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How to Store Heavy Sweats Over the Summer

Practical guide to storing heavy cotton sweats over a Canadian summer: wash, dry fully, fold, keep dry and dark, and what actually stops moths.

By the end of July the heavy stuff has been out of rotation for two months. It's folded on a chair, stuffed in the bottom of a drawer, or still hanging where it hung in April. This is when the damage happens, because nothing looks wrong yet.

Storing cotton badly doesn't ruin it in a week. It ruins it slowly, over four months, and the bill arrives in October.

Wash everything first, including the clean-looking ones

Sweat leaves salt and body oil in the loops of terry. Neither shows in July. The Canadian Conservation Institute's note on textiles and the environment is plain about what happens next. Oils, stains and soils from use “can oxidize and become set over time”, causing disfigurement and weakening of the fibres. On a hoodie that usually means faint yellow-brown shadows at the collar and under the arms that come out of the box in autumn and no longer wash out. The same note says soils and stains are food for microorganisms, which is where mould starts.

Stains matter to pests too. The University of California's Pest Notes on clothes moths says fabrics with food, perspiration or urine stains are more subject to damage. There's more on moths below, because for an all-cotton sweat the moth story is smaller than most people think.

So wash the lot, including the piece worn once for an hour. Cold water, inside out, low spin, no fabric softener. If a piece still smells of the gym after a normal wash, deal with it now rather than in October. The method is in How to Get Sweat Smell Out of a Heavy Hoodie.

Then dry it for longer than you think

Heavy loopback terry holds water where you can't feel it. A hoodie can be bone dry across the back and shoulders while the cuff ribs, the waistband and the seam allowances under the arm are still cool and slightly damp. Those are double and triple layers of cloth.

Lay it flat somewhere with moving air and leave it a full day after it seems finished. Cotton is one of the fibres the CCI's note on mould growth on textiles calls particularly vulnerable. It says relative humidity between 65 and 100 per cent, warm temperatures and poor air circulation all promote mould, and that growth is unlikely below 60 per cent if air keeps moving. Mould stains cloth, weakens it, and usually brings a musty smell. A wash may lift some of the smell. It won't give the fibre its strength back.

Fold, don't hang

Hang a heavyweight hoodie for four months and its whole weight rests on two narrow points of shoulder seam. Cotton creeps under a steady load. You get a widened neck and a pair of bumps where the hanger sat. We haven't found a published test that measures this on a hoodie on a hanger, so take the four months as our experience rather than a lab figure. The principle isn't in dispute. Steady weight on a narrow point stretches cloth, and folding takes the weight off.

Fold along the seams, arms tucked back, hood flat. Zips done up so the teeth can't snag the piece underneath. Drawcords pulled even so gravity doesn't drag one end into the channel over the summer. If one does disappear, How to Get a Drawcord Back Into a Hoodie shows how to thread it back in.

What to put it in, and where

  • Something that breathes. A cotton bag, an old pillowcase, or a cardboard box with the lid resting on rather than taped shut. UC IPM recommends airtight containers for things moths eat, and for wool that's sound advice as long as the cloth and the room are both dry. For all-cotton sweats in a humid summer, trapped damp is the bigger risk, so we'd rather the box breathed.
  • Not a vacuum bag. Compression flattens the loops of terry and the loft comes back slowly, if at all. That's what we've seen handling the cloth, not a tested result. The moisture point is firmer. Any water left in the cloth gets sealed in with it.
  • Off the floor and away from outside walls. The CCI warns specifically about textiles kept against a cold exterior wall, “such as a basement in summer”, where it gets damp. Concrete basement floors give up moisture all summer.
  • Out of the attic. The CCI says high temperatures speed up the chemical decay of every material: “double the rate, half the life, for every increase of 5°C.” It also notes that fibres swell as they take up water vapour and shrink as they give it off. A July attic gives you heat and those swings together.
  • Out of direct sun. The CCI calls light damage “cumulative and irreversible”. The industry measures how well a dye stands up to light with AATCC TM16.3, Test Method for Colorfastness to Light: Xenon-Arc, which exposes samples to a filtered xenon-arc lamp standing in for sunlight. A good result on that test means slower fading, not none. A stripe of afternoon light through a thin bag will still fade one shoulder and not the other. There's more on keeping dark cloth dark in How to Stop a Black Hoodie Fading.

Moths, and the things sold to stop them

Start with what moths actually eat. UC IPM's Pest Notes say clothes moth larvae feed on wool, furs, feathers and other animal material, and will only take synthetics or cotton blends if those also contain wool. The CCI says the same from the museum side. The larvae consume keratin protein fibre such as wool. A 100 per cent cotton hoodie isn't their food. The real risks are a wool jumper in the same box, or a stain on the cotton that they go after.

Then be clear about what the products do. UC IPM says aromatic eastern red cedar contains an oil that can kill small larvae but doesn't affect large ones, and that cedar loses this quality after several years. People often say sanding a block brings it back. We couldn't find a test of that, so treat it as folklore for now. We found no testing behind lavender sachets either. Treat them as a nice smell. Mothballs, according to the same UC guidance, only work in an airtight container, and it says to keep them away from children and pets. They also leave a smell in heavy cotton for months, and nobody wants to wear that in September.

The real defence is dull. Clean cloth, a dry spot, a dark shelf, and a look inside every few weeks. UC IPM recommends checking stored items regularly. The CCI suggests checking museum textiles for mould at least twice a year, and more often where the climate runs humid. A Canadian summer counts.

Fix the small things now

Before anything goes away, check the cuff edges, the elbows, the pocket bag corners and the hem. A one-centimetre hole in July has four months of folding and shifting ahead of it. Send it in now and it comes back before you need it.

Before the lid goes on

The whole job, in the order it happens. If any line gets a no, the piece isn't ready to go away.

  1. Washed cold, inside out, low spin, no softener. Including the one worn once.
  2. Dried flat, then left a full day more. Cuffs, waistband and underarm seams checked by hand.
  3. Cuff edges, elbows, pocket corners and hem looked over for holes.
  4. Folded along the seams, zips closed, drawcords even. Nothing on a hanger.
  5. Packed in cotton or cardboard that breathes. No vacuum bag, and no wool in the same box.
  6. Put somewhere off the floor, away from outside walls, out of the attic and out of the sun.
  7. A reminder set to open it every few weeks and check for smell, damp and holes.

Bringing it back out

Take it out a day before you want to wear it and hang it in open air. A day on a hanger does no harm. It's months that stretch the shoulders. Most fold lines drop on their own. Anything stubborn goes with a steamer or a damp hand and ten minutes. There's no need to wash it again unless it smells musty, and if it does, that's damp, and the bag that held it needs drying too.

Sources

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