Now that the holidays are over, and you۪ve used up all your energy partying all night, you will have to face the dreaded post-holiday cleaning, clearing and organizing. But you don۪t have much choice. If only you can leave the Christmas decorations on all year round, right? There۪s no rule against it. But not really a good idea.
What is commonly the most time-consuming thing to store away? Christmas lights.
You can۪t just pluck them out of the Christmas tree or off the wall, because you need to handle them carefully. This would require a level of care and finesse that you can afford not to give to other Christmas decorations.
The good news is there are plenty of small cable ties and cable organizer that can help you complete the job sooner than you think. You just need to start on one set of lights and get down to the nitty-gritty of how to organize cables.
Keep your lights tangle free until next year.
To keep lights from being tangled, making it hard to un-tangle next Christmas, arrange the bulbs properly. Start with one end of the strand, and put the first bulb on top of your palm. Then pull the next bulb across your palm and opposite the first one. The next one should go where the first bulb is, the next close to the second. Think of it as odd-even arrangement. All the while pulling the wires closed to each other. Once you reach the end of the strand, use the nifty rubber cable ties that won't require you do a lot of twisting. Just a few twist of these Q knot and the wires will be securely in place. You only need to do 1 step instead of 2 or 3. Just twist the cable ties around the bundled wires and you۪re done.
If you need to secure a bigger bundle of wires, you can use the 10 & 20 Speedy Wrap that works even faster, as it simply snaps in place. Large cord wrap also make a viable alternative.
Do it the old-fashioned way, but with a twist
Admittedly, the odd-even arrangement can test someone's patience, especially if you need to deal with an almost endless stretch of Christmas lights. Well, you can always do the most common cable organization idea - wrapping the light string around the palm of your hand and your elbow, creating a circle. Continue doing it until you reach the end of the strand. Then, use Q Knot Outdoor Reusable Cable Ties (Link to Q Knot Outdoor page) in 3 places of the circle to keep the strings from being tangled. Make that four, if you like. By using these heavy duty cable ties, Christmas lights won۪t be a problem the next time you need to use them.
If you need to separate different colors of lights, use different cable tidies. Cord organizer for blue-colored lights. Black cable ties for the red ones. With plenty of cable ties online, keeping Christmas lights organized and tangle-free would be easy. You won't have to spend a fortune either.
To complete your cable storage ideas, wrap Christmas lights in plastic or anything that will keep dust away.