Stopping Christmas Lights getting tangled

[Keitai]

Got 1000 Christmas lights and they all end up knotted and tied up, can't get them free. What's the best way to store them to prevent this?

 

[ajstoneservices]

Leave them up all year.

 

[carmanmemoranda]

Wind them up after use, onto a drum or similar

 

[Mottie]

Mrs Mottie wraps them round a wire coat hanger.

 

[foxhole]

I use a piece of cardboard and wrap around , longer the lights bigger the cardboard .
Or long postal tubes , lower lights in , since there is no wrap less chance of a tangle .

 

[Keitai]

Snapped some of the wires because pulling them off a hedge, tried to reconnect but couldn't get them working

 

[Keitai]

I use a piece of cardboard and wrap around , longer the lights bigger the cardboard .
Or long postal tubes , lower lights in , since there is no wrap less chance of a tangle .

Do u cut slots in the ends to put the wires?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

I use a piece of cardboard and wrap around , longer the lights bigger the cardboard .
Or long postal tubes , lower lights in , since there is no wrap less chance of a tangle .

Similar idea - I use a piece of stiff cardboard, with a V cut at each end. Start winding it on from the furthest end from the PSU, then come the following year, you can just test it by plugging in, before you unwind and install.

 

[Mike13]

well as the led's need dc once they are broken, you have to work out which is the positive on each segment or you will damage the led's and let out the magic smoke.

 

[Northman]

You can wind them as carefully as you wish, but the very nature of Christmas lights is that come next year they will be tangled. Its just a law of nature.

 

[blup]

Christmas lights are self tangling, so leave them strung out somewhere, or, more sensibly be ready to un tangle them next Christmas, happy christmas.

 

[bernardgreen]

Put the end in the hole to keep it in place and wind the lights onto the frame as you take them down,

 

[Brigadier]

Put the end in the hole to keep it in place and wind the lights onto the frame as you take them down,
View attachment 326078

Why does the hole - at the bottom - have "Top" written next to it?

 

[bernardgreen]

Why does the hole - at the bottom - have "Top" written next to it?

To remind the chap in the cherry picker to start from the top of the tree .

 

[scbk]

Wrap them in a ball, they never tangle. Dispense by putting the ball in a bucket.