How to Properly Store Your Clothes

It doesn’t much matter how you store your undies and t-shirts (though you don’t want to grab the latter from a balled-up pile in a drawer and find it covered in wrinkles). But with your nicer clothes, you do want to put them away and keep them in your closet with a little care. When you spend good money on things like sweaters and ties, you want them to last a long time and stay looking nice.

A few rules apply to storing all of your garments and accessories:

Don’t use wire hangers. They bend under the weight of a jacket and leave dimples in the shoulders, and they create a horizontal crease across the knees of trousers. Don’t use hangers at all for knit garments like sweaters, as hanging instead of folding will cause them to lose their shape.

When you get any item back from the dry cleaners, remove it from the plastic bag, which traps moisture and can yellow fabric over time.

Make sure everything is clean before you put it away, since moths go after the food stains and body oils left on dirty clothes.

Don’t cram your closet full. Clothes need some room to breathe, or they’ll get wrinkled.

Follow these guidelines, as well as those outlined above for specific items, and you’ll extend the life of your wardrobe and keep it looking sharp.

Illustrated by Ted Slampyak