How to store clothes?

zaq

Fri, Oct 30 2020, 3:37 pm

You can wrap in acid-free paper and store in acid-free (archival) boxes, but it'll cost you. Worthwhile for a wedding gown or heirloom hand-made lace tablecloth; for stretchies and t-shirts, not so much.

Yellowed white cottons can be bleached, preferably with a non-chlorine bleach, which is gentler than chlorine bleach. if you have a sunny yard, you can lay them out in the sun for several hours. this will probably work better in summer than in winter.

You can also create the illusion of greater whiteness by adding bluing to the rinse water. The invisible tinge of blue optically cancels out the yellow, which is why you see old ladies with blue hair. White hair tends to look yellowish over time, and a blue rinse makes the hair look whiter. Too much bluing in the rinse and Granny looks like someone who fell headfirst into an indigo dye vat.

To slow yellowing--you can't prevent it entirely without museum-type preservation equipment--store in the coldest place you can find. Heat speeds up the process, so in an attic in summer or near the hot water heater in the basement is exactly the wrong place. in your freezer would be ideal.

Last edited by zaq on Fri, Oct 30 2020, 3:43 pm; edited 1 time in total

BetsyTacy

Fri, Oct 30 2020, 3:49 pm

Storing pale solid colors and guaranteeing its non-yellowing is an enormous pain.
You have to make sure the item is perfectly clean, but does not contain any soap or bleach residue.
Some say that in the final wash to add vinegar to cut down on the soap scum residue. In the olden days they added bluing to the final rinse, but I don't even know if that exists anymore.

The storage container is also important--practically everything is a no-no. Which is why people spend a lot of money having wedding gowns preserved in just the right storage container with acid free paper.

I have stored clothing for years successfully, but not all the clothing has made it. Dark colors without elastic were the most likely to weather the years.

Oops, I see zaq beat me to it.

Last edited by BetsyTacy on Fri, Oct 30 2020, 3:50 pm; edited 1 time in total

zaq

Fri, Oct 30 2020, 3:49 pm

SuperWify wrote:

Thanks. I had it stored in my basement which is freezing in the winter but it didn’t seem to help.

It was only there for a few years.

Could an airtight container help better?

A few years is a long time to store fabric. Airtight might help but again it won't stop the process, just slow it down. Things in airtight containers tend to smell after a while, and the smell can be hard to remove. your best bet is to take the stuff out of storage now and then and launder before putting back in hibernation. you can combat the smell issue by putting dried herbs or flowers (wrapped in cloth or paper to prevent staining) or fragrant soaps (ditto) between layers of clothes.

jflower

Fri, Oct 30 2020, 4:38 pm

zaq wrote:

Thanks for the explanation. I had a neighbor with lavender hair and always wondered how she managed to achieve that color!