Do you find yourself digging through boxes trying to find your holiday decor? Don’t let an unorganized holiday decor stash zap the fun out of holiday decorating. Use this Holiday Decor Organization Survival Guide and Tips to help give your decor a proper home!

Before I get to the holiday decor organization survival guide, I want to welcome you to the 5th annual 12 Days of Holiday Ideas event! This event is hosted by Shirley of Intelligent Domestications and myself between Nov. 11th and December 6th. There will be hundreds of new ideas for the holidays that will be shared by our fellow blogging friends! To find the printable Holiday Calendars for the event and 50+ Best DIY Holiday Ideas, go –>> HERE.

Today’s Holiday Ideas posts are going to be all about surviving the holidays. You’ll find lots of survival guides and a fabulous giveaway below, so check those out too!

Guide & Tips to make Holiday Decor Storage Easy!

Holiday Decor Organization Survival Guide

I originally had a totally different guide in mind, but my guide idea changed after trying to decorate my tree. I had holiday decor scattered all over the house, so finding stuff was like a treasure hunt…not the fun kind.

I know you’re asking, “Why are you organizing when things are coming out of storage?” Well, it’s actually the perfect time since I’m rummaging through all the decorations. In addition, it makes it easier to put items away in the correct storage container when the holidays are over. This also means no more stress next year when I have to find the right decor items!

Label, Label, Label!

Like I mentioned before, this whole reorganization came about after trying to decorate my Luau Santa Christmas Tree and mantel. It went really well until I needed to find a few pieces from my own stash to complete the look. Normally, I can find things pretty easily, but last year’s tree added a bunch of new decorations and everything got a bit jumbled. Things that were originally stored together got moved around and everything was a hot mess. Then, to make things worse, I forgot to make new labels! Needless to say, it was frustrating task to find things and I ended up opening ALL of my boxes. Ugh!

Note: The shelf in progress will house holiday items that are currently stored in our bedroom closet. I’m still working on bringing my wreath bag and two more totes down. I’ll be so glad when all the holiday decor are in one place!

Group Like Item Together

Since I was already digging through all of my boxes, I decided to just reorganize EVERYTHING! I brought all of my decorations out to the garage and took inventory of what was in each box. The first thing I did was to group ‘like’ items together. For example, I put all our outdoor heavy duty extension cords, timers, and stakes in one box. Grouped all similar ornaments/decor together by color since this is how I usually decorate. I also made sure to label the box with the items that were in it. I did this will all of my Christmas decor and kept to grouping similar items together.

Note: I’m still working on getting all of my Christmas decor on one shelf. I have a few more bins in our bedroom that I would like stored on this shelving unit. It’s still a work in progress, but I’ll get this done before the holidays are over. Storing all the Christmas decor in one place will make it much easier to find things in the future.

Heavy totes low and Light totes high

The next major change was to move heavy Christmas decor to the bottom storage shelves. I was storing ALL of my heavy decor items up high, but I realized it much safer to put lighter items high and heavy items lower.

Clear Totes

Another thing I wish I did was to purchase all clear totes/bins. Some of my bins are solid colored, which makes it impossible to see what’s inside. Of course, I did label these, but it’s a lot easier to be able to see what’s in the bin when it’s clear.

Note: Unless the items are fragile or an odd shape, I don’t keep them in the original boxes/containers. Individual boxes take up too much space and it’s much easier to group ‘like’ items in one tote. For example, all my various sized red ball ornaments or lights are stored in one tote. Check out my Space & Waste Saving Christmas Decorations Tips for delicate items.

Recap of tips to help with holiday decor organization~

Group like items together in totes and in one storage area.
LABEL, LABEL, LABEL!
Use clear totes or Christmas colored totes.
Place heavy totes on the bottom shelf and lighter totes up high. It’s much easier to bring down light totes than heavy ones.

Holiday Decor Organization Shopping Guide~ (Updated for 2021)

Holiday Decor Sanity Organization Shopping Guide

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Make sure to always measure your space to ensure the storage containers will fit.