As the colder months come creeping in, it’s time for your summer wardrobe to be stored for the winter storage season. Properly storing your out-of-season clothes, outdoor equipment, and remaining holiday décor, is vital for keeping those items protected and ready to serve you well next year. Follow these winter storage tips to make sure your seasonal wear and belongings remain in peak condition until it’s time to use them again.
Preparing Your Items for Winter Storage
Before sealing up your boxes and containers of items destined for seasonal storage, take the time to go through everything. This process serves two important purposes:
- It allows you to evaluate the condition and usefulness of each item. Discard or donate items that are damaged, worn out, or no longer used to free up more storage space.
- Organising and grouping items together in boxes or designated areas of your storage space makes it easier to locate specific items the next time you go get them.
Here are some things to keep in mind as you sort through various categories of your seasonal wear and gear:
Clothing
Check for stains, tears, broken zippers or fasteners, and signs of damage or wear that warrant disposal. Group apparel types together using clear bins, garment bags, or archive boxes.
Holiday Décor
Make sure all parts, pieces, and sets are present before packing away. Wrap up your fragile items with padding and store similar items in bags or containers that protect them from damage.
Seasonal Sporting Goods
Inspect sports gear for breaks or cracks and test electronics or mechanical parts to be sure everything is still functional — organise items by sport or activity, like water skis, fishing gear, etc.
Taking the time to evaluate, declutter, and organise upfront makes it infinitely easier to retrieve and redeploy your seasonal belongings next year.
How To Properly Clean Your Items Before Winter Storage
Before you place seasonal wear and equipment into storage:
- Dirt, sweat, oil and food residue attract pests and breed bacteria or mould. Always thoroughly clean your clothes before you store them away. Shake out any loose dirt from shoes or boots and stuff the toes with acid-free tissue paper to maintain their shape if you’re not going to wear them for a while.
- Disinfect and dry your sporting goods such as wetsuits, scuba gear, water skis, or other recreational equipment exposed to dirt, grime or water. Clean and dry each item before storage to prevent unsightly deterioration and foul odours. Let equipment like wooden bats, tennis rackets, and lacrosse sticks completely air dry before sealing them away.
- Carefully dust artificial tree branches, ornament hooks, ceramic houses, and figurines with a slightly damp, lint-free cloth or specialised duster. Air dry any decorative items still damp before packing them away.
Taking the time to properly clean seasonal gear and clothing helps them last in storage until their next seasonal appearance.
How To Store Your Items for Winter
Use these storage methods to preserve your items while packing them away in storage:
- Clothing storage: Use canvas or plastic storage bins, cedar chests, or vacuum storage bags to store off-season clothing. These allow adequate airflow and absorb any moisture, which prevents mildew.
- Holiday decoration storage: Ornaments should be tucked into acid-free tissue paper inside sturdy plastic totes or archive boxes. Outdoor holiday lights can be neatly coiled and placed in resealable clear bins so you can easily check the condition of the strands before the next decorating season comes around again.
- Sporting equipment storage: Get some racks, wall mounts, or breathable canvas duffels for off-season recreational gear like bicycles, skis, tennis rackets, and more to guard them against rust/corrosion. Use bags and accessory organisers to keep small loose items like ski wax, tennis balls, bike pumps, etc., together with their related larger equipment.
The storage methods above will help you guard your seasonal belongings against dust, moisture, pests like moths that can damage clothing, and other hazards from extended storage periods.
Where To Store Your Items for Winter
For ideal preservation, store your off-season apparel, décor, and equipment in spaces that offer:
- Ventilation which prevents musty smells and rust
- Minimal light exposure to protect fabrics from fading and stop plastic from yellowing
Basements, attics, or spare bedrooms converted to dedicated storage closets, or self storage units often provide environments that naturally help to protect your seasonal belongings not currently in use. And wherever your existing spaces fall short on ideal temperature, humidity or lighting conditions, you can boost them with portable dehumidifiers, fans, ventilation, dark sheets, and drop cloths to create safer short-term storage conditions.
How To Help Preserve Your Items After You’ve Stored Them
Have Regular Check-Ins
Out of sight, out of mind! With your seasonal gear neatly packed away, it’s easy to forget about both its existence and care needs. Set calendar reminders every two to three months to check on stored belongings.
Quick periodic inspections let you:
- Verify storage conditions to make sure there is proper ventilation and intact dark shrouds covering the storage areas/containers
- Check for any pests in the early signs of clothing
- Assess for deterioration, such as rust spots starting on metals and mould blooms on leather goods
By addressing storage condition issues or pest problems immediately, you can keep them from causing significant damage down the road. Your ongoing diligence means never pulling musty, moth-eaten clothes or corroded gear from storage again!
Using these winter clothing and equipment storage tips makes for a joyful spring where unpacking becomes quick and effortless. No more wrestling with jumbled, messily packed bins and bags. Just grab your neatly organised décor, apparel, and gear in ready-to-use condition so your time and attention can stay focused on enjoying fun outdoor activities and not repairing or replacing damaged items.
Get your storage ducks in a row this winter and reclaim more of your money, time and energy with Pink Hippo Self Storage. Now, you can devote yourself to creating summertime memories next year!
Contact us today for your easy seasonal storage quote:
Reading: 0118 957 1573
Leatherhead: 01372 386 916