For most of the country, the changing seasons accompany a change in lifestyle, a change in schedule – and a change in wardrobe!
While there will always be a need for things like jeans, t-shirts, and pajamas, a lot of seasonal clothes come and go with the times and aren’t worn during certain types of the year – you wouldn’t wear a sweater in July, nor do you need shorts outside of the gym come October.
And while there’s a million ideas for storing off-season clothing out there in the world, a lot of them are based upon the idea that you have a ton of extra space in your home or closet. We’re not all that lucky, however, and if you’ve run out of room in your dressers you might be hard up for an option to store those lighter jackets and summer clothes now that there’s a chill in the air.
Even if you’re not the most adventurous type, there’s a lot of DIY clothing storage solutions that can help you get your off-season clothing put away safely – without you needing to be an expert carpenter or anything!
One of the easiest ways to help store off-season clothes is by hanging up closet rods in any room that has the space. If you have an attic or basement that’s temperate enough to safely store clothes (with some baking soda to prevent mold and moisture), line the walls or find a corner to drill a few holes. Then put up a closet rod to hang things like sweaters, jackets, and sundresses. This solution works great for slanted ceilings or walls that don’t allow much space for anything else.
(If you don’t have the space on the wall for closet rods, a quick way to open up some space is to install strong hooks into your ceiling, hang a length of rope down from the ceiling, and hang the rods from these ropes to free up a little more floor space and room on the wall.)
Speaking of wall space, walls are a great source of storage space for bulkier items like heavier sweaters, or even winter-weight sheets for your bed. For larger items you could hang wall garment shelves on the walls in any room that has the space to store these items (or even inside a closet to add a little extra storage space). If you’re feeling particularly crafty, you can repurpose wooden storage crates or plastic storage bins and drill them into the wall to create wall-mounted ‘drawers’ that can hold seasonal clothes in a way that you can still easily get to.
Of course, a lot of these tips depend on you having usable space in the attic or basement, and that’s not always an option. What might be an option, however, is the garage! Set up some rust proof shelves out in the garage (to better protect against the elements and potential cold) and stack up your unneeded clothing items in bins until you need them!
You could also look into shelving you already have. Remember that bookcase you bought that mostly wound up covered in dust and souvenirs from trips? Clean it off, move it to another room, and use it for folded-up clothes storage!
So long as you’ve got a little imagination – and some spare room elsewhere in the house – those warm- or cold-weather clothes will be right there when you need them again!
