Good As New? How To Keep Your Prized Possessions In Mint Condition

There is nothing quite like the feeling of new things in your home – be it clothes, dinner sets or furniture.

You unwrap the packaging, revelling in the smell, delighting in the excitement in how you will feel when wearing or using them. They are pristine to the touch, yet to be filled with the general grime of everyday life. It is a world of potential at your fingertips.

Okay, so that might be a little overly-romantic – but there’s still something to it. When things are new they are at their best… the unfortunate reality is that they will inevitably degrade.

When they begin to lose their new lustre, they begin to lose what makes them special and unique. They just become part of your everyday life rather than something special. That’s fine for general clothes that you just wear around the house, or for everyday crockery. For special items, you want to retain that feeling of them being special for as long as possible.

It therefore makes sense to practice good maintenance and management. So what exactly does that entail?

  1. Roll, don’t fold.

Furniture encourages us to treat our clothes badly. It’s all the furniture’s fault, Fashion Police! They made me do it!

Drawers are useful, but folding clothes into drawers is not so great for the clothes. If you fold in the same way every time, they can develop crease patterns which eventually become weaknesses in the fabric.

It therefore makes sense to roll your clothes when storing them in drawers. Not only will you diminish the chance for creasing, you’ll also find with a bit of practice that you can fit more into the available space. And when is more storage not a good thing?

roll clothes

  1. Check your washing appliances.

A washing machine that isn’t functioning properly can quickly become a torture chamber for clothes. Similarly, a dishwasher that is running out of steam can ruin your best dinner set. 

Also think about the cleaning products you’re using in the machine. For example, fabric softener may make clothes feel new, but it’s rarely doing anything for the clothes. Instead, it’s just coating them in a very thin layer of softener that makes them feel soft to the touch rather than actually changing the state of the fabric. 

  1. Be careful of hangers.

Since drawers can be perilous, why not just switch to hanging all your clothes?

Because nothing in life is ever simple, this can be fraught with problems also. If you hang clothes in the same way, you can soon find weaknesses developing along where the hanger comes into contact with them. Soon, the force of gravity alone will stretch and misshape the material – especially if you leave them for long periods of time without being worn. Flocked or padded hangers will keep your clothes in better condition for longer.

  1. Use lining paper in cupboards

Merely being in storage can leave traces on your tableware. Being in contact with a surface through extremes of heat can lead to condensation settling and in time, bacterial deposits. By using lining paper on the shelves of your cupboards, you reduce the amount of maintenance you will need to do, and ensure that when you have company, a quick polish with a cloth will be all they need.

0 replies

Leave a Reply

Want to join the discussion?
Feel free to contribute!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.