Do you decorate for style or for the memories?  

This is a common question among families over the holidays.  We all love our kid's Christmas decorations they made when they were younger, but do you really want them on the tree every year?  

“Do you want those childish Ornaments on the tree every year?”

The Christmas tree is filled with lights, tinsel, and plenty of ornaments.  You may decorate a tree with a defined style or with memories from your childhood or your kids art projects.  However you decorate it, It is probably clear that Christmas and Christmas decorations bring out the family memories.   Even if some don’t go on the tree for reasons that are up to you, You definitely don’t want to get rid of any ornaments.  

So how do you store ornaments all year or over  multiple years without breaking them?  

Tree ornaments can be sentimental and also very fragile.  One option is to wrap them in tons of tissue and layer them in a box or rubbermaid tote.  The bad thing about that is that you have to unwrap everything to find the one you want.  You could wrap everything in tissue and group items in smaller totes, but again everything is still wrapped so that you can’t see each one.   Not to mention all the paper you have to buy to wrap each one.  

What if there was a way to use less paper and reuse things you may already have that would otherwise be thrown into the landfill?  

Costco.  The wholesale warehouse that is known for extra large packaging.  Well what may seem like a waste of packaging might just be the perfect solution to save you the hassle of wrapping individual ornaments and allow you to see what ornaments you have, and group them by child or style.  

The Costco Apple Container Hack

If you have ever bought apples at Costco then you know that they come in plastic containers that keep them looking nice in the store, but are a pain to dispose of because of how much space they take up in, your most likely, smaller kitchen garbage can.  

Well instead of throwing away this plastic, you can reuse it.  These containers are perfect for storing your ornaments safely and still allows you to see what's inside.  These are also perfect for stacking and labeling.  Open the container and start loading.  Even if they are awkward sized ornaments like stars, you can still span them across two spots and still keep them from rubbing against other ornaments.  Once you're finished you can stick a label over the top of the existing one and group my child or style.  Just like in the store you can stack thees into boxes for storage very easily.  

So just like that you recycled something that would have gone to landfill,  limited the paper you would be buying, and made it easier to find things.  By seeing the color and style before you decorate next year.