I store everything (except the trees) in Rubber-maid totes. I have 3 of them and everything fits perfectly inside. And by perfect, I mean there isn't room for anything else. I used to have just 2 totes but I've slowly added a few more decorations so now I'm up to 3.
I have one tote with Christmas home decor. This contains stockings, and little knick knacks that I set around such as candles, garland, bows, snow globes....
Another tote has more home decor that wouldn't fit in the first tote, plus some linens such as towels and tablecloths, and Christmas themed food containers that I set food out on for our parties.
The last tote has everything I need to decorate the tree. It has lights and ornaments. This tote is usually the last one I bring up since we have to get the tree up first.
It is great to have these labeled so I know what's in them. Each year I go through them and decide if I will use everything in them. If there is something I won't use, or no longer like, then I put that in my donate pile. This way I can try to maintain just 3 totes.
I also have totes for the other holidays such Spring/Easter and Fall/Halloween.
I have stuff like table linens, costumes, Easter baskets, halloween costumes (that aren't part of their dress up stash), and books. We have tons of books so rotating the seasonal ones has been one way to cut back on the book clutter. And the kids fee like they are getting new books since they haven't seen them in almost a year.
How do you organize your holiday stuff?
Kelly over at "The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking" shared her ideas for how she packs up Christmas HERE.
She has much more stuff than I do and still manages to keep it organized using totes. She also has some clever ways to store ornaments.
