LifestyleHow to Store Out of Season Clothing for Next Year
Every year, you wade through far too many clothes and struggling to create season-appropriate wardrobes. Instead of making that mistake again this year, follow these unique seasonal clothing storage tips! This process will help you carefully store clothes you will not use that season, make them easier to find easier, and prevent minor and serious damage.
Step One: Choose The Clothes You're Storing
Go through your wardrobe and identify any clothing you will not wear for the next 3-4 months. For example, you can find summer gear like swimming trunks, shorts, t-shirts, and other items that you know you won't wear when it turns winter.
Take these items and gather them up in your living room or somewhere else where you can work on identifying, preparing, and storing these items over the long term.
Step Two: Perform Routine Clothes Maintenance
Are any of your clothes damaged or dirty before storage? Don't put them away without performing some important maintenance! Start by dry cleaning all the clothes you plan on storing.
After dry cleaning, repair things like missing buttons, rips, frays, and any other damage that may worsen as your clothes sit in storage. Fold them up nicely to avoid wrinkling or permanent creases that may make them impossible to wear later.
Step Three: Find Great Storage Options
Do you have a bunch of cardboard boxes that you're planning to use for storage? Recycle those boxes and buy some plastic storage containers. These secure containers can help more easily store your clothes and will prevent damage from various pest problems.
Label each container as you place clothes like shirts, shorts, socks, and towels inside. A piece of tape and a marker can help you quickly and efficiently label each container without issue. Arrange them in your storage area based on these labels.
Step Four: Prepare Your Pest Protection
Make sure that you purchase chemical-free mothballs and place them inside each storage container to keep these pests out of your clothes. You should also place things like mousetraps around your storage areas and roach traps to keep this area safe.
Pests may somehow find their ways even into plastic containers. These steps are important if you also plan on hanging up any clothes in your storage area. Just as importantly, these steps minimize serious long-term damage problems that may affect your hanging clothes.
Step Five: Know Where to Store Your Clothes
Creating extra storage space can make this process easier by letting you hang up extra items in your storage bin. For example, you may need to store coats, sweaters, t-shirts, suits, tuxedos, and other items for a long time. Some of these items may hang well.
These rarely worn items may sit in storage for years, so make sure that you find an area that makes sense for you. Storing in your home may help, though storage facilities also work well to handle this storage situation. Some even include hanging racks.
Step Six: Ensure Proper Climate Control
Make sure that your storage area is relatively cool (typically around 65-68 degrees Fahrenheit) and with minimal moisture. You may want to rent a storage center with temperature-control that makes this process smoother. Other centers even include moisture management.
If you can't find a center near you that does, you can install a humidifier or dehumidifier in these areas to create the proper humidity level to keep your clothes safe. Typically, you'll need a dehumidifier in most places because your clothes shouldn't get exposed to too much moisture.
Step Seven: Know Which Items to Hang
You can hang many shirts, coats, suits, and other items in your storage area to minimize your plastic storage bin use. However, you shouldn't hang some items, such as wedding dresses, quilts, sweaters, or other delicate items. Hanging may stretch them out and cause serious damage that may make them unusable.
Consider wrapping these items in acid-free tissue and storing them in plastic bins. Doing so can ensure that they don't get damaged. Never use wire hangers but only padded or wood options. Wire hangers are simply too cheap and may cause your clothes to stretch or warp over time.
Step Eight: Avoid Common Storage Errors
It's very easy to make mistakes when storing your items, simple issues that may cause some damage. For example, you shouldn't store your items long term in a dry cleaning bag because the bag may hold moisture that could damage your items. Even if the clothes have dried, the bag may still have some lingering moisture.
Take them out of the bag, let them breathe, and then store them in breathable garment bags or plastic containers. Store all your winter coats, suits, and formal wear in this way. Doing so helps to minimize moisture damage and provides your seasonal clothing with a higher protection level all storage season.
Step Nine: Vacuum Seal Some (But Not All) Items
Vacuum sealing some of your clothes can be a powerful way to protect them during storage. However, there are a few things that you need to consider before trying this process. First, you shouldn't compress any natural fibers using this process because it can seriously damage them. They're simply too delicate to take this abuse.
Any textiles with a puffy or fluffy feel shouldn't be vacuum sealed. For example, things like winter coats, down jackets, winter gloves, comforters, pillows, sleeping bag, wool, silk, cashmere, leather products, and towels may get easily damaged with vacuum sealing. Other clothes and items? They can be stored in this way.
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Storage Rentals of America is your convenient self-storage solution. So come into our office or give our storage experts a call at 1-800-457-5678. Our call center is available 7 days a week and can help determine which storage unit size best fits your storage needs.
