A Seasonal Switch – How to Store Summer Clothes for Winter
When the seasons begin to change, and the weather gets colder, favourites from your summer outfits become unwearable.
Instead of having these clothes take up room in your wardrobe, or throwing out things you can’t wear for the next few months, instead think about storing your clothes away for the winter. With a well-thought-out storage solution, you can easily pack away your spaghetti strap tops to make space for hoodies and sweatshirts that’ll get you through the colder months.
Summer clothes can be difficult to store due to their delicate and lightweight materials. But there are ways to store your clothes that can avoid unwanted wrinkles or snags. In this article, we will cover some top tips for how to best store your summer clothes to keep them clean, tidy and safe during the winter months.
Lancaster 2 Door Wardrobe with 2 Storage Drawers
Choosing Between Storing, Donating and Upcycling
The first step you should take when changing over your wardrobe is sorting through your clothes. What are some items you definitely need to keep for next summer, and what are some that maybe need a new home.
This is a good time to upcycle, or get rid of any items that are broken or getting tired, for example a lost button or discolouring.
Making Space in Your Wardrobe
The main point of storing and sorting through your clothes is to ultimately make space for more! Discarding of garments that have seen better days gives you a chance to enhance and refresh your wardrobe for next year.
Deciding What Works Year-Round
While sorting through your wardrobe, a good tip is to separate what clothes you have that work year-round. Maybe it’s a pair of boots that are good in all weather, or a pair of jeans that can finish any outfit.
Keeping these core components in your wardrobe is a good way to keep your summer wardrobe suitable for any weather.
Write an Inventory or Checklist
A key part of keeping yourself organised throughout this is to keep an inventory or checklist of where each item is going and what you still need to do. This will also come in handy for seeing what you may need to stock up on for when next summer comes around.
Preparing Your Summer Clothes For Storage
Before you start packing your summer clothes away, it may be wise to consider what may be the best way to prepare your clothes for storage. This can differ depending on a bunch of factors, such as the amount you’ve worn a specific item, or what fabric your garments are made from.
Keep it Clean
Before your clothes go away in storage, make sure you have first cleaned all items. Whether this be hand washing a fragile silk, or scrubbing the soles of your shoes, keeping everything clean before you pack it away will ensure everything stays clean over the winter.
Protecting Delicate Summer Fabrics
When storing clothes with more delicate fabrics, you may have to take some special care when storing them. Keeping clothes that are easily damaged away from any zippers, studs, buttons, or diamantés is the best way to be certain that your fabrics will remain safe in storage.
Upcycling Old Favourites
When sorting through your wardrobe, there is a good chance you found an item or two that are looking a bit worse for wear. In this situation, one of the best things you can do is repair or upcycle these items.
Replacing a lost button, sewing up a hole or two, these fixes are simple enough for anyone who can thread a needle. If you’ve fallen out of love with a specific item, but still love the print of the fabric, consider turning it into something else. Old jeans can become shorts, an old baggy T-shirts can become a baby tee, get creative with your unwanted items and see how you can save some old favourites.
Summer Clothes Storage Tips
Once you have properly sorted, cleaned and generally prepared your clothes, you can now start to store them away. No matter if you’ve been doing this for years or if this is your first time, there are plenty of tips and tricks to help you along the way with efficiently storing your summer clothes, whether that be for better using your space, or just for making the process a little easier.
Vacuum Seal Bags
When storing anything, vacuum seal bags are a great option for saving space. This is no different for your clothes.
Vacuum seal bags allow you to make your otherwise overwhelming stack of clothes shrink in size. This makes it much easier to find places to store your summer clothes for the winter. Although, be aware that when doing this, you are much more likely to crease your clothes due to the vacuum seal making the clothes sit together more tightly. To get around this, make sure that all of your summer clothes are folded neatly before packing them away.
Suitcases and Travel Bags
One simple solution to limited space for clothes storage is utilising old travel bags. Large suitcases, gym bags or overnight travel bags give you a place where you can safely store your clothes away without buying anything new.
Storing your clothes this way is also a good way to avoid mixing fabric types, keeping your delicates away from more hardy materials, and keeping your clothes crease-free while they are packed away.
Finding Other Space in Your Home
Of course, the obvious places to store clothes are in the wardrobes or ottomans in your home, but when you run out of room in the places you may need to look elsewhere for places to store your summer clothes.
Underneath an ottoman bed, or the spare floor space you have around current furnishings, maybe even the forgotten space on top of your existing wardrobes. There is plenty of space in most homes, you just need to go looking for it.
Making Room to Expand Your Wardrobe
If you’d rather keep your clothes inside designated furnishings, look instead at expanding what furnished space you have available to you. Buying an extra wardrobe or chest of drawers will give you extra space, additional to your existing wardrobe, to store your summer clothes.
Storage Solutions With Big Furniture Warehouse
If you’re looking for storage solutions, for storing away your out-of-season clothes or just for extra space, browse through Big Furniture Warehouse’s website today for ideas. From storage furniture, to full matching furniture sets, see our full range of furniture today and start expanding your clothes’ storage.
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