Make space for spring: Advice on storing your winter clothes

Home of the Year winner Jennifer Sheahan shares her storage secrets, from cleaning and drying to vacuum packing 

Storage in Jennifer's bedroom. Picture: Moya Nolan

The daffodils are out so I am officially declaring spring despite the recent snow. While that’s great and all, the reality is that I actually love the cold. I live for skiing, I’m very happy to hike up snowy peaks, and all I ever really want is a glass of mulled wine on a cold winter’s night. My proclivity for cold weather activities leaves me with a lot of bulky items - snowshoes, ski suits, scarves, gloves and mittens, spiked hiking boots, and lots of warm underlayers. In winter, I add extra coat hooks to the backs of doors to give me additional storage for a few months, but now that ski season is nearly over it’s soon going to be time to clear my cold weather clutter out of my wardrobe and bring my spring and summer clothes out of storage. Here’s how I rotate my clothes throughout the year to keep space in my wardrobe.

I make sure to fold all items before vacuuming and sealing the pack. Come next season there will inevitably be some wrinkles but they should fall out quite easily.