It’s never fun trying to find your tank top amongst all your long sleeve shirts and sweaters. Yet, when you live in apartment that doesn’t have a whole lot of space what’s the best way to store them?
It's important to make sure you aren't acquiring more than your apartment can handle, but also utilize the tips below when it comes to best practices for storing your clothes!
First things first, make sure that the clothes you want to store are clean and free of any stains. If you want to store sweaters, shirts, etc. that have been worn but not cleaned, then complete a load of laundry beforehand. Can you imagine what it would smell like if you stored clothes that had B.O.?…gross.
Same to be said if you have clothes that have a stain and need to soak in some stain remover or to be taken to the dry cleaners. While it may seem counterproductive to clean clothes you are just going to pack and put away, if you leave your stains they will set in so much the item of clothing will become ruined next season when you pull them out.
Instead of pulling out all your seasonal clothes to store, follow this advice: “Fold anything that would stretch while being hung and hang anything that would be wrinkled by being folded.” This will help to keep your seasonal clothes in tip top shape even while storing them.
Instead of just throwing everything in a cardboard box or that semi-clean plastic bin you have under your bed. Make sure you check a few things.
While cardboard and plastic can just as easily work, if you don’t 100% make sure that they are dry you risk exposing your clothes to moisture build up... and that is never fun to find when unpacking them months later.
Use breathable fabric storage solutions instead like cotton or linen. For those items that need to stay hung, you can grab one of these garment bags or you can use something like this to store clothes under your bed.
We’ve already gone over the advice that you should fold it if it stretches when hung and hang it if it wrinkles when folded, but what about the rest of your clothes?
When storing the rest of your seasonal clothes, don’t over think it. Fold them as you normally would, but don’t fold them super tight (they'll get wrinkles) or cram items into the container (again, they'll get wrinkles).
Make sure to button all buttons and zip all zippers. Then place the heavy items on the bottom and you’re good to store.
Tips for storing your shoes:
It’s inevitable that while deciding what to store, you’ll come across a few things you either forgot existed or just don’t love anymore. Save yourself the trouble of storing these items by donating or selling them.
A great rule of thumb is that anything you didn’t wear this past year (unless it’s a special occasion outfit) you should get rid of by donating or selling. We all tell ourselves “oh I’ll wear this next season!” but new clothes come out all the time, and statistically you’ll forget all about it and it and they end up taking up valuable space in your apartment.