How to Store Christmas Decorations
Artificial Christmas trees and Christmas decorations are kept in every family for decades. There are real heirlooms that are treasured. To extend the life of these helpers of the holiday spirit, they need to be “sent to rest” properly.
Needle to needle
A quality artificial Christmas tree today even looks prettier than the real one – it’s fluffier and thicker, and the twigs and needles perfectly similar to the living ones. If you drop a little essential oil or use a special spray, and it will smell like just out of the woods. It will last 10 years, and with proper storage and care it will last even longer.
So, at the end of the holiday it is necessary to free the tree from the decorations and clean the dust with a brush, vacuum cleaner or wet rag. In the latter case, the artificial tree must have a good drying, otherwise, it can be affected by mold.
Depending on the design, you need to completely disassemble the Christmas tree, fold the branches in one direction of the needles and pack well. The best way to do this is:
- plastic containers,
- hard cardboard boxes sealed with tape,
- zippered gym bags,
- zippered garment bags.
Excessive humidity, heat, or heavy things piled on top are detrimental to the New Year’s Eve beauty. Plastic, although durable material, but it also has a margin of safety. Therefore, the balcony, basement or attic is not the best place for storage: find a place in the closet or pantry.
If over the year the needles are still crumpled and get an unpresentable appearance, there are several ways to make it fluffy again. The basic principle is the same – when heated PVC becomes more pliable and easier to return the desired shape. The main thing is not to exceed the temperature of 70-80 degrees Celsius, otherwise it will twist and deform irretrievably.
1. You can heat the needles with a household hair dryer. It is especially convenient to do this with a technique where you can set the desired temperature range. There are also technical hair dryers that work in the desired temperature range. Directing a jet of air against the growth of needles on a branch for a few seconds, you need to let them warm up and spread the needles by hand.
2. a similar result can be achieved with steam. It is important not to forget the temperature ceiling and not to burn yourself. A jet of steam, which is worth acting on the crumpled needles, can be generated with a household steam cleaner, steamer, iron or a pot of boiling water. But since the temperature of steam formation is one hundred degrees Celsius, keep the source of steam at a sufficient distance so as not to spoil the spruce.
3. the third method is to dip the branches or the whole tree in hot water for a few seconds. And then quickly give it a decorative look with your hands. And let it dry thoroughly.
Fragile and priceless
Even if the balls, snowflakes, fun figures and cones are a lot, before you pack them for storage, it is also worth a suitable way to rid each of the dust and dirt. It is clear that plastic toys can simply be folded into boxes and sealed with tinsel, so they are not deformed by free movement in space. Or pack them in special plastic bags with zip-lock.
And for the sake of glass, especially rare, preserved from our childhood – ours and even our parents, the toys are worth an effort. Each beauty should be wrapped in paper, cloth or absorbent cotton, and in this form neatly, but tightly stacked in a solid, such as a plastic container. For small glass balls as containers are suitable for egg cartons – toys are placed in cells, and the box is closed.
There are a few more rules for storing Christmas decorations.
1. Decompose the toys by color – each in its own container. If you decide next year to use a particular color, you do not have to choose the right balls from the total number. This means a reduced risk of damaging the toys.
2. For the same purpose it is worth to sign all the small boxes – by color, by variety of toys and put them in one big box. After one year you can simply take out what you need.
3. tinsel can be used to seal and separate toys of the same color. Tinsel is better wrapped around cards or cardboard like spools, then it won’t get tangled or torn.
Eternal Sunshine
We all have more than once laughed at funny videos from the Internet, in which the head, and even the whole family is painfully unraveling electric lights. And in the end it turns out that they do not work.
To avoid this happening, remove the garland from the tree, window or bringing from the street, clean it and inspect carefully. Repair any damage to the wire, faulty bulbs, breaks, etc. Do not wind the garland in a ball, even if this is how the manufacturer sold it to you. Use any improvised means and wind the garland on it like on a spool. This can be:
plastic bottles,
Tin cans. In a plastic lid of a coffee can, you can cut a cross-shaped hole and hide the fork inside the can,
cardboard rolls from paper towels, etc.
It is important to store the garlands at room temperature away from direct sunlight, otherwise the multicolored bulbs can burn out.
Similarly, it is worth doing with luxury LED figures. Before storing them, you should tidy them up, repair them if necessary, and put them in plastic containers or hard boxes. Large figures should be wrapped in cellophane. It is important to find a suitable place for them to keep them from falling and being deformed by other objects.
Anything left over from the holiday
In recent years, all sorts of New Year dolls have become very popular – not only the traditional Santa Claus and Snow Maiden, but also gnomes, deer, angels and other fairy tale creatures. Children love to play with them and often get their hands dirty soaked in sweets. To keep the dolls pleasing to the eye next year, wash and iron removable clothing, steam and clean the fabric with an iron or steam cleaner, comb beards and fur, and carefully put them in boxes for storage. Long hair, if you have it, is better to braid it, so it won’t pile up and stay beautiful.
For small toys, office storage boxes with beveled corners are great. They will accommodate a lot of clickers and tin soldiers and save space in the closet. Do not seal toys in airtight plastic bags and leave them in direct sunlight, better to wrap them in cloth. Christmas tree wreaths and garlands can be packed together with the tree or stored separately, such as in a cake box. Even a wreath made from real spruce or pine branches and cones can be kept this way.
A few more words about Christmas carnival costumes. It is better to wash them with the information on the label of the product. Simple costumes can be sent to the washing machine, choosing a gentle mode of washing and a temperature of 30 degrees. Costumes with fur, tinsel, frames and other decorations are better to wash by hand, soaking and slightly “crumpling” in cool water. After, if necessary, iron and put in storage until next year.
