Storage & Organization

Storage and Organization

When you have this many lights, storage and organization become important. You need a way to keep everything from being damaged, keep it organized, and keep it together. Also, when you have more than 75 strands of lights, you won't remember which strand went where a year from now, and when you go to take down the lights and store them again, you won't remember how they were stored... so document everything...

Documentation:
As you go, keep track of your installs: how many lights, how many feet, and where items go. Start to think of an order that you would install them in next year to be most efficient and create an outline or to-do list to track things as you go. Think about how you might want to store items for each area together, so it is easier to take out of storage and assemble next year. My yearly To-Do List has headings for each installation area, sorted in order of installation. Under each header are three columns indicating what I will need to complete that installation: the lights and decorations I will need, the electrical items (extension cords, splitters), and the tools I will need (ladder, binding wire, step stool, screw driver, etc).

Research - Light Strand Storage Options:
I compared three common types of storage to find the best option:

Traditional Extension Cord Wrap: These are easily found in just about any store and are usually used to store electrical extension cords.
- - Easiest to wrap
  - Easy to unwrap
  - Easy to find at any store
  - VERY Cheap - about $1 each
  - Kind of awkward to store several of them in a box
Light Strand Reel: These are designed for Christmas light storage, and typically come in a nylon zip bag that holds three reels.The center has a handle, and the reel rotates around the handle, making it the easiest to unwind. It is slightly harder to wind up, because the reel wants to spin as you start winding the light strand. Note that you can also get general purpose reels designed for extension cords. Some of these are the best for your longer light strands. Only buy the style with the smaller core, so you can fit more lights on the reel.
- - Easiest to unwrap
  - Easy to wrap
  - Most expensive - about $9 each
  - General purpose extension cord reels with the smaller core are ideal for long light strands
Light Strand Box w/ Wraps: These are also designed for Christmas light storage, and have an "H"-shaped plastic piece to wind your lights around. Usually 4-6 of these fit in a provided box. These offer the neatest storage of strands, but are the hardest to wrap and unwrap, primarily because the plastic "H" is so thin and flimsy —think milk carton weight plastic (at least for the item that I ordered).
- - Cleanest storage
  - Hardest to wrap and unwrap
  - Plastic is VERY cheap and flimsy
  - More expensive - about $7 each

The "x" next to the number indicates it is a Christmas storage box, in order to differentiate it from Halloween decorations

Organization:
Organize your items by project or area so you can retrieve all of the items for a given project at once, without having to bring every single box out of storage at once, or having to partially open seven boxes to install one display area. Once I have determined what will fit in a box, I print off a label for the box. I keep a master list of all of the storage boxes and what they contain. The label contains three items:

A large, bold title
A list of items in the box
A number, based on the order I need to retrieve them for installation

The labeled, organized boxes make it easy to go to storage and retrieve boxes 1 through 4 for the first installation, knowing you will have everything you need.

You can see additional photos of our storage at our Halloween Build site.

Here you can see I labeled both the strand and the storage reel, making it easy to determine what the strand is used for, and how it is stored. So far, I have about 76 strands of lights, so labeling, storage, and organization become key!

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