Seasonal storage: how to pack winter and summer things and find them next year

Plan the swap before you pack

A seasonal swap goes wrong when it starts at the cupboard: things go into whatever box is near, and in six months you open all of them. Spend ten minutes first. Decide which things change with the season (coats, boots, ski gear, swimwear, the fan and the heater), where they will wait, and how many boxes that takes.

Pair the seasons. The box that holds the summer clothes in winter can hold the winter clothes in summer. Same box, same place, opposite contents. Then you never hunt for an empty box, and the shelf always has the right gap.

Clean, dry, then pack

Pack only what is clean and completely dry. Sweat, food stains and damp are what attract moths and mould over a long season, and a stain that waits six months rarely washes out. Wash or clean, let it air for a day, then pack.

A few habits that keep things in shape:

• Fold knitwear instead of hanging it; it stretches on a hanger.
• Keep down and wool uncompressed; vacuum bags suit synthetic duvets and fleece.
• Stuff boots with paper so they hold their shape, and store leather where it can breathe.
• Take batteries out of anything electric.
• Have ski and bike gear serviced at the end of the season, not at the start of the next one.

Pack boxes you can find without opening

One box, one kind of thing, one person if you can: "Kids' winter clothes" beats "Winter stuff". Put the things you will want first on top. Don't fill a box past the point where one person can lift it.

Then label every box on two sides and the lid. A short code like W01 is easier to keep up than a long description, because the list of what's inside can change and the code stays. Keep that list somewhere other than the box: a sheet of paper, a note on your phone, or an app. Better still, take a photo of the open box before you close it. A photo shows what you packed, including the things you forgot to write down.

Our guides on labelling boxes and QR labels go into more detail.

Store it in the right place

Most homes have one place that suits seasonal storage and a few that don't:

• Good: a dry storeroom, a wardrobe top shelf, under the bed, a heated room you rarely use.
• Careful: the attic (hot in summer) and the cellar (damp, especially in spring). If you use them, plastic boxes with lids, off the floor, nothing that minds heat or damp.
• Bad: next to a heater, against an outside wall that gets cold and damp, on a garage floor.

Keep the boxes you'll need next in front. In autumn, the winter boxes stand where you can reach them, and the summer ones go behind.

The checklist for swap day

• Wash and dry everything that goes into storage.
• Go through it once: anything that no longer fits or hasn't been worn all season goes to a separate pile, not into the box.
• Pack by kind and by person; heavy things at the bottom.
• Photograph each open box, then close it.
• Label two sides and the lid with the box's code.
• Write down where each box went, especially if it went to another home.
• Take the other season's boxes out, unpack, and put the empty boxes back in their place.

Doing it with Neatkept

In Neatkept you photograph an open box and AI proposes what is in it; you keep or drop each thing. Label the box with a Neatkept QR label, which opens it from a scan, or write a code like W01 with a marker and type it under the scanner. When the box changes place, open it, tap ⋯ and choose Move the box, even to another home; everything inside goes with it. With labels on boxes and places, the move back is two scans. Next season, search for the ski gloves and get the home, the place and the box. The seasonal swap page shows it step by step.