Untangling strings of lights and packing them back up when it’s all over are two of the most dreaded holiday decorating chores. Stores sell lots of products, from light cord reels and special boxes to try to keep your lights in order. But there’s a cheaper way. You don’t need to spend any money to keep your lights organized. All you need is a little patience and some plastic grocery bags.
Taking Down Your Lights
In order to keep Christmas lights or other decorative lights untangled for next year, they have to be untangled when you put them away. What tangles them is not the chords so much as it is the light bulbs. That’s why rolling them on a reel, or laying them in a box doesn’t always work. But, if you can wrap them so that you keep the light bulbs in order, your cords won’t hang up on them and they will unfold easily when it’s time to unpack them.
How to Wrap Holiday Lights
Remove the lights with both hands and lay the string out in one long strand as you go. Do not try to wrap them as you take them down.
Once the string is laid on the ground or floor, begin folding the cord in short folds and laying it across your palm in an accordion fashion. Fold the cord at each bulb so that you have a stacked cord with a bunch of bulbs at each end. When you reach then end of the strand, there will be along section of cord with no lights before the male or female plug. Wrap that long section of cord around the accordion stack.
If your lights have a male plug on one end and a female on the other, you can wrap the line tightly around the middle and plug them together. Otherwise, wrap the line tightly and tuck the plug beneath the last wrap on the wire.
How to Wrap Long Light Strands
If your strands are extra long, and you cannot fit the entire thing comfortably in your palm as you fold the cord, you will need to break the process into two or more steps. When the strand becomes too thick to keep orderly, take two wraps around the middle of your stack. There may be lights on this wrap, but don’t worry, they won’t tangle the strand.
Next, lay the wrapped portion of strand on the ground and pick up where you left off, gently pulling the rest of the strand along the ground toward you as you wrap the rest of the lights. Give yourself plenty of slack so that as you begin wrapping the second half, the first half stays in place.
Once you have the rest of the strand wrapped accordion-style in your palm, take up the slack between your two folded halves by folding the lights back toward your first stack. Leave about eight or ten inches of cord between the two stacked halves, and use it to wrap the second half until the two bunches of lights are right next to each other.
Then wrap the whole thing with the end of the cord and finish off the same way you finish a shorter string of lights above.
How to pack the lights for storage
Once you have your lights wrapped neatly, you’ll want to pack them so that the unruly little bulbs don’t catch on each other or loosen into a jumbled mess as you begin packing multiple strands into your holiday storage box or bin. That’s where those old plastic grocery bags come into play.
Place a folded and wrapped bundle of lights into a plastic grocery bag leaving the plugs sticking out slightly. Tie the bag tightly around the lights. Now they are ready for storing.
When you unpack your holiday lights the following year, your lights will be neat and easy to unwind, and your plugs will be easily accessible.
Kimbra Cutlip - Kimbra Cutlip is a feature writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications including the Washington Post, Environment magazine, ...
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