How to Store Away Your Heavier Knit Sweaters

Just this last weekend, I gathered up my heavier sweaters and stored them away for the warmer months. I often get asked about storage care and what to do to get your clothing to last longer. In thinking about this a little bit, I realized that it’s the small attention to details that ensure the longevity of clothing. And it’s those small details before storing away any item of clothing that will make your clothes last longer too.

How to Store Away Your Heavier Sweaters so they last longer

We all want our clothes to go the extra mile, but when it comes to storage, we don’t necessarily think about the small details that go into storing our clothes, sweaters especially, to get them to last longer. It’s all about what you do to them before you store them away for the season (and you should store them away unless you are regularly wearing them!) to ensure that they will last longer

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As the weather begins to warm up, it’s time to move out the heavier knit sweaters, cashmeres, and wool, and store them away for the warmer months. It’s the idea of “out of site, out of mind” to clear a path for lighter weight spring pieces. Storing away your winter and heavier knits is also one of the quickest ways to freshen up your closet without buying any new pieces. Just changing up the look of your closet and storing away seasonal sweaters helps to put you into a seasonally appropriate mindset!

Steps to storing away your heavy sweaters

1 | Move them out of your everyday closet/drawers and assess - Most of our clothing attracts stains, skin dander, and odors over time and wear, so take a close look at your sweaters and give them a good smell test.

2 | Clean them - All sweaters should be cleaned before storing to remove the stains and smells. Think about them sitting there for a few months building up all that gunk if not cleaned. That’s one of the reasons why bugs are drawn to our clothes. So decide whether you’d like to hand wash, machine wash, or dry clean the sweaters and once they’re clean, they can be prepped for storing away!

3 | Give them a gentle spritz and de-pilling - Two ways I keep my sweaters looking and smelling like new is to give them a quick linen spritz with The Laundress’ fabric fresh spray and then run my de-piller over my sweaters to remove pesky pills from the arms and sides. Both of these small steps helps to keep my sweaters looking great when I pull them out of storage come late-summer, early fall.

4 | Prep a sturdy bin by adding cedar or lavender) - I prefer to store my sweaters in a sturdy plastic bin with an airtight lid. Before storing, I add cedar balls and a lavender sachet to stave off any moths. Then fold up your sweaters into a few nice piles in the container and pop the lid on.

5 | Use a label maker to label the bin so when you store them you’ll be able to know what they are when you pull them out again!

There you have it! In under 30 minutes (minus the time it takes to wash/clean) you can move those unworn sweaters out of your closet and into storage to prep your closet for lightweight spring pieces!