Halloween has come and gone, and all the trick or treaters have taken home their candy & put away their costumes for another year. Along with the costumes go the decorations: cobwebs, smoke machines, fake plastic skeletons all have to be dispatched into storage for another year, soon to be replaced with decorations for another very large seasonal holiday that’s not too far off on the horizon.

But don’t be too hasty in throwing your decorations into boxed or bags-be systematic this year! Poor methods of storage can make finding the items you want to put up hard to sort though, damaged and inefficiently add to any existing clutter in your storage spaces (like closets and garages). It’s time to take a targeted approach to putting away your Halloween decorations & practice for that much larger, unnamed holiday at the end of the year. Here are four great tips on making sure your decorations are stored soundly and safely so they can hunt your trick or treaters aain next year!

1 Use easily identifiable boxes or tubs

Most of us store our holiday decorations away with many other boxes in an awkward to access area. Store your decorations in boxes that are easily identifiable by color or by large easy-to-read labels to that you don’t waste time shuffling boxes around trying to find your holiday decorations.

2 Use plastic tubs

I prefer to use color coded plastic tubs to store my decorations. I’ve lived in climates with bugs, humidity and more bugs. Using a plastic tub helps protect my decorations from the environment. I have a friend who had her basement flood. Fortunately,  plastic tubs protected her decorations from the water (her other items in cardboard boxes were ruined).

3 Create a content list for each tub

As you pack each box or tub this year, take a few minutes to jot down the contents. Place the content list inside the box on top of the contents. This will help you find the exact item you need in the future (for that school project in February or blog post in August). The content list will also help you pack items away next year because you’ll know exactly which box they’ll fit in.

4 Place fabric or paper items in resealable plastic bags

I always place any items with fabric or paper in a resealable plastic bag. This helps protect the item from bugs and moisture.

5 Label each bag with the contents

I label each plastic bag with the contents so that I know which decorations go where when I pack away the decorations.

6 Use bubble wrap to protect items

I wrap any items that might be damaged in storage or moving in bubble wrap. I’ve found these padded envelopes that mail-order prescriptions come in to work perfectly (and save money and the landfill).

7 Place smaller items inside of larger items

I always place smaller items inside larger items so that I can pack more into each box. This also helps secure the items so that they won’t rattle around as much.

Tips: Source