Safe Ornament Storage

I have an idea that most of us who haven't already done it will be taking down the Christmas decorations this weekend.  Up until now, I have always stored my Christmas ornaments in their original boxes, inside a Rubbermaid bin.  However, every year it was getting progressively less organized and the original boxes more banged up.  I know they sell ornament storage boxes, but I got looking online and found an interesting project from Martha Stewart.

She suggests making your own ornament storage box with cups. Since I already had the bins, I decided to give this a try.  Notice how Martha's is perfectly square and fits perfectly in the box, and is even color-coordinated.  Well, I'm not Martha.

I cut a piece of cardboard to fit the bottom of my bin, and hot glued cups to it.  Super easy, although the cups I used did not allow for a perfect fit, and I had to stagger them.  These are 16oz cups, and they had smaller ones, so maybe either just the smaller ones or a combination of the two would fit more snugly.  My bin allowed for a second layer of cups-on-cardboard.

Then I started wrapping my ornaments in tissue paper, and setting them in the cups.

Even though these pine cones were just 2/$1 at Dollar Tree, I really like them and would hate for them to get broken.  I think they are pretty secure in their little individual nests.

I was able to get a few extra cups on the top layer since the bin widens a bit at the top.  In total, there are 39 cups.  There's still some head room, so I will put in another piece of cardboard and store things on top of that.  Another Martha suggestion is to use egg cartons for smaller ornaments, and they would easily fit.

I think I will be pleasantly surprised when I get out the ornaments next year and find them so well organized!