Holiday decoration storage: 10 tips for Halloween, Hanukkah, Christmas and more

Pack in reverse: the first thing you'll need goes in last

Decorations go up in an order: for Christmas it's tree, lights, garland, ornaments, mantel; for Hanukkah the menorah and candles come out on the first night. Take-down runs backwards, which buries whatever you'll want first next year. Pack the fiddly indoor pieces first and the first-night items last, so the tote opens with the porch lights, tree stand or menorah on top. The first-out tote goes on top of the stack.

One tote per holiday, one lid colour per holiday, one “first hour” box each

Mixed totes are how the tree topper ends up under the skeleton. Give each holiday its own totes and its own lid colour so you can read the shelf from the car: orange for Halloween, blue or white for Hanukkah, green or red for Christmas, pastel for Easter, red, white and blue for the Fourth. If your tote brand doesn't sell coloured lids, a strip of coloured tape on the short side works.

Add a small “first hour” box to each stack: cords, timers, hooks and spare fuses for Halloween; menorah, candles and matches for Hanukkah; tree-stand bolts and hooks for Christmas. If a holiday fills more than three totes, split it by room. Sukkah decorations or the Passover runner and haggadot get a tote of their own.

Wind lights on something flat, test them, bag each strand

Loose strands tangle. Wind each one around a rigid card (cardboard with a notch at each end), a cord reel or a spool, and tuck the plug under the last wrap. Bag each strand with a slip of paper saying where it hangs: “porch rail, 2 of 3.” Test them before packing. A dead string costs a minute in January and a store trip in late November. Keep the bin out of the sun, too. Light sellers warn that a sealed bin in summer sun gets hot enough to soften wire insulation and shorten LED life.

Inflatables: bone dry, then bagged with their own blower, stakes and tethers

Yard inflatables usually fail in storage because they were packed damp. Gemmy, which makes most of the Airblown inflatables sold in the US, says not to store one wet and to let it dry completely first. Run it indoors for an hour or lay it out in the garage overnight, wipe off mud with a damp cloth and mild detergent, and fold it loosely. Bag the blower, cord, stakes and tethers with it. If the blower ends up in a different tote, the inflatable probably won't go up next year. Keep it off concrete and don't stack anything heavy on it.

Powered props: batteries out, tanks empty, remotes taped to the box

Animatronics, light-up figures, electric menorahs and fog machines sit for ten months, and that's when batteries leak. Energizer and Duracell both advise removing batteries from devices that won't be used for a long time, since a leaking cell corrodes the contacts. Keep the batteries at room temperature in a bag taped inside the lid. Tape the remote, adapter and instructions inside the prop's box, and store large animatronics upright in their original packaging with the head wrapped.

For fog machines, Gemmy says never to store one with fluid inside, because it hardens and clogs the pump. Chauvet DJ's manuals say to drain the tank and run cleaner through first. Some fluid makers want a little fluid left in the lines, so follow your manual. Keep sealed fog fluid at room temperature, out of the attic, and throw it out if it turns cloudy.

Wrap the breakables, stuff the masks

Glass and ceramic ornaments go one per cell in a divided tray, wrapped in plain white or acid-free tissue. Newspaper ink rubs off onto paint and glitter. A menorah's arms bend easily, so wrap each one loosely in tissue and give it a box or tote with nothing heavy on top. Seder plates and serving dishes pack like kitchen plates, on edge with paper between.

Stuff latex masks with a plastic bag or an old T-shirt. Trick or Treat Studios warns against storing latex on a styrofoam head, because the two react and the latex breaks down.

Crushables on top, and give up on used cobwebs

Foam pumpkins, plastic tombstones, wreaths, garland and artificial tree tips get squashed, so they go at the top of a stack. Store wreaths flat in a wreath box or hang them in a bag. Coil garland loosely, and bag glittered pieces separately because they shed. An artificial tree lasts longer in a zippered bag than in its shipping box, which tends to split after a couple of seasons.

Stretchy spider webbing doesn't fluff back out after a month on the porch. Keep whatever is still in its original clump and toss the rest. A new bag costs less than the tote space.

Know your house's temperature map before you choose a shelf

According to the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources, a poorly vented attic can reach 160°F on a hot day. A garage can go from below freezing to over 100°F. Wax slumps in that heat, so candles go flat in their boxes in a cool indoor closet (Goose Creek and Homesick both recommend room temperature, away from heat and sun). Latex, glued props, batteries, foam and the PVC tips of an artificial tree also break down in heat.

Clean the fabric before it goes away for eleven months

Costumes, stockings, tree skirts and runners made of wool, silk, felt or fur attract clothes moths and carpet beetles, especially with food, sweat or face paint on them. University of Kentucky entomologists say cleaning items and storing them in tight containers is what protects them, and rate cedar closets as seldom effective. Launder or dry-clean, dry completely, then seal in a tote with a cotton pillowcase between fabric and plastic. Hang costumes in breathable garment bags. Wigs are fine on a foam head (it's latex that reacts with foam). Don't vacuum-bag anything with structure.

Photograph the open tote, tag it, then shut it for the year

Take a top-down photo in good light, then one of the outside so you recognise the tote on the shelf. Next year you check photos instead of opening bins, and whoever you send to the garage knows which orange lid is the porch tote. Keep the photo with the tote's location and holiday.