Friday, December 21, 2012

Holiday Organization: Product Guide

While I'm away, traveling for the holidays, I'll be posting a series of guest posts. I've selected these posts for their content, and have edited them as I see fit -- my edits will be made noted inline with the original content, and all photos are my own. Full disclosure: these posts are being sponsored by Extra Space Storage, whom I met at BlogHer earlier this year. 

Y'all know I'm a little organization-obsessed. So when Extra Space offered up a post on holiday organization, I was all ears. I'm currently at a point where I need to re-think my holiday-specific storage (new Halloween decorations, leftovers from our Election Party that would work for 4th of July, and Christmas+Chanukkah too, mean lots of stuff to store! Not to mention the gift wrap and such...). Enjoy! 



Best Products for Holiday Organization

Written by Jessica Johnson, a Marketing Director at Extra Space Storage. She is an avid goal setter, reads three books each month, and blogs about organization at Storage Blog.

The holidays have a lot of moving parts — gifts, cards, decorations, the list goes on — and it can be a challenge to keep it all straight. Every year I’m newly annoyed by the tangled tree lights, the unspooling gift wrap rolls, and the ornaments smashed due to my inadequate storage techniques.

This year I’ve decided it’s time to get serious about organizing for the holidays. After a little research, I’ve found some great products that I think will help. Check out these useful holiday organization and storage items.

For gift wrap

I was at first thinking of picking up a customized gift wrap center, a hanging gift wrap organizer, or at least a vertical storage bin for wrap rolls. But then I found the ultimate in wrapping organization: Container Store’s gift wrap work station.

The A-frame structure holds 12 rolls of paper, has a bunch of pockets and pouches for everything else you need, and features a special holder for rolling out paper at table height. It folds closed and hangs in a closet when you don’t need it. Check out the product video on the Container Store’s website. ed note: I totally freaked out about this a few months ago. Too bad it's so pricey! Want want want want want. For more Container Store Gift Wrap Awesome, check out this idea I pinned recently - this lady is smart and I want to copy her. Right now, I have an excellent little collection of plastic bins filled with bags, bows, ribbon, and such, and my falling-apart-at-the-seams, 3-year-old gift wrap organizer. It works. Ish.

For cards

The mantelpiece is a good place to put cards, but what if it’s full of other things or you don’t even have one? While you can hang cards on a string attached horizontally to the front edge of the mantle or to the wall, there are other ways to organize your holiday correspondence. For example, try out this special wall hanging or this tree-shaped table-top card holder to display your cards.

After the season’s over, some people just throw their holiday cards away, but if you’re someone who likes to hang onto such momentos, a greeting card storage box might be just the thing. ed note: I usually just throw them away. Am I a bad person?

For decorations

Christmas ornaments are some of the trickiest things to store safely, since they’re usually breakable and often oddly shaped. Luckily, there are a whole bunch of different products to help with this problem. I’m thinking of trying an ornament storage box, three-drawer ornament chest, or ornament storage tote with trays. ed note: I keep ornaments in various boxes and plastic bins, wrapped in tissue. I've been seriously considering something like these ornament boxes...which one to choose?

If boxes with dividers and drawers are too fussy for you — or you have decorations other than ornaments to store — maybe a big old holiday storage box would fit the bill. Other special items also have their own storage products, such as this artificial tree storage bag, this Christmas light reel, and this heavy-duty wreath and garland bag. ed note: I already have three plastic bins dedicated to Christmas and Chanukkah, but with this year's wreath creation, I'm going to have to get a wreath box/bag as well!

This baby needs protection!!

I’ve discovered that there are products for pretty much any holiday storage need you have. So do a little digging of your own to find just the right things for your own organizational priorities. Meanwhile I’ll be setting up my wrapping station and getting started.


Do you have tips for holiday organization? What products do you use to keep it all straight?

3 comments:

  1. I want a self storage
    Perth
    for my accessories and memorabilia. Do you know which brand
    produces sturdy storage boxes or containers?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I want a self storage Perth for my accessories and memorabilia. Do you know which brand produces sturdy storage boxes or containers?

    ReplyDelete