How to Pack and Move your Holiday Decorations
Home decorations really make the holidays come alive in a home. Be it colored lights, ornaments on a Christmas tree, a Menorah for Hanukkah, or paper snowflakes on the window for the solstice, these bright and colorful heirlooms bring out the spirit of the season. Most people have a system to store them for the offseason, but what do you do when it’s time to move? Packing holiday decorations takes a little more care, but with the right approach, they will be in perfect condition for next year.
Use durable containers
Worn-out boxes with the ends flapping open are a normal way to pack holiday decorations when moving them from the living room to the back of a closet, but those decade-old boxes are too soft and fragile for a moving truck where they could be stacked four deep. Invest in a strong, crisp, new packing box to weather the coming road bumps and brake taps from the truck.
Keep things separate
Most of us can remember growing up with that big cardboard box with all the decorations heaped into the center. That may cut it when you have a handful of decorations that all need to come out at the same time, but the risk of individual items chipping, cracking, and breaking goes up when the box is moved across several states.
Keep an open mind for potential storage solutions that will help you keep ornaments separated and organized, such as egg cartons and muffin tins. Strings of lights can be wrapped around a spool, even if it’s just an H-shaped piece of cardboard. Don’t reuse old newspapers, as the ink can rub off and stain light-colored decorations.
Prepare for travel
Remember, you’re not just setting your delicate decorations in a box in an attic undisturbed for another 11 months, you’re putting them into the back of a truck and they will need more support and protection. Bubble wrap, foam sheets and pieces of cloth can keep hard times from contacting one another and fragile ornaments from breaking under pressure.
Make sure you label your decoration boxes, as they will likely be moving with many other boxes. That way, if you want to decorate immediately after moving in, you will have no trouble finding them.
Labeling will also come in handy when the holiday is over and you want to put the decorations away in the same boxes you moved with.
Retire with honors
Getting new holiday decorations can be addictive, and it’s common for people to give little ornaments as gifts. Preparing for a move is often a time to purge needless belongings, and that is especially true for holiday decorations. If you’re not sure if you can part with a particular item, consider taking a digital photo of it and save backup copies in a few places. That way you can look at it whenever you feel nostalgic, but still have more space in your house.
If you need some packing supplies to protect your holiday decorations or any other items, stop by our location on Central Avenue in Ayer or give us a call at 1 (800) 233-MOVE.
