Was going to take the outside lights down this past weekend but it was too rainy and miserable and did not want to store wet lights away for the year.

I'd like to store them in a better/easier way than my previous method which was to wind them around a large rectangle of stiff cardboard.

Are there reels or spools that you can buy that would make this easier and also easier for putting up next time?

What do you guys do?

Toss and buy new during after-Christmas sales.

Extension cord winding spools $5 Home Depot

Like you, we wrap them around a piece of cardboard cut to fit into our storage bins. Works better than what we did before, which was wind them up into a giant tangled mess!

Do it the way Gretchen Wilson (Redneck Woman) does it.

"And I keep my Christmas lights on, on my front porch all year long "

https://www.lowes.com/pl/baske...ontainers/4294644723

I just have what they are calling light wraps

quote:

Originally posted by bigwagon:
Like you, we wrap them around a piece of cardboard cut to fit into our storage bins. Works better than what we did before, which was wind them up into a giant tangled mess!

Ours don't fit the spools well, the bulbs are a little too bulky.
Went the cardboard & clear tote route as well. Except I just wrap them around my arm, and use the cardboard as a divider between them

Landfill, and never buy them again.

Mine are net lights, nothing to wrap, just fold them up and lay in the bottom of a storage bin.

The few strings I have are LED with the flat bulbs so they are easy, just wrap them up like a rope and toss in the container bin.

I roll them onto themselves into a ball. They unroll easily and makes it easier to unfurl them as you put them on the tree or house.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Do it the way Gretchen Wilson (Redneck Woman) does it.

"And I keep my Christmas lights on, on my front porch all year long "

Get the LED which can have the color changed remotely.

Multi twinkly colors for Christmas
Red for Valentines Day
Green for St Patty’s Day
Red, white, and blue for July 4th
White for all other occasions/days

quote:

Originally posted by LS1 GTO:

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Do it the way Gretchen Wilson (Redneck Woman) does it.

"And I keep my Christmas lights on, on my front porch all year long "

Get the LED which can have the color changed remotely.

Multi twinkly colors for Christmas
Red for Valentines Day
Green for St Patty’s Day
Red, white, and blue for July 4th
White for all other occasions/days

One of my eventual plans is to do something like the GoVee soffit mounted lights.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Landfill, and never buy them again.

I just use a big box. I take them down from the roof (in the reverse order I put them up) and pass them down to my wife. She's on the ground with the box, putting them in in a rough circle.
When we finish, the strand we start with will be on top.

Do you know any Electricians?

The plastic spools that electrical wire comes on.

Or make a wooden “H” out of 1X1, and wrap the lights in the middle.
Or just accept the fact that you’re going to be un-tying knots for an hour or two every December

Roll up a section of news paper. Tape it to keep it rolled up then wrap a string of lights around each roll ending with the plug ends connected.
Been doing it this way for many years. 40-50
The lights store easily in totes and next year just unplug and test the lights before using.
Easy to carry and unroll.

Just took down ours, our outside decorations are fairly modest as the lights and ornaments all fit into a large Rubbermaid-type container; for the lights I coil them up and rubber-band each coil. It rained pretty heavy the first week & half of the new year so, after coiling, I did notice moisture in some of the connections. After taking the lights down, I left them out, unplugged and exposed to sunlight for a day to allow them to dry-out before packing away. Decorative string-lights are fairly cheap these days, I"m not buying commercial-grade or fully-featured strings; if one or two strings go out, it's not a giant loss to replace. This year I got two strings of C6 lights for the roofline, I kept the gutter-brackets on each bulb and coiled them up on the spool they came off of; a bit bulkier than when they were still in its package but it'll do and keep them from snagging other things in the box.

we use the orange cord reels we got from Lowes. I took the winding handles off so they stack better in the big black boxes with yellow tops.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
Landfill, and never buy them again.

The exact answer ! Bravo !

When I take them down every year, I just roll them up like an extension cord.

My beef is that I make sure they work after I roll them up and even again before I string them the next season. Never fails that they don't work AFTER I string them. Spent at least 45 minutes this past season going light by light trying to find the culprit with eventual success. If it were up to me, I would forego ever putting lights up in the first place.

quote:

Originally posted by bcereuss:
Toss and buy new during after-Christmas sales.

This...I only use 4 strings of 100 mini's so under 20 bucks to buy new during sale season.