The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

Jazee

I think as well that tansy should be left alone because the tansy beetle is endangered.

So we're back to freshly laundering and then storing clothes in airtight plastic thingamebobs.

Still working my way through bringing my stocks down here. All snacks have been eaten first!

GreyQueen

Morning all.


I'd strongly advise against storing clothes, footwear, handbags etc inside plastic containers.

The reason is that these items can never be completely dry, because if they were, you'd have a pile of dust instead of a garment, a pair of shoes, a handbag etc.

With the inevitable moisture content of items, even if dried scrupulously before being put away, what happens if you incarcerate said item in an airtight plastic is that you're liable to have the item mildew. Mildew tends to leave permanant staining which isn't responsive to laundering and stain removal, so you run the risk of ruining your items. Plus, it absolutely stinks.

Whatever you store clothing or footwear or handbags/ luggage in should be permeable to the air but protective against dust and sun-fading. This is why the best quality handbags come with cotton storage bags to keep them safe when not in use.

It's fine to use the dry-cleaner's plastic cover to fetch your coat or whatever home, but it's then good for nothing but the bin. Clothing needs to be stored in permeable textiles. I have a couple of jackets nestling happily in £land covers made of a loosely-woven synthetic, and a full-length coat in a calico cover I ran up on the sewing machine at home.

Ideally, there should also be airspace between the hangers, as well as items being inspected regularly. Of course, if the item is spending year after year being stored unused, it might be time to consider whether you need to own it at all.

If you have sufficient freezer space (I don't) you can also freeze moth-prone items like sweaters, although they should be in plastic bags for that purpose. It kills moth eggs and larvae. Pure wool can also be ironed, through a damp clean white cotton cloth (a hankie is easily usable) as the heat will kill any moth eggs in the garment. Particular attention needs to be paid to the parts of garments where what we could delicately call 'bodily secretions' accumuate - under-arms, crotches, necklines, lapels.

The reason you can iron wool is that it is a hollow fibre and recovers its shape after being flattened. You can't iron synthetics and should be very wary about tying to iron any mixture of synthetic and natural fibres.

Keep shoes in cardboard boxes not plastic shoe coffins. I shudder when I see these offered for sale. A pal of mine had a considerable financial loss due to using these on her shoes. They were in plastic boxes under the bed, in the dark, and went ruinously moldy. At about £120 per pair on average, her loss of several pairs hurt her budget as well as her feelings.

If you've got seriously-good stuff, the museums wrap textiles in acid-free tissue paper and store in acid-free carboard boxes. Any metal elements of the garment need to be removed or carefully wrapped in tissue paper to hold them off the rest of the garment to prevent rust-staining, which will eat through textiles eventually, as well as being unsightly.


The latter information is really of more interest to textile conservators than the average householder, of course.

Jazee

Very useful info greyqueen.

DigForVictory

Thank you for the reminder about acid free tissue paper - I knew we had some bought, for a specific project and your mentioning it has reminded me we still need to sort a date to get the dashed thing down the the V&A for an expert eyeball and a seriously informed "well it might be Victorian copying or it might be medieval Italian".
(Himself bought a chunk of linen, found it was embroidered & listened to a suggestion he put down the shears & get it checked.)

Air space between hangers. That's going to be ticklish but better that than The Dreaded Moth.

thriftwizard

Thank you, GQ, from one who has just become the proud, if temporary, owner of a lovely probably-30s cream satin wedding dress, which sadly has been stored, solemnly wrapped in tissue paper, with little sprays of flowers on metal stems affixed to the skirt... the stains aren't too bad, but I'm not going to even try to get them out. That will be a task for the next owner... The veil has crumbled away, but the box, and tissue paper, are fine!

GreyQueen

Sounds a beauty, thriftwizard, and I think you're smart to leave the metal staining well alone. I wonder if the veil has crumpled because it was the 'something old' of the wedding outfit and is much older than the dress itself?


One place I worked was a smallish regional museum which was often remembered in people's Wills as a destination for preserved garments from the 19th and early 20th centuries, occasionally even much earlier. I've lost count of how many lovely (for example) embroidered cotton and linen pieces I've lifted out of the donation boxes to find that they'd been injured by contact with metal.


Sadly, sometimes the owners had used either straight sewing pins or safety pins to attach little labels to the garments saying what they were, so had damaged the item in process of preserving it for posterity.


Hope the lovely gown finds an appreciative owner toot de sweet.

DigForVictory

This perhaps explains why my grandmother stitched embroidered labels into some of her things. (As did the Canadian Ladies who made a quilt for my Aunt - all involved were named on the sewn label stitched in - but then, they took inspiration from generations-old quilts & wanted to be certain the future knew who had been a part!)

You know how I raffle on about prepping being knowledge & please, learn to swim?

Ahem. My plans for swimming in the sea have been curtailed by news that the Japanese whalers are going back into commercial production. This feels Utterly Wrong on a load of levels so I will just have to wear something vigorously floral & hope their sat navs are Very Clear on where the edges of Japanese territorial waters are.

Meanwhile, please, learn to swim, even if in the childrens' pool? They don't seem to mind.

Zentimes

Gosh GreyQueen, now I know where I've gone wrong with clothes storage! No wonder I've had mildew and a horrible smell, so bad I had to bin the affected clothes. I've had everything in plastic boxes! I'm going to take your advice and rethink my out of season clothes storage. I've a number of hand knitted pure wool jumpers so I'll give those a steam iron too.

GreyQueen

Zentimes wrote: »

Gosh GreyQueen, now I know where I've gone wrong with clothes storage! No wonder I've had mildew and a horrible smell, so bad I had to bin the affected clothes. I've had everything in plastic boxes! I'm going to take your advice and rethink my out of season clothes storage. I've a number of hand knitted pure wool jumpers so I'll give those a steam iron too.

Pleased to have been of service and here's hoping that your future clothes will be mildew-free and fragrant.

I really hate plastics for certain things and frankly think that they ought to be banned for shoe storage, I call plastic shoe boxes shoe coffins, cos they're gonna die in there.


I store some clothes in wicker hampers which, with cotton cloth linings, or a drop cloth over the top (to keep dust off), are attractive and very affordable storage for things which don't need to hang. I store seldom-used footwear in cotton bags for life, such as hiking boots which are only used in season.


Clothes storage areas should combine the following qualities:


1. Not in furniture (free-standing or built-ins) which backs onto an outside wall, a cold spot void or a bathroom - mould risk.


2. Not exposed to sun - sun fades textiles, often unevenly, and rots cloth. Minimise sun exposure when line drying - bring 'em in as soon as they're dry.


3. Storage area should be as airy as possible, ideally not rammed with stuff, so air can circulate. You may want to leave wardrobe or cupboard doors ajar to promote air circulation.


4. Do not hang knitwear or knitted textiles as they will distort. Good hangers are key, the heavier the garment, the better the hanger should be. Shaped, padded hangers are to be recommended for coats and jackets.


5. Clothes should be aired before being returned to storage, if they are things like coats, jackets, suits etc. I think that washable things should not be returned to wardrobes or drawers once worn. By all means, re-wear, but air them out but keep them out of the storage areas until they are laundered again.


It's a good habit to bottom out clothes storage areas now and again, perhaps when changing over summer to winter clothes, to check that everything is still OK and that no little pesties have set up home. Clothes and shoes can and should last decades with reasonably careful storage, I know I was wearing some early 1960s pieces from my mother's youth when I was a student in the 1980s.

DigForVictory

We spent a strangely happy afternoon at one museum, padding hangers for jackets & dresses. I don't think the lads admitted to it to anyone else but we got mildly competitive as to how smooth the curve & and well shaped a hangar we could contrive & the curator/assistant was trying different garments on different hangars to get the optimum combination.

If you get the chance, go for it. Replicating it at home is trickier but absolutely worth it for the really nice coats & suits.