The First Box Under My Christmas Tree Saves My Sanity

The first box under my Christmas tree is my SANITY box. It’s one of the first boxes out of the attic, and I honestly don’t know how I lived without it. The idea for this struck me a couple of years ago as I was rushing around looking for the special hooks for the stockings…where did I leave those again? And the light fuses. Wait. This ornament needs a hook. And the string broke on this one. Where is the glue?

It occurred to me how nice…how ESSENTIAL it is to have all of this itty bitty critical stuff for decorating all in one spot. And what better spot than right under the tree!

So I bought a pretty flip open box at my local craft store, and stocked it with the following essentials:

My Christmas Tree Sanity Box Contains

• scissors
• glue
• tape
• upholstery hooks for hanging things on the drapes
• a small hot glue gun & glue sticks
• a light gun- more on that in a minute!
• extra hooks
• string and toothpicks for replacing broken loops (the toothpick lets me poke the new string down into the wooden ornaments with a dot of glue to hold it)
• super glue
• thin wire
• replacement bulbs & fuses
• command hooks

The box holds more than just decorating essentials. Since I live with a Viking spawn child, the sanity box is also a makeshift ornament hospital.

And it can even hold gift tags and tape to keep on hand for wrapping.

We have a prelit tree, and last year I spent HOURS trying to tack down why several branches weren’t lighting. This year, the entire top wouldn’t light. So my son and I went out and grabbed THIS: the Lightkeeper Pro from our local craft store. As seen on TV, y’all. You can find the Lightkeeper Pro here via my affiliate Amazon link with free prime shipping!

Let me tell you, this was worth every penny. It didn’t work on one of the branches, but in just a few clicks, the top of the tree re-lit with no fussing or tinkering with testing bulbs. If you’re still dealing with the older style lights, it’s a MUST have for sanity. (For the ones that wouldn’t relight, we just stuck a new strand on them and called it a day.)

With the sanity box on hand, we’re all ready to go for a very sane and Merry Christmas!

Do you have a favorite Christmas decorating or organizing tip? I’d love to hear it in the comments!

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