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How to Store Your Wedding Dress (and Organize Your Closet)

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How to Store Your Wedding Dress (and Organize Your Closet)
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We’ve all done it — opened up our closet door and sighed deeply, feeling a bit overwhelmed. Every piece of clothing is stuffed inside, creating an unorganized mess. It’s stressful seeing that kind of clutter day in and day out.

If you’re planning on moving house anytime soon, (like moving in with your new spouse!) well-organized spaces such as closets and storage, can make a huge difference with the transition. After all, with everything you have on your mind during a move (and wedding planning), do you really want to be organizing at the same time?

These simple tips to clear out the clutter from any closet will make your daily life easier and more enjoyable.

 

What Should I Have in My Closet?

Many of us believe we need to store all our clothing, and then some, in our closets, but this is not the case. In fact, to provide some … well … order to your life, you need to clear out the closet, take out the boxes of random items you put in there temporarily, and display only those clothes you need right now. This means you need to store away things like formal wear and seasonal clothing.

Everyday basics like blank t shirts and your favorite pair of jeans can stay put, so you always have easy access to them. This way you’ll immediately feel more organized and have much more space for essential clothing items.

 

Storing a Wedding Dress

You don’t want to be one of those people who still has your wedding dress hanging in your closet, long after the wedding day has come and gone, do you? It’s important to store your wedding dress properly to preserve its beauty for years to come, as well as to clear out some much-needed space in your closet.

We recommend you take your wedding dress to a professional preservation specialist. Whether or not you decide to preserve it on your own, ensure it’s in a vacuum-sealed bag and stored in an acid-free box. Store in a bag that doesn’t fold the dress for best results. However, if you’re looking to clear out clutter and are pressed for space, boxing your dress makes for simple storage.

To store and preserve your wedding dress, keep it somewhere dark and dry. Don’t store your dress in the attic, because it’s too hot during the summer months. Forget about the basement, too, in case of flooding. A bedroom is a safe place — typically underneath a bed.

If you are lucky enough to have a guest bedroom, you could use its closet to store things like wedding dresses or other items you don’t need access to on a regular basis. 

Don’t want to let your wedding dress collect dust in a dark closet until the end of time? Check out these ways to give your wedding dress new life after the big day.

 

 

Storing Formal Wear

As most of us do not wear any particular piece of formal wear we own more than once or twice each year, it doesn’t make sense to clutter up our closet with it. Here are some tips on storing formal wear in a way you can easily see what you have when you need it.

First, start with photographing all garments and creating a simple digital catalog. All you need is a phone camera and some digital organization skills. Simply import the pictures, number them and label them with any details you wish: color, length, size, etc.

Next, use vacuum-sealed storage bags to store each item in, and purchase acid-free boxes to place the bags in. Try to purchase boxes that can fit several or all your formal wear items after they are vacuum sealed, to ensure you don’t lose any items. Number each bag corresponding to the catalog. This way, you’ll be able to easily find items when you need them.

Shoes take up a lot of room as well. Why not photograph and catalog your shoes, too? Keep this in mind especially for the formal shoes you only use on occasion. These are taking up precious shelving space in a closet.

 

Make Your Closet Season Appropriate

This is one of the most useful things you can do to eliminate closet clutter, particularly if you live in a climate that has distinct seasons. By storing away off-season clothing, you not only clear clutter from your closet but also freshen up your closet every few months.

To store away seasonal clothing, simply go through all your clothing and pull out the items you will not wear until the weather changes. Store these items in vacuum-sealed bags and then place them in acid-free boxes, similar to the formal wear.

If you wish, catalog these items as well, but, since you will be rotating them as a collection, we recommend simply labeling the boxes according to the season. Then, when you need to rotate, all you need to do is pull out that box, unpack it and hang the clothes inside your closet.

An easy way to ensure you stay on track is to do this exercise on the first day of summer, fall, winter and spring, or, if you only wish to rotate twice a year, on the first day of spring and the first day of fall. There are countless resources to help you with different methods of storing seasonal clothing.

 

Why Is Clearing Out the Clutter Important?

It has become a very popular exercise to clean up the clutter in our homes, and for good reason! As many professionals claim, clearing the external clutter will help free up space in our minds and help us to think clearly, with less stress.

Furthermore, it’s been proven that a more cluttered space will make you more distracted, and it can also make you procrastinate on more important tasks.

Who doesn’t want a cleaner, more sleek and simple home? Clearing the clutter, particularly our closet spaces, can save a lot of time and energy. Following these steps to clear out the clutter in your closet will undoubtedly help make space, as well as clear your mind and make you more productive.


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