Spending hours detangling Christmas lights can be one of the worst parts of decorating your home for the holidays. The key to avoiding the frustration of tangled lights is knowing how to properly store your Christmas lights to ensure that decorating for the holidays is as jolly as it should be. Here are some tips and tricks to keep your Christmas lights detangled and safe all year round.
Cardboard
When you’re thinking about wrapping Christmas lights up, your first thought may be to wind it around your arm. This may seem like a good idea, but as soon as you take your arm out, the lights start to tangle together. To avoid tangling, you can do the same thing but replace your arm with a rectangular piece of cardboard. This way, you can keep your lights untangled and store them in storage containers in an organized way.
Cord Reel
Cord reels are typically used for long extension cords, and they come in different styles that can hold up to hundreds of feet of cords. To use these for Christmas lights, you first connect all of your lights together in one strand. Then you attach one end of the light strand to the roller and spin it until the strand is completely wound together. This makes unwrapping Christmas lights much easier, all you’ll have to do is unspool the strand lights when you want to decorate again.
Original Box
One of the simplest ways to store Christmas lights and keep them untangled is to use the original box if you still have it. To do this, wrap the cord around the box rather than bunch it back inside the box.
Rolling
The methods above all work well for standard strand lights, but they may not work for other types of Christmas lights, such as icicle strands. To store icicle lights and keep them untangled, take a 1-foot wide roll of plastic and roll out a length of plastic that is equal to the strand of lights. Place the strand on top of the plastic sheet and roll the sheet. This method will keep everything together, and you will avoid any tangling.
Storage Containers
No matter which of these methods you find works best for your Christmas lights, you should put all of your wrapped or rolled Christmas lights in plastic storage containers. Doing so will not only protect your lights but also keep everything organized exactly how you want it, making decorating for the holidays much easier. When you’re ready to decorate for the holidays again, simply take everything out of the storage container, and you’ll have all of your Christmas lights together and tangle-free.
Contact Us Today
Fairfax City Self Storage is here to provide you with the highest quality storage units that are secure, temperature controlled, and completely individual to you and your needs. If you’re looking to store your Christmas lights or more in one of our units, contact us today for information on all of our services.