Summer is finally here! You can walk outside, free of any bulky jackets! But this freedom is your closet’s loss, as that jacket is going to uselessly take up space for the next six months. Why not move it out of your space entirely? While we’re at it, why don’t we find a place for those boots, snowboard in the corner, and snow shovel as well?
1) Group Similar Clothing Items Together
Organize winter clothing in a way that makes it easy to find later. As the winter gets cooler, you might take out winter items gradually, starting with gloves and hats, working up to coats and boots when the first blizzard hits. This makes mixed-type bags of clothing inconvenient. You shouldn’t have to dig through a couple of coats just to get some gloves.
2) Store Clothing in Vacuum Bags
Plastic bags are normally the absolute worst way to store clothes. They trap moisture and cause huge amounts of mold and mildew. However, vacuum bags, made out of special nylon, allow you to extract all air and most moisture, preventing any mildew from developing on your clothes.
3) Place Leftover Road Salt Near Clothes
If you keep your clothes in a closet, locker, or storage unit, also toss in a bin filled with leftover road salt. Salt crystals absorb trace amounts of water from the air without getting soggy, helping to dry out the unit and prevent mildew.
4) Use Shelves
Shelves help keep snow shovels, among the trickiest of storage items, from slipping to the ground and becoming a trip hazard. They also are effective for a bunch of small non-clothing items, like skates, ski boots, ski poles, hockey equipment, and small toboggans. You can buy your own metal shelves, or, if you’re planning to rent a storage unit, choose a unit already equipped with them.
5) Put Your Snowmobile on an Old Pallet
Ask your local grocery store if they have any old pallets you can take off their hands. Putting your snowmobile on a pallet reduces the chance that the tracks will get wet. This is important because wet tracks can rot out, costing you a lot more to repair.
6) Keep Your Electronics Warm
If you have any winter-only electronics, like LED lamps for nighttime skiing and skating, either keep them at home, or put them into climate-controlled storage. Allowing them to freeze for a long period of time is a surefire way to wreck the batteries, and may even break internal components.
