Takedown & Storage
DIY vs bought Christmas light storage
Some of the homemade methods work as well as anything you can buy. Two of the popular ones actively damage the lights.
Mike M. — The hands-on owner behind Iron Mako Media.
Published
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The verdict first: DIY winders made from cardboard or a hanger work genuinely well and cost nothing — the principle of a reel is not proprietary. What a bought system adds is durability, a handle, and a bag that keeps the set together. Two popular DIY methods, though, cause real damage.
DIY methods that genuinely work
| Method | Works? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Cardboard rectangle with notches cut in each end | Yes | The classic, and it is a reel. Cut it from a box. |
| Wire coat hanger bent into a winder | Yes | Free, durable, and it has a hook built in |
| A length of scrap timber with two screws as posts | Yes | Effectively a permanent reel |
| An empty cable or hose reel | Yes | Literally the same product |
| A 5-gallon bucket, wound round the outside | Yes, for long runs | Bulky, but the coil is even and the bucket holds hardware |
All of these do the one thing that matters: they hold a run wound under even tension, separate from every other run. That is the entire function of a reel, and a cardboard rectangle performs it as well as a molded plastic one for a season or two.
DIY methods that damage the lights
- Wrapping lights around a pool noodle. Popular online, and the problem is that a noodle has a small diameter and no rigidity — the wire ends up bent tightly around a soft object that deforms, which is exactly how kinks form. A kink is where the conductor eventually breaks.
- Bundling and zip-tying. A zip tie pulled tight compresses the insulation at one point, and repeated over seasons that point becomes a fault. If you must bundle, use velcro straps or loose twist ties.
The common failure in both is compression and tight bending. Light wire is fine wound at a generous radius under even tension, and poor when pinched or bent sharply. Any DIY method that respects that is fine; any that does not will shorten the set's life.
What a bought system actually adds
| Feature | DIY equivalent | Worth paying for? |
|---|---|---|
| Even winding | Cardboard or hanger winder | No — DIY does this fine |
| Durability over a decade | Cardboard degrades; timber and wire do not | Sometimes |
| A carry handle | Hard to improvise well | Yes, for winding on a ladder |
| A bag keeping the set together | A tote bag, roughly | Yes |
| Waterproofing | Difficult to improvise | Yes, for garage or shed storage |
| Stacking and sealing | A bin, bought anyway | Yes, for hardware |
The honest summary: the winding is free and the system is what you pay for. If you already own a bin and a tote bag, cardboard winders will serve you perfectly well.
The hybrid most people end up with
- Bought reels for the main roofline runs, because they get handled most and a handle helps at takedown
- Cardboard or hanger winders for the short accent runs, of which there are always more than you planned for
- A bought bag to keep everything together and labeled
- A bought gasketed bin for hardware, because that genuinely cannot be improvised
That costs very little and works as well as an entirely bought system. The bin is the one item worth buying outright — see best storage bags and bins.
The part that is free either way
Labeling. A piece of tape and a marker on every reel — 'Front gutter, 4 sets, warm white' — is worth more next November than any container you can buy, and it costs nothing regardless of which route you take.
What to buy
The products that fit the advice above, chosen by the process on our methodology page. We have not hands-on tested them; specifications are the manufacturers’ own.
Quick picks
| # | Product | Best for | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Top pickSanta's Bags Install N' Store Light Storage ReelInstall-and-store reel format | Winding as you take down | 8.5 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 |  HOLDN' STORAGE Premium Christmas Light Storage Bag with 3 reels600D + PVC, 3 reels, up to 375 ft | One bag for the whole display | 9.0 | Check price on Amazon |
| 3 | IRIS USA Weathertight Storage BoxGasket seal, latching lid, stackable | Clips, stakes, timers and spares | 8.3 | Check price on Amazon |
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Scores are our own editorial judgment from published specifications and buyer feedback — not aggregated user ratings, and not from hands-on testing. See how we pick.
Jump to a full review below: storage-and-takedown
The picks in full
Top pick
Santa's Bags Install N' Store Light Storage Reel
Santa's Bags
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A reel designed to be carried along the roofline and wound as you remove the lights, rather than one you coil onto afterwards on the garage floor.
There are two ways to get lights onto a reel. You can pull everything off the house into a pile and then wind the pile, or you can wind as you remove. The second is faster, produces a better wind, and is the whole idea behind an install-and-store reel.
Carrying a handled reel along the run and winding as the clips come off means the string is never on the ground and never in a pile. A run wound under light, even tension pays back out cleanly next November — which is the actual test of a storage system.
You still need something to put the reels in. Reels alone on an attic shelf collect dust and get knocked loose; the bag-plus-reels options above solve that, and these reels drop into them fine.
Count reels against runs, not against total footage. One reel is one continuous run, and a typical house has four to six of them.
What works
- Removes the separate coiling step entirely
- Wound under even tension, runs pay out cleanly next year
- Handle makes it manageable one-handed on a ladder
What does not
- Sold as reels, so you still need a bag or bin to contain them
- One reel is one run — a whole house is several
| Type | Handled storage reel |
|---|---|
| Use | Light string, wire, extension cord |
| Format | Wind during removal, store as wound |
One bag for the whole display
HOLDN' STORAGE Premium Christmas Light Storage Bag with 3 reels
HOLDN' STORAGE
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600D fabric with a PVC lining, reinforced handles and three reels inside. Reels plus a bag is the combination that works; either alone does not.
The hour you spend in January decides the hour you spend in November. Lights thrown into a cardboard box come out as one object eleven months later, and untangling it is the worst job in the whole project.
The fix is reels inside a bag. Reels keep each run wound and separate; the bag keeps the reels together, keeps dust and rodents off, and survives being stacked on. HOLDN' STORAGE sells the combination: three reels inside a 600D bag with a PVC lining and reinforced handles.
Capacity is about 375 feet of string or cord, which is one average house. If you run a full roofline plus bushes plus a path, buy two and split them logically — roofline in one, ground-level in the other — so next November you carry up only what you need first.
One habit worth building: label each reel with where its run goes as you wind it. 'Front gutter, 4 sets' written on a piece of tape in January is worth twenty minutes next season.
What works
- Reels stop the tangle; the bag stops the reels rattling loose in the attic
- Heavy fabric survives an attic floor, which thin bags do not
- Cords and lights in one container, so nothing is missing next November
What does not
- 375 ft is one average house — a big display needs two
- A full bag is heavy and awkward on attic stairs
| Material | 600D exterior with PVC lining |
|---|---|
| Reels | 3 included |
| Capacity | Up to 375 ft of light string or cord |
| Handles | Reinforced |
Clips, stakes, timers and spares
IRIS USA Weathertight Storage Box
IRIS USA
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A rigid gasketed bin. Bad for light strings, excellent for everything else in the display — the hardware, which is what actually goes missing between seasons.
Everyone plans storage for the lights and nobody plans it for the hardware. Then in November the clips are in three places, the timer is somewhere, and the spare bulbs are gone. Replacing all of that costs more than the bin does.
A rigid gasketed box is the right home for clips, stakes, timers, smart plugs, spare bulbs and fuses. Rigid walls stop a timer being crushed under a box of ornaments, and the gasket keeps damp off the metal contacts, which is what kills a stored timer.
It is the wrong container for light strings. A bin is a volume, and a volume full of loose string is a tangle by definition. Strings go on reels, hardware goes in the bin.
One good habit: keep the fuse spares taped inside the lid. Christmas light fuses are tiny, they are the first thing to go, and they are impossible to find in a drawer in December.
What works
- Rigid walls protect timers, controllers and bulb boxes from being crushed
- Gasket keeps dust and damp off metal contacts
- Stackable, and the clear versions let you see what is inside
What does not
- Wrong container for light strings — a bin is how tangles start
- Takes fixed shelf space whether full or empty
| Type | Rigid plastic storage box |
|---|---|
| Seal | Gasketed lid with latches |
| Stacking | Stackable |
| Sizes | Multiple |
Common questions
What is the best DIY way to store Christmas lights?
A cardboard rectangle with notches cut into each end, or a bent wire coat hanger. Both hold a run wound under even tension and separate from other runs, which is exactly what a bought reel does.
Is wrapping Christmas lights around a pool noodle a good idea?
No. A noodle has a small diameter and deforms under tension, so the wire bends tightly around a soft object — which is how kinks form, and a kink is where the conductor eventually breaks.
Should I use zip ties on Christmas lights?
Avoid them for storage. A tightened zip tie compresses the insulation at one point, and repeated across seasons that point becomes a fault. Velcro straps or loose twist ties are safer.
Is bought Christmas light storage worth the money?
The winding is free and easy to improvise. What you are paying for is durability, a handle for winding at the ladder, a bag that keeps the set together, and waterproofing. The rigid bin for hardware is the item genuinely worth buying.
Sources
Every specification quoted on this page comes from the manufacturer’s own published information or a current retail listing, linked below. Where a figure is not published, we say so rather than estimating it.