How to Remove and Store Outdoor Holiday Decorations
How to Remove and Store Outdoor Holiday Decorations
While cleaning up from the holiday festivities isn’t the most exciting of tasks, it’s definitely something important to do as soon as you’re able to.
Here are some of our top tips for removing lights and other holiday decorations from your landscaping, and how you should store them once they are removed.
Removing Your Outdoor Holiday Decorations
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Once you have decided that it’s time to take down all of your outdoor holiday decorations, you will first want to make a few preparations.
Depending on how ambitious you were with your decorations, it may require just a little work or days of removal.
If you have covered your trees and/or shrubs with lights, you will want to take special care to take them off without causing damage to the lights or the trees. Make sure that you have a ladder, proper clothes for the weather, gloves, and someone to spot you if you are climbing fairly high.
When unwrapping your lights from your greenery, do so slowly and gently as to not agitate the branches, leaves, and needles on the trees. Being too rough with the light removal can damage the trees or even the lights.
You should also make sure to be as close to the trunk/branches you are removing lights from as possible. Have a ladder nearby, and stand right next to the area you need to unwind. Pulling on the string of lights while standing on the ground could break the strand or cause damage to the trees as well.
Try to slowly and simply reverse the process you went through when putting the lights on the trees and shrubs. Retracing your steps will cause the least amount of breakage and damage.
Also keep in mind that if you live in a colder climate, removing the lights and decorations will be a little more challenging. Freezing weather will also make the branches you are working on more stiff and easier to break – you will want to take extra care to handle shrubs and branches that are frozen and stiff.
When it comes to most deciduous plants, the buds for the following year’s flowers and leaves are already growing on the branches. If you simply pull strings of lights off the trees and shrubs, you risk ruining that growth.
As for any other decorations that sit on your lawn, you will want to remove them in a timely manner as well. This gives your lawn a chance to recover in time for spring.
Now let’s talk about how you should store your outdoor holiday decorations once they are removed from your landscaping.
Storing your Outdoor Holiday Decorations
Storing your outdoor holiday decorations well is vitally important because it leaves them organized for the next year, it is safer than leaving them out, and it ensures that they don’t break or become damaged.
How Should You Store Your Holiday Lights?
Let’s start the holiday lights. These are the most important decorations to store in a decent way as they can easily be damaged, tangled, or completely broken without proper care.
You most likely have had the experience of attempting to untangle an enormous ball of holiday lights when you are getting ready to decorate. It is incredibly time consuming and irritating, and often times it causes the lights to become damaged in the process.
All you really need to make this process easier on yourself is to have masking tape and a sharpie handy. This is perfect for labeling each separate strand to ensure that they’re all kept apart.
Once you have them all labeled, you should wrap the strands up securely to prevent any tangling and/or bulb breakage. You can purchase a case for them online, or even wrap them over a strip of cardboard.
If you have a lot of different colors and/or lengths, it may be a good idea to color code them as well. That way you know where each strand goes and you don’t have have to spend more time trying to figure it out.
After you have rolled up all your lights, make sure to keep them in a cool, dry place to avoid any melting or damage.
How Should You Store Other Holiday Decorations?
Once you have taken down all other decorations: artificial trees, blow-up decorations, etc. you will want to either put them back in their boxes, or store them in something else that will protect them from moisture and other elements.
After boxing/bagging everything up, make sure everything is labeled clearly for the next holiday season, and place it in a cool, dry place.
We hope that you found our tips for clearing your landscaping of holiday decorations was helpful and that you were able to use them for your own lights and other decor.
If you need additional help with yard cleanup and lawn care after clearing out your holiday decorations, contact Homescape Now for assistance!
