How to Store Cashmere Sweaters?

To see the sumptuous softness and dependable durability of its delicate, natural fibers, luxury investments such as cashmere require informed care all year round. The type of care you give those natural fibers when you store cashmere properly can keep them soft and colorful for years, if not decades.

Cashmere Sweaters: How to Care for Them Throughout the Season

Even if you wear your cashmere turtlenecks frequently, proper storage will keep them in good condition. Folding your cashmere items is usually preferable to hanging them. Even if you use a cushioned hanger, gravity can cause knitwear to stretch out of shape. Fold your sweater in half and drape it over the bottom of the hanger if you have to. Otherwise, carefully fold it and store it in a clean drawer or closet, but keep it away from anything that may grab it.

How to store cashmere sweaters for summer

Summer is extremely hot for cashmere, so store it carefully to preserve it in good shape. Before storing your sweaters, first and foremost, wash them. Check the care label for instructions, and if dry cleaning is the only choice, follow them. I prefer to wash my clothes by hands instead of dry cleaning since it is less hazardous and healthier for the environment.

While I don’t advocate washing sweaters frequently, it is vital to remove all traces of fluids and food towards the end of the season for the reasons stated previously. Place your sweater in a ventilated garment bag made of 100% cotton after washing it and allowing it to air dry entirely. Plastic bags can cause mildew and discoloration by trapping moisture. To give an extra layer of protection, wrap your sweater in acid-free tissue. Heat and humidity can ruin your garments, so make sure you store them somewhere dry and cold.

How to Fold Cashmere Sweaters

Place the sweater face-down on a clean, flat surface, such as your bed, and fold it. Fold each arm across the body straight. Then fold the right or left side to the center and continue until the sleeves’ edges meet in the center. Finally, fold the bottom of the shirt into the back of the collar ( if your sweater is very long you might have to do this twice ).

It’s time to put your sweater away in your closet or drawer once it’s nicely folded.
Once you’ve figured out how to correctly store cashmere sweaters and other cashmere clothes, you’ll be able to include each of these procedures into your regular laundry regimen. Keep in mind that if you follow these proper storage procedures from season to season, your cashmere items will last much longer.

Why Is Cashmere Properly Stored very Important ?

Sure, it’s common wisdom to look after your possessions regardless of their value – but there’s a lot more to the laws of cashmere storage than good manners and neatness.

• Life Expectancy Increases

When properly stored, cashmere will remain soft and colorful for years, if not decades. Perhaps centuries, however, curators would have a fit if someone wore cashmere that was more than a century old out for the night.
While really old items are more likely to be carefully conserved than used in the winter or put in the closet in the summer, there’s no reason to expect any quality cashmere to last a lifetime or more. Assuming, of course, that you keep your best storage habits during those years.

• Pest Control in Cashmere

Clothes moths may be extremely difficult to eradicate once infected. That is why it is critical to take safeguards as soon as possible. The sooner you notice an infestation, the better your chances of salvaging your cashmere before it becomes a moth dinner. Use zippered storage bags and suit covers made of breathable cotton canvas with see-through plastic windows to peek inside without having to unzip them. If you find holes on cashmere sweater, in most case you do not store your cashmere sweater in properly ways.

How can you keep clothing moths away from your priceless cashmere if you’re not storing it ? Pheromone traps for clothes moths and tried-and-true natural oils are effective. If you currently use natural deterrents, keep in mind that goods like cedarwood blocks and lavender sachets only function while their oils are fresh, so replace or refresh any that have lost their effectiveness.

• Controlling the Damage

Clothes moths aren’t the only item hiding in the shadows of a poorly managed storage room. If you haven’t examined that specific nook of your wardrobe before shoving your cashmere in there, bacteria, fungi, and perhaps the next scientific discovery might be developing.

That’s not even taking into account what can appear on the clothing itself. Making ensuring you’re storing pristinely clean stuff is a vital element of effective storage. Certain natural body oils and sweat stains, on the other hand, won’t show up until the garment’s fibers relax and release them. These might attract moths or just weaken the links between the fibers, resulting in frays, pills, or unraveling seams if left alone.

Cashmere Preparation for Long-Term Storage

To prepare for a seasonal nap, specialty fabrics like cashmere clothes require far more than a simple wash and fold.

Step 1: Collect your Cashmere

This may appear to be a pointless initial step, but you’d be shocked what you find if you put your mind to it. Even valued belongings, such as high-quality cashmere, can be misplaced, loaned, and forgotten.

Step 2: Examine your Cashmere Clothes

If you have a large cashmere collection, you may need to set aside a whole day for this, but it’s critical that you thoroughly inspect each piece.
There might be hidden stains or snags that you haven’t seen yet, and you should address them before washing or storing the piece.

Step 3: Fix Cashmere Clothes That Have Been Damaged

If you don’t have an experienced seamstress on hand, set aside some time before you wash the garment to take care of any serious repairs. However, you don’t have to wait for them to finish preparing your cashmere for storage.

Step 4: Remove the stain from your cashmere sweater

Because cashmere and other natural textiles like it require moderate detergents and are irritated by highly fragrant, powerful soaps, they should be used with caution. When it comes to eliminating stains, this offers a dilemma because most stains require the use of strong solutions to extract them from the cloth.

While you should never use bleach or other harsh cleaners on your cashmere, you may spot treat stains with cool water, a dab of your regular wool-safe detergent, and plenty of gently blotting.

Read more information about how to get stains out of cashmere on our blog.

Step 5: Cleaning

Washing each piece of clothing individually is the most effective technique to avoid staining or color transfer. Get ready for a workout if your cashmere collection looks like it belongs in a department shop rather than your hall closet.
If you’re going to store your cashmere for an extended period, make sure it’s clean. You can soak your cashmere for 10 to 30 minutes if you think it will benefit from it.

Step 6: Drying

Cashmere should never be hung damp or in storage. When the garment is wet, everything we stated about the weight stretching the strands out of shape becomes much more accurate. Water’s increased weight isn’t the only problem ; wet cashmere can shrink or become deformed if handled incorrectly.

Step 7: Protection

Although not everyone has the space or the cash for a whole cedar chest with its moth-repellent characteristics, you may still benefit from natural deterrents in other ways. Cedar balls and blocks are popular since they’re simple to tuck into corners and just need to be renewed every season. Unless you’re a moth, lavender is a pleasant scent to have in your wardrobe.

• Smell of lavender

• Mothballs of cedar

To maintain your cashmere moth-free, use moth-repellent products.

Step 8: Store it in bag

Now comes the fun part: putting your cherished cashmere sweaters and shawls away – but not on an open shelf with nothing to protect them from the weather, right ? Your cashmere is better kept in a ventilated, zipped garment bag, no matter how safe you believe your wardrobe is.

Step 9: Rotate

Learning how to store cashmere is both an art and a science, so you’ll have a sense of when it’s time to air out your cashmere collection after a lengthy period of storage. In most regions, you shouldn’t wait more than three months to give your stored cashmere some fresh air and a thorough check.

Conclusion

Once you’ve figured out how to correctly store cashmere sweaters and other cashmere clothes, you’ll be able to include each of these procedures into your regular laundry regimen. Remember that if you follow these appropriate storage procedures from season to season, you’ll considerably increase your chances of achieving the long-lasting lifetime that has made cashmere famous and prosperous throughout history. Even if mastering the procedure may take a season or two, rest assured that practice makes perfect.