How to store Christmas decorations so next December takes ten minutes

Pack in January with December in mind

Decorations are the most seasonal things in the house. They are used for a few weeks and then wait eleven months. That makes the packing day the most important one: whatever you do then, you will thank or curse next autumn.

The aim is simple. Next year you want to open as few boxes as possible, find each thing in the first one you try, and have it all out in ten minutes.

Take everything down before you pack anything

Take down the whole lot first, tree and lights and the small things from the shelves and windowsills, and lay it out on a table or a sheet on the floor. Seeing it all at once shows what you actually have.

Sort it as you go into three piles:

• Keep and pack. Whole, used this year, still liked.
• Repair or clean. A cracked stand, a tablecloth with a stain. Do it now or put it in a bag marked "fix before December". Don't pack it back as if it were fine.
• Let go. Broken, faded, doubled, or a gift you never liked. Lights with frayed wire or a plug that blinks and gets warm should be replaced, not patched. Give away what is still good, take it to a charity shop, or throw out the rest.

Pack by where it goes, not by what it is

The usual way is to pack by type: all the baubles in one box, all the candles in another. The better way for decorations is to pack by place in the home:

• The tree: lights, baubles, topper, tree skirt, and the stand if it fits.
• The living room and hall: garlands, the wreath, window decorations, candle holders.
• The table: cloths, napkins, place cards, centrepiece.
• Outside: outdoor lights, the door wreath, the extension cable. Keep these separate, because they get rained on.
• The children's things: advent calendar, felt figures, the nativity set.

When you decorate, you work room by room, so a box per room means you pick up one box, unpack it where it belongs and put the empty box back. Nobody walks around with a half-sorted pile.

Protect what breaks and tangles

Most damage happens in the box, not on the tree.

• Baubles: one layer per tray, with dividers. Wrap very old or glass ones in tissue paper or clean socks.
• Lights: test each string, then wind it around a piece of cardboard. Use a bag for each string so the plugs don't hook onto others.
• Candles: keep them flat and away from heat. Wax goes soft in a warm place.
• Paper, felt and fabric: a sealed bag or a lidded box keeps moths, damp and dust out.
• Batteries: take them out of anything battery-powered. They leak in storage.
• The tree: an artificial tree goes back in its box, or in a tall bag with a handle. Store it upright or flat with nothing heavy on top.

Fragile boxes go on top of the pile, never underneath, and the heaviest box, usually the tree, goes on the bottom or on the floor.

Label so you can read it from across the room

A box marked "Christmas" is better than a box marked nothing, but it is only a start. Write on two sides and the lid:

• the room or purpose: "Christmas — tree", "Christmas — table";
• a number, such as 1 of 5, so you know when you have found them all;
• the top three contents, in a few words.

Keep the numbered set together on the same shelf and put the first box you will need, the lights, at the front. If you only remember to do one thing, write down the number of boxes. Missing box 4 is much easier to notice than a missing bag of tinsel.

Choose the spot with care

Decorations are used once a year, so they can take the less convenient places: the top of a wardrobe, a shelf at the back of the storeroom, a space under the bed. But "less convenient" isn't "unreachable". If you can't get to the boxes without moving a bicycle and a chest of drawers, you will find a reason not to decorate. Dry, cool and out of direct sunlight matters more than anything else, so skip a loft or garage that gets hot, cold or damp.

If you have more than one home, such as a flat and a cottage, say which home the box stays in. Decorations that "should be at the cottage" are a classic December mystery.

Make a short list and put it in one place

A simple list saves a lot of searching. For each box write the number, the room, the shelf and a line of what's in it. Add what you don't have: "need new tree stand", "buy spare bulbs". On packing day it takes five minutes. In December it saves the evening. Put the list where you will find it: taped inside the lid of box 1, in your phone, or on the inside of the storeroom door.

The ten-minute December

When the time comes, you take the numbered boxes down, check that all of them are there, open each in the room it is for, and unpack. The empty boxes go straight back where they were. Do the same in January in reverse, and add anything new to the list.

Doing it with Neatkept

If you already keep a record of your boxes, the decorations fit in as one more place. In Neatkept you photograph each open box and AI proposes what is inside; you keep or drop each thing with a tap. Label each box with a printed QR label or write a code with a marker and type it under the scanner, and search later for "lights" to get the place, the box and a photo. See how the seasonal swap goes, step by step.