Backstory: My husband and I recently moved into a new (to us) home and we don't own Christmas lights. As I am hosting the festivities this year, I wanted to put some up so I borrowed my parents' lights since they weren't using them this year. When I opened the box to assess the situation, I was pleasantly surprised at how neatly my dad had put the lights away. It made the process a breeze - we had lights up with no drama in less than an hour! (Full disclosure: a previous owner had already put hooks up along the front of the house from which we could hang the lights, making it easier on us!)
What did he do, you ask? He took each string and carefully wound them in a loose oval, not allowing them to twist into knots. He then laid the first strand inside the box and tied a piece of string with a file label
on it indicating which strand of lights it was (i.e. west side of garage, girls' bedrooms, front walkway, etc.). He then covered this with several layers of newspaper, and then put in the next strand, labeled with string. And so on. Over the years he had customized each strand of lights to fit exactly in a certain spot, including adding clear light bulbs near stairs so people could see. As I saw this I said to myself, "Ah-ha! Further proof this is where I get my anal-retentive traits!" :) Because he had labeled in this way, it made it very easy for me to know which lights would work on my house - I picked the two longest strands and that was all we needed.
In addition to neatly stored lights, he also had plenty of extra bulbs available (10+ of each!). He stored them by color in small paper bags inside the box, each labeled with the color. This has already come in handy as we've had to replace several burned out bulbs. Which reminds me, I have two red ones out on the front of the garage - I will go change them now!
Happy low-stress holidays,
-amy
