Christmas Light Storage Solutions:
No More Tangled Strings & Strands
These Christmas light storage solutions keep you from having to fight with tangled strings and strands of lights, which makes your life easier, and allows you to enjoy a bright and sparkling holiday season without frustration.
The Problem: Tangled Lights
When you get your Christmas lights out each year from storage do they look like this, all tangled up? Nothing can kill your holiday cheer as quickly as seeing this mess when you open a box.
The good news is that with a bit of effort while packing up at the end of the Christmas season you can have a pleasant surprise the next year, and save yourself time, by getting out nice orderly strings of lights you can put right up on the tree, outside, or wherever else you enjoy lighting your home.
Christmas Light Storage Reels
The longer the strand of lights the more you need a light storage reel to keep yours from getting tangled up. Fortunately, there are many options available for purchase you can choose from.
Basically, what these reels do is create a place for you to wind the lights up so they stay untangled while in storage. Another advantage of some versions is that they'll help you decorate the tree the next year because you can basically spool the lights out onto the tree, walking around it with the reel, instead of fighting with the unspooled light strands.
Christmas Light Storage {Referral Links}
DIY Storage Methods For Your Christmas Lights
If you want to make your own reels for your lights you can do it pretty easily. Here is a picture of how we have done it for years in my family for our tree lights, which are pretty short strings.
To make these homemade Christmas light storage reels cut a piece of cardboard, and cut some grooves in the top and bottom to anchor the beginning of the strand. Wedge the beginning of the strand in the groove and slowly wind the string around the cardboard.
Then, wedge the end of the strand in another groove to anchor the end so it doesn't unwind while in the box as it gets jostled around.
You may want to wrap up these homemade reels with some newspaper or tissue paper to cushion the lights while they are in the boxes to keep them from getting broken.
Finally, you can also write on the cardboard if you wish, reminding yourself where in the house that strand of lights is located, if you have several strands of various lengths that go different places, to keep yourself from getting confused the next year when you pull everything out again.
Here's another example of this DIY storage solution, from a reader, Jenny, who said, "Thank you so much for the lights storage idea. It worked great!"
Related Pages You May Enjoy
Let's Stay Connected!
Subscribe To Decluttering & Organizing Newsletter
Join Declutter 365 Public Facebook Group (900,000+ Members)
Share Your Comments, Tips & Ideas
I would love to hear from you, sharing your thoughts, questions, or ideas about this topic, so leave me a comment below. I try to always respond back!