Tips for Storing Dress Clothes

Knowing how to store your clothes is important for two reasons. First, proper storage helps you maintain visually appealing apparel for any occasion. Second, storing your clothes the right way adds years to the lifespan of your garments. Storing apparel properly is important for any type of garment, but it is especially important to know how to store dress clothes.

Before you store your dress clothes, you should have the garments cleaned by a business that provides residential laundry services. Storing garments that have not received proper cleaning can turn what should be temporary stains into permanent blemishes on your finest attire. You also should have your dress clothes dry cleaned to protect the apparel against the agitating ingredients found in most laundry detergents.

With the most difficult step of the apparel cleaning process out of the way, let’s review a few tips for storing dress clothes.

General Tips for Storing Dress Clothes

Before we dive into the box versus hanger storage debate, here are a few tips for storing dress clothes. Heat and humidity are a garment’s worst enemy, which means you should store your delicate dress clothes in a dry, cool environment. A closet located in a temperature and humidity-controlled bedroom makes the ideal location for storing dress clothes. Dampness fosters the growth of highly damaging mold and mildew.

Prolonged exposure to sunlight is another enemy to fine apparel such as dress clothes. Exposure to constant sunlight or even artificial light can cause bright colors to fade, as well as damage delicate fabrics like wool and cotton. Once again, a climate-controlled closet without any windows or artificial light sources works well for storing dress clothes.

Although dry cleaning protects your dress clothes from damage, as well as preserves their visual appeal, you can take one additional step when you use a highly-rated business that offers residential laundry services. At Laundry Care Express, we offer a wash and fold service that helps our customers store their dress clothes properly. For dress clothes that you do not need to fold, we place them on hangers for easy storage in a climate-controlled closet.

Box Versus Hangar Storage

One of the most important factors that influence how you store clothes concerns storage space. If you have enough space to accommodate long garments, you can hang long dresses and business suits. If you have a closet with limited storage space, then you can place several non-wrinkle garments on top of each other inside boxes. The optimal storage for dress clothes is to have enough space to utilize both storage methods.

The primary advantage of hanger storage is to prevent the development of tough-to-remove creases and wrinkles. Using an iron to eliminate creases and wrinkles can do more damage than leaving the creases and wrinkles alone. Hanger storage is a must for dress shirts and evening wear such as dresses. Box storage works best for items such as dress socks and business slacks. One fold around the halfway point of dress slacks is all you need to do for box storage. Storing dress shoes in bins, boxes, and or containers works as well.

The Bottom Line

A dry, cool, and dark storage environment represents the ideal location to store dress clothes. Whether you use a box or hanger to store dress clothes depends on the type of garment. If you have any questions, contact Laundry Care Express for additional advice on how to store dress clothes.