To preserve the sheen and luster of Christmas balls, wrap them individually and separate the gold ones from all the other colors.

MANILA, Philippines – Jazzing up your home or offices during the holidays is always a breeze because of the excitement that the season brings.

But packing all the ornaments away is a very tedious and time consuming task.

Which is why people tend to procrastinate when it comes to putting down the holiday decors.

This is when bespoke floral and event stylist Archie Chua comes in.

Known for his exquisite styling and awesome decorations for commercial establishments and residential houses, Chua is now also into the business of professionally packing away and storing all the ornaments used in hotels, offices and homes so that these decorations would last longer than they normally would.

“For hotels and other businesses, it’s more cost-effective to hire someone to decorate for them. And, now they don’t even have to worry about where to store away all the trimmings after the celebration is over,” Chua says, who has been in this business for more than 15 years.

Chua shares a few tips on how to properly store your holiday decors so that you could use them again next Christmas. :

•Keep the balls shiny

Keeping the original form and color of Christmas balls is just one of the challenges in storing these ornaments. Another is maintaining  the shine and luster of the balls.

“To preserve the color and luster of the Christmas balls, store them in black garbage bags or any dark colored plastic container, especially the gold-colored ones,” Chua says. “ It’s important that you put these away in a place where there’s no exposure and moisture,  factors that can diminish the sheen of the gold plating of the ornaments.  Exposure to dust and heat would also affect the upkeep of these  holiday décor,” he explains

• Silk flowers

For silk poinsettias, it is best to straighten the whole stem of the silk flower and bend the flower head before placing it in a clean container for storage.

Garlands, on the other hand, can be stored in two ways.  The first and the easiest is to find wreath bags big enough to store your garland without having to put it back in its original form.  The second  is to put it back in its original form. 

“Since wreath bags may be expensive, unraveling your garland after designing it for the Holidays would be a more cost-effective solution.  Take the wiring from the bow, stretch it, and you coil it back, and store in a plastic container or a zip lock bag to protect it from dust. If you have acid free tissue paper, use these to wrap your ornaments and ribbons,” Chua adds.

• Lights

Changing Christmas lights every year may be ideal to avoid fire or any untoward incidents, especially among kids such as electrocution, but there’s actually a way to make them last longer than they should – especially if you are already using LED lights. LED lights have longer burning hours compared to standard lights.  They may cost more but they consume lesser energy and are safer for children in case of contact because they are cooler.

“The common mistake people make when they put away their Christmas lights is they just shove it in a box after taking them down from the tree. And so, they would all be tangled up,” says Archie.

Instead of doing this, Chua’s advise is to coil the Christmas lights and tie the coil loosely.

“Or, you can make your own Christmas light storage reel from a piece of cardboard.”

• Christmas tree

After having removed all the ornaments and packed them back into boxes, dismantle the Christmas tree from the top going down. As you fold them, it’s okay to scrunch them down so that when you take them back out next year, you will be able to shape the branches back in their original form. Neatly tie the tree in a bundle and place in bags or in its original box.

“Artificial Christmas trees are durable by design.  If properly cared for, the tree may retain its original shape from when you first bought it,” says Chua.  “Other people vacuum their trees before storing them but you can also try wiping dust off your tree using damp tissue or towel. You could also do this to clean up the rest of the Christmas ornaments before storing.

• Label

Lastly, apart from cleaning your Christmas decors before storing them, Chua recommends labeling all the bags, boxes, or containers used to store your Christmas decorations.  “Organizing it in that manner makes it easier to unpack next year.”