by Linda Muller

Created on: February 26, 2009

Ack! It's almost Valentine's Day (or worse, Saint Patrick's Day) and Santa is staring judgmentally at you from the shelf where you so lovingly placed him back in November while some imaginary friend roasted chestnuts.

"This weekend," you think to yourself. "This weekend I'll take care of Santa and his crew." If only there were some easy tips to follow. But wait, what have we here? It's a list of tips for storing Christmas decorations.

Before you get bogged down in boxes and storage spaces, let's take a step back. Let's examine some human behavior. Now we don't have time for a full-on therapy session, but just a question or two about how we got here. "Here" being the middle of the next big holiday candy sales. Really, if the Valentine's Day M&Ms are on the store shelves, no one should be beating themselves up for procrastinating with the Christmas dismantling. Those things show up by January 2nd, if not earlier. But once the Cadbury Creme Eggs start lining the bins near the checkout stations you may want to hang your head in shame.

It's been at least several weeks since you hung the star atop the tree, set up your crche, filled stockings, sang along with Bing & Frank, but your memory now of that experience will be much fresher than it will be the day after Thanksgiving this year.

So, TIP #1 - Examine your BEHAVIOR: Before you run out for some new red & green tubs, ask yourself what kind of hassles did you experience getting ready for Christmas this year. Were lights tangled? Boxes missing? Bulbs broken? Too many decorations to use? The answers to these questions will help you determine your next steps. Try not to judge yourself harshly. It's more a matter of recognizing your patterns and then accommodating them to make life a little easier next Christmas.

Are you someone who loves to buy new lights and bulbs in the trendiest colors each year? You keep each one thinking that NEXT time you'll use one theme you've already purchased. But then each year some marketing guru manages to come up with a new color way that you MUST have. Did you have some frustrating moments with tangled wires or broken bulbs? Did you find your Christmas cookie cutters in a shoebox on January 3rd while looking for something completely unrelated?

TIP #2 - Plan NOW to prevent those headaches next year. Future-You will be forever grateful. Which leads to the rest of the storage tips:

TIP #3 - Get rid of STUFF: Face it; everyone has Christmas decorations with limited sentimental value.

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