to pack away. Heck, even if it’s just ornaments from the tree, they’ve got to be packed up as well, right? Sister #1 has an obscene amount of Department 56 Snow Village that pretty much takes over their entire house during the Holidays. I mean, you know it’s bad when you have to take furniture out of the house and set up specially made shelves and tables and display units just to house this little holiday addiction. She may not be able to get drunk off of it, but trust me when I tell you it IS an addiction. But the bottom line is she really enjoys it, just as I enjoy my Radko. It is a lot of work though, don’t you think? Carefully opening and unwrapping the breakables, carefully setting them up then threatening everyone with their life if they even come close to touching them, and then having to carefully package everything back up again a few weeks later. This is probably why I chose not to display mine this year. My heart just wasn’t in it this year and I had too much on my plate.

So in my search for some crafty and clever new ideas for storing your ornaments and holiday collectibles, you’ll be happy to know I stumbled upon some great things. Of course, leave it to Martha, to come up with something so simple but yet sensible, that it makes you hit your head with that “duh, why didn’t I think of that” expression. Check out these pictures. By cutting a piece of corrugated cardboard to line the bottom of each storage bin and prevent slippage, she used her trusty hot glue gun to attach simple paper cups to the cardboard base. Wrap the ornaments in tissue paper and place them in the cups. Then all you have to do is stack cardboard-and-cup flats inside the container. You can also see for smaller ornaments, Martha uses egg cartons. Brilliant! But I guess that’s why she’s THE Martha, after all.

Now, if you don’t want to go to all the trouble Martha has laid out, and you fancy yourself more of the run into Target, pick up a load of plastic bins and be done with it type of person, then by all means, have at it. There are storage bins galore out there for you in all shapes, sizes and colors. Divided or un-divided for ornaments, the choice is yours. I like these from the Improvements Catalog, myself. But in terms of storing all other holiday items, then I recommend clear plastic storage bins. You can separate the items by color, location (hallway or dining room), type (lights, candles, garland, etc), then put a large piece of paper inside the tub, face OUT, with the description. That way, you don’t have to worry about the tape losing its stickiness and the label coming off, and it’s super easy for you to spot and know what’s inside each box.

I know I’m not the only one out there who over-bought wrapping paper either. It gets me every year without fail. I can’t help it and I blame my obsession with all things paper on my fascination with festive holiday paper as well. So you know I’m not going to throw my unused stash out. Throw the pretty paper away?! Well that would just be wrong! So you can pick up specific wrapping paper storage containers like this one from Target or Wal-Mart, or do what I do and group them together and secure them with heavy duty rubber bands. I then store them in a HUMONGOUS Toys R Us shopping bag that is also secured with a rubber band. It gets put up in the attic where it will wait until I summon for it next year. But another good idea I came across is to store your wrapping paper in hanging garment bags. If the garment bag has outside pockets, then use those for your gift tags, unused cards, and tissue paper. Pretty smart, right?

So you'd think all this typing and writing about storing my holiday things would have me all pumped up and motivated to start taking down my own decorations and get my party started, but nope. I'm throwing the mini monograms in the car and we are headed out for a bit. I need to hit the grocery store, Mr. Monograms office to get my purse out of his car (which will obviously be our first stop before the grocery), and if the mini's can keep from arguing and fussing long enough, we might even stop at the park before heading home for naps this afternoon. I'm still recovering from the cold from hell, so I see a nap in my future this afternoon as well. So I guess we need to start packing it up in the car now so I'm off.