(I like that title because it seems like I do works-for-me-wednesday all the time!)
My husband and I put away our Christmas decorations yesterday. I wouldn’t put them away so *early* but my daughter’s birthday is on Saturday. I just didn’t think the Christmas tree would do much for the birthday party, you know?
I have to say my little Christmas boxes are pretty organized. The ornaments go in their boxes, which go in my little Christmas tins. The breakable ornaments go in the thick wool stockings for protection. And the Christmas lights are in a tangled mess right in the middle.
*sound of record scratching*
Huh? Those strands of lights are trying to ruin my orderly boxes! (Hey, something in my life needs to be orderly!) Well, never fear because I have discovered how to wrap Christmas lights so they WILL NOT tangle AND they will keep your Christmas decor clutter free.
Are you so excited?
Me neither.
But continue we must.
See, I have this friend of a friend of the family (you know, the guy you duck when you see him at the store because you don’t really know him and you don’t really want to have a conversation about your family). Anyway, he used to (I don’t know if he still does) goes all out for Christmas. His Christmas tree was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. He wraps EVERY SINGLE branch with lights. It was brilliant.
And he showed us the secret to storing Christmas lights.
I can feel the excitement.
All you do is start with one end of the strand. Put the first light at the bottom of your palm and pull the 2nd light to the top (vertical across your palm). The, while you are pinching/holding the 2nd bulb, pull the 3rd bulb down the the 1st. Like so…
Then keep matching the odd and even bulbs.
Eventually, it will look like this.
Then once you get them all in your tight little fist…
Just wrap the remaining cord around and plug it back in!
Now isn’t that better than my husband’s wrap job?
And it only takes about a minute a strand–it’s way easy! But even better is next Christmas when you dust off your boxes full of decor, your little strands of lights will be ready to go! You just hold it in your hand and wrap it right around the tree. No de-tangling, no pulling them across the floor, just easy tree lighting!
There you go, if you haven’t taken your decorations down, now you’ve got a new trick for your lights. If you have, well, that’s what you get for being a humbug and not keeping them up till Valentine’s Day like everyone else.
And as always with Works-for-me-Wednesday, if this is like the thing that every person in America does and I just didn’t know about it–well, at least I made a tutorial with pictures. Please humor me and leave me an encouraging comment anyway!
Merry TakingChristmasDecorationsDown!
(oh, here’s some of my other wfmw: birthday ideas, hair product saver & my fave brands!)
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Twitter: staci
January 2, 2008 at 8:51 am
cool tip…courtesy of Victor??
Your lights look so pretty! I guess your tip would help me with my compulsion to just throw the lghts out and just buy new ones every year.
I saw over at “The Road to Home” you are headed to Target today. Be sure to stop by my blog and enter for three chances to win a $15 Target card!!
Love the “his lights/my lights” comparison! You know that is the way some lights come out of the box, nice and tidy. I’m doing mine that way this year!
Thanks for the tip!
nice- thanks for the tip.
I like your way better! We’ll try it next year (if I remember that long!)
Thanks for stopping by my blog!!
I took my lights down yesterday! Yesterday I tell you! And they are a mess, but at least each strand it in its own plastic Walmart bag so it can only get too tangled…oh well, there’s always next year!
For some reason, when I commented above, the blanks were already filled in with what is *NOT* my blog title or address. It’s fixed in this comment, though!
Fun post Amanda!
As I sit here looking and strategizing about taking down all my stuff… I feel better knowing how I will store all my lights, thank you and God bless (:
I’m actually thinking about going to the store and buying all new boxes (probably because that will give me one more thing to do before actually doing the very thing I need to do!!!)
My tree is pre-lit this year which was awesome! The lights are so even… but I put lights in the garland over all the windows and anywhere else I can think of! I love those little lights!
Happy Wednesday.
Happy 2008.
(can you tell I’m procrastinating?)
GREAT idea! We haven’t taken down the decorations, yet… and we have a birthday party coming up too! Gulp! I’ll definitely have to show hubby this trick!
Twitter: localmandi
January 2, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Love it! I’m not sure if I’d have the patience, but I’ll still have to give it a try next year. I was guessing the family friend was Victor too:)
I wish I would have read this before I just through the lights in a box with the hope that I can get them untangled next year, thanks for the tip. We too put our decorations all up yesterday because I like a fresh start on New Year’s Day and the extra help since the hubby is home for once.
If I actually am organized enough to put UP my Christmas decorations next year I will have to try your trick (if I can get the tangles out from putting them up LAST year, that is!)
I wish I had read this yesterday! My hubby put away all our Christmas things last night. He’s pretty particular about that kind of stuff, so he’ll love your tip. Thanks for sharing!
Great idea!!! Love it! We took our tree down yesterday. You really leave yours up until Valentine’s day???? Wow! We take ours down after New Year’s, usually the week of!
Happy New Year!
Holy cow! A woman after my own heart! I do the same exact thing when I put my lights away.
Thanks for stopping by and have a happy Wednesday!
Your husband’s strand looks 10 times better than mine. He does nice work.
Your strand is barely recognizable to me, because I didn’t even know lights could go back together like that.
Of course, part of the fun of decorating the tree is the annual cursing, spitting fit I throw while I’m trying to untangle my lights.
I do something similar. Cool!
i was winding mine around a piece of cardboard. this year, i just threw them in the box. i may have to open up that box and do it your way.
Twitter: ChristiS
January 2, 2008 at 8:44 pm
I love it! We haven’t taken our tree down yet, so hopefully I can remember it long enough to put it to use!
this is great! And your’s is WAY BETTER than your hubby’s!
Okay, so I usually wrap mine around an old magazine and tuck the plugs into the ends. But I was looking at them today and decided to try this.
It works really well. But it is a little harder with the 300 light strands.
Thanks
I saw your pics at flickr before I saw this post and when I saw the pics I was lol because I KNEW you were going to write a post on how to put away Christmas lights correctly!! So funny!! I love it
Anyways, just for the record, all of our Christmas is still up. I thought about taking it down today because our tree is dead, but I just don’t think the reminder of Christmas is ever long enough . . . so it’s staying up for at least one more week 
Happy weekend, A! Love ya!
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