Keep Holiday Decor Safe In Storage Using An Affordable Kitchen Essential

You've just made it through another successful holiday season with all the trademarks of a quintessential celebration, including the absolute perfect Christmas tree with a gorgeous arrangement of ornaments. But now, the dreaded time has come to take down all the festive decorations and painstakingly remove each and every item from the tree. You know you need a better storage system than just dumping them in a box and hoping for the best (that's how your favorite glass ball painted by your mom got broken last year). You're not exactly sure what to do, but you certainly don't want to spend a bunch on new storage boxes after shelling out all that money over the holidays. That's when you stumble upon an affordable storage solution sitting right there in your kitchen: muffin tins. Yes, the household essential that will keep your precious ornaments safe in storage is collecting dust in the back of your kitchen cabinet. Simply put your ornaments in one tin and set another matching tin upside down on top, and you've got an ideal protective hard case to keep your ornaments safe until next season.

Using old muffin tins as ornament storage is a win on many fronts. For starters, it's affordable. And by that, we mean free. All you have to do is dig out those old muffin tins that have been taking up precious storage space in your kitchen. Smaller ornaments around 2 inches in diameter can fit in a standard 12-muffin tin, while a jumbo six-muffin tin could accommodate balls up to around 3 ½ inches wide or so. If your home is feeling a bit overstocked after Christmas, this repurposing hack makes your Christmas tree ornaments some of the easiest things to declutter at the end of the holiday.

There are many innovative ways to repurpose muffin tins inside and outside the house, and using them for storage is a fantastic one that comes in extra handy this time of year. If your tins are really messy, clean them thoroughly (we don't want baked-on crumbs to ruin your sentimental ornaments). Simply place one ornament in each cavity, adding some tissue paper for padding and protection. Once the tin is full, place a second muffin tin upside down to create a lid. The hard outer surface of the muffin tins will protect the ornaments from getting smashed if anything is stacked on top of it. In fact, you can stack multiple of these muffin tin containers on top of each other when storing them, offering another ideal storage hack that will keep your Christmas ornaments from shattering.

You'll need two large rubber bands or tape to secure the lid. Use one rubber band at each end of the long sides or wrap packing tape around each end in a similar way. Be sure to label the outside of the tins so you know which ornaments are inside. You could write directly on the muffin tin or, if you want to be able to change it each year, use a piece of masking tape as a label. Simply tear off a 2- to 3-inch piece, apply it to the top of the muffin tin, and write your identifier on it. If you happen to need a few more tins but don't want to spend more than you have to, you can stop at your local thrift store (keep that attitude of repurposing alive).