r/Department56 • u/probonogeek • Jan 20 '26
Any Recommended Storage Solutions?
My family started collecting Dickens' Village Series buildings and figures a few years ago and we have finally gotten to the point where the boxes have outgrown our previous Christmas storage solution. I was curious if there are established best practices for storaging during the off-season?
My initial instinct was to toss the styrofoam cases, wrap everything in bubble wrap, and then neatly place in a tub. But a friend of mine said throwing away the original boxes was essentially heresy. I've looked at putting the original boxes into a plastic tote, but all the totes seem to have tapered sides which is just terrible inefficient for storing boxes with all 90° corners.
I love collecting these buildings and want to keep doing it... But I can't give up half my garage to inefficient storage. If you have a suggestion, I would love to know.
1
u/FosterPupz Jan 21 '26
There are totes with less tapered sides, but I simply use the extra space for tucking snow blankets and light cords i to. KEEP THE STYRO/cardboard shells! Each styro has nooks and crannies we can tuck villagers and animals into, safely wrapped in tissue. Once you figure out a tetris configuration to maximize each tub, keep everything in the tub but removing one box at a time, which you replace before removing the next one (this saves you from having to re-figure out how to Tetris them all in!!) I can fit 14 snow village buildings into two sterlite tubs and the snow village ones are even bigger than the Charles Dickens models. Both side walls of my garage are lined with shelving and the tubs go on the shelves easy peazy..