Storage Solutions

Well I finally did it, I packed up my Christmas ornaments and decorations. They were in “boxes” but not packed. I had put them in my sewing room in a corner for later packing. I was tired of finding decorations here and there up to a month later so I just put it all in a corner to pack away later.
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I have used the Sidetracked Executive system to store things in the past, and wanted to do that again. 3 Christmas’ ago we had a very tough time so things were just thrown in a box and put in storage, and then followed suit the next year. This year I pulled out my green index cards, filled under storage, out of my index card box and went over the cards. I had labeled them C1, C2, C3 & C4, then I also had CC (Christmas Can, the trash can on wheels I store the tree and lights in) CV 1-3 (Christmas Village) and W-1; Winter decorations, you know snowmen, snowflakes, all that stuff that can be brought out the day after Thanksgiving and left up till the first day of Spring, or until you get tired of it.
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I then crossed off the things we had gotten rid of or given to older kids as they moved out. Got smaller boxes and labeled them with the C#, and on the index card adjusted what was in each box. This may sound like a time consuming thing to do, and it was the first time I did it, but it only took my 20 minutes this time. This way when if have a smaller house or less space, or grandkids who will play with the village, we don’t have to drag every thing out. We can just glance at the index cards, pull out the coordinating boxes and leave the rest in storage.
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Also, if you just want to know where one thing is you just have to look at the cards instead of going through the whole thing, which is usually what happens, you drag everything out and then finally find what you are looking for in the last box, then have to put it all back. This works great for lots of things in storage, not just Christmas stuff. I also put on the box a note to self, like C-1 Under the tree, this tells me what is in the box when I glance in it. So if you were doing kids winter clothes you could label it, WCS for Winter Clothes Sarah. Or if you have a big family but need to store what is not being used, BC-5 for Boys Clothes size 5.
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Tomorrow I will put it all in storage, I try to do just a little at a time, or I will spend all day on doing one thing and then look at the clock see it is 5:00 and realize I have nothing thawed for dinner. I also found a Christmas Candle Holder in a closet as leaving the room and it needs to be put in a box, so rather than run into lunch time and then overhaul our storage area, I stacked it up nice and neat by the door in my sewing room and tomorrow (my zone for the week is extra room) I will put all of that in storage, sweep the floor and do the windows in my sewing room.