6. Preparing for the Holidays (Next Year)

6. Preparing for the Holidays (Next Year)

As we begin to pack up our holiday decor, I am reminded of the last time I bought holiday gift wrap in all of its glorious forms (3 years ago). Every 4-5 years, I make the after Christmas sale shopping excursion. I spend about $50 and I buy wrapping paper, gift bags, gift tags, gift boxes, ribbons and bows all on sale. I then store them in one of my "Holiday" storage tubs, I found one that is long enough for the rolls of paper, deep enough to stand the gift boxes on edge, and wide enough to store the larger boxes flat at the top. This storage box is one of my major holiday budget savers. Spending around $10 per year in wrapping seems to work very well for us. When the kids were younger, the packages seemed to be larger and we used a little more "cheap" paper and way less ribbon; today, we use the nicer paper and fancy ribbons and bows for the packages.

We have plastic tubs to store most of our holiday decor and have designated an area in the house to store them (garage, storage room, guest bedroom closet, etc.). I ensure that I do not have more decor than will fit in my designated boxes by getting rid of some stuff as we add new things. Organizing, packing and storing the winter holiday storage boxes effectively keeps down the space needed to store them and the possibility of over-buying stuff that can't be found. We have separate storage boxes for other holidays throughout the year (we coordinated the colors to identify each holiday, ie. Halloween is orange and black, Thanksgiving is brown, Easter is teal, etc.). As we return the decor to storage, I make a note of any items that need to replaced or anything that we would need for next year, I then seek out those items (at reduced prices) over the year. I have sometimes found just the holiday thing at someone's summer yard sale or on the sale table somewhere.

**TIPS

• Make sure the containers that you use are durable enough for your needs. (I use heavier plastic tubs for the more fragile stuff, I use plastic because I am worried about water damage.)
• Make sure the containers will comfortably hold all of the items that you have (don't stuff things until bulging).
• We use paper towels to wrap individual ornaments and small breakable items, instead of expensive and thin tissue paper.
• Don't make the boxes too heavy to move or too heavy to stack. 
• When stacking boxes, put the heaviest ones on the bottom (remember that they will most likely be sitting for almost a year).

Until tomorrow!