How To Store Your Off-Season Clothes

This weekend, I will rip my closet apart with a seriousness usually reserved for much more, well, serious matters. Fall is here and I’ve still got sundresses and gingham skirts taking up precious space that is no longer rightfully theirs. This is not a time for simply shoving the unworn to the back of the closet. Rather, the seasonal clothing switch-out requires certain storage techniques that will keep last season’s clothes from getting dank and nasty until they’re needed again.

So stop simply shoving those dresses to the dusty back of your wardrobe and calling it a day. Here’s how to store your stuff properly:

1. If you’ve got the closet space to keep everything in there, have at it. But if you know you’re not going to be wearing certain items for a few weeks or months, hang them in garment bags to keep the gross away.
2. Off-season shoes, too, should be stored in hard boxes with shoe trees to prevent them from being inundated with dust and looking tired. Another option is a large shoe storage container, but you’ll need somewhere to store that, so make sure you’ve got the space before going that route.
3. The space under your bed is [probably] enormous. Buy trunks or large storage boxes, fold shorts, tanks and all sorts of other too-skimpy-for-winter clothes neatly and keep them in closed boxes under your bed.
4. Are you the proud owner of a big white bag you won’t be toting again til next summer? Well, your gleaming example of hot-weather-appropriate handbaggery (yeah, that’s a word now) won’t be looking so fresh and perky if you leave it sitting in a heap for the next six months. Stuff that baby with tissue paper to help it keep its shape and then store it in a sealed bag for dust-thwarting purposes.