I spent 45 minutes untangling Christmas lights last December. Forty-five minutes. That is almost an entire hour of my life I will never get back, spent on my living room floor with a string of lights that had somehow tied itself into a dozen knots while sitting in a cardboard box for eleven months.

This year I packed everything differently. Last weekend I opened the boxes and every single strand came out ready to hang. Here is the system.

Wrap lights around cardboard

Cut a rectangle of corrugated cardboard about 12 by 6 inches. Cut a notch at each end. Wrap the light strand around the cardboard — starting with the plug end, wrapping evenly, and tucking the other plug into a notch. The cardboard keeps the strand flat and prevents the wires from twisting around themselves. One piece of cardboard per strand. Stack them flat in a bin.

I used to wrap lights around my forearm and stuff them in a bag. That is how you get the 45-minute untangling session. Do not do that.

Ornaments in cups

Save the cardboard drink carriers from your next fast food run. Each cup slot holds one standard ornament perfectly. For larger ornaments, use plastic cups hot-glued to a sheet of cardboard — the red solo cup trick. Either way, each ornament sits in its own pocket and does not clank against anything else.

I broke three glass ornaments in 2022 from just tossing them all into a bin with some tissue paper. Zero broken ornaments in two years since switching to the cup method.

Wreaths on hangers

Slide a garment bag over your wreath and hang it from a closet rod. The bag keeps dust off and the hanging position preserves the shape. I used to store wreaths flat in a bin, which flattened one side and required fluffing for twenty minutes before it looked right again.

Label everything like you will forget

Because you will. I wrote “LIGHTS — Living Room — 2 strands” on the box instead of just “Christmas.” Next year you will be grateful to your past self for the two seconds of extra effort.

My lights were up in under ten minutes this year. Ten minutes. I spent the extra 35 minutes drinking coffee and feeling smug.