Christmas and Winter Stuff

We don’t know about you, but this snow we’ve been experiencing is getting our hopes up for a white Christmas. Could it be?

Either way, by now, you’re probably engaged in the last minute rush of Christmas shopping, holiday parties, realizing next week is the last week of school for the year, and pulling your snow blower out of self-storage.

So, let’s talk about a few ways self-storage, especially what we offer here at Storage Solutions in Milton, can help make your life easier, when everything else is making it harder!

First up, snow blowers. They are beautiful things when there actually is snow. Personally, we waited (too long) and after the snow fall last week, decided it was time to get it over to the homestead. In the process of doing this, double check that the snow blower works. For example, we didn’t follow our own policy and stored the snow blower with some gas in the tank (not much, but still). Well, we couldn’t get that snow blower working and were feeling a little sheepish. Turns out, we had to take the gas cap off, let some of the fumes evaporate, and then the snow blower started back up again.

The best practice for snow blowers, which we have recommended in many previous blog posts? In the spring, when the snow is melting, hose off all of the salt from the machine and take it in to be serviced. The service centre will do an oil change and drain the gas, and then the machine is perfect to be put away for the season. We will be doing that come April!

Next up, Christmas. Our house is exploding with Christmas. We love it, we love giving to people, we love the joy associated with the season. We’ve used our storage unit as an off-site hide-away for gifts to preserve the surprise. It’s working out great, and it’s also forcing us to be a little more judicious with gifts and get people what they really want, rather than a bunch of “stuff”.

We also have a post-Christmas plan. Because, let’s face it, post-Christmas, you have more stuff in your house, and then you need to put the Christmas decorations away. Not exactly ideal. So, we are setting up shelves in our storage unit that are specific to Christmas. And, we’re following some expert tips on storing our Christmas decorations, so we can reuse them for many years to come, and save a lot of money!

• Wrap your tree in the bag it came with (if the tree is fake). Don’t force the tree into the bag, take the time to remove the lights, arrange the branches carefully and make sure it’s properly stored so that you don’t damage or break anything for next year.
• Wrap your lights around old cereal boxes or large pop bottles.
• Keep bead garlands in their own container, like a water bottle so they don’t tangle.
• Use 3M hooks that easily come off the walls and hang your Christmas wreaths in your storage unit (bonus, your storage unit always feels festive and this also prevents your wreaths from warping).
• Store little ornaments with care – they are usually fragile and precious. Things like egg cartons, tissue paper from the big day, etc. can be reused for this.
• Use newspaper to create some cushion for your many ornaments – you need to worry about transporting them to and from your storage unit safely and in one piece.
• Do your best to keep a list of what you have, or, if there were things you felt were missing or need replacing, keep that list. It helps you plan next year and prevents you from buying more than you need.

We wish you a wonderful, snowy, holiday season and remember, CHFI 98.1 is playing non-stop Christmas songs. It can help get you in the mood.

What’s great about Storage Solutions? Many things! But we also have exclusively drive-up units (imagine carrying your Christmas tree all the way to an elevator and down a hall…no thank you!), flexible contracts, 24/7 access, on-site staff and security.

Still have questions? We’re happy to find answers for you! Call us at 905-854-1008, email us at info@storagesolutionsontario.com or come on in to 9200 Twiss Rd, Milton Ontario.

Your friend in self-storage,