How to Store Kids' Clothes for the Next Child (and Keep Them Wearable)

What is the best way to store kids' clothes for the next child?

Clean, dry, folded loosely, boxed in a stable plastic or acid-free container, and kept somewhere cool, dark and dry. The Canadian Conservation Institute's basic advice for textiles is to make sure they are “clean and dry before you store them in a cool, dark, dry location with good ventilation.” Everything else in this guide is detail on that one sentence.

The institute writes for museums, and museum textiles have to last centuries. Your aim is shorter: a shirt that comes out of a bin in two or four years still fits for wear, with no yellow patches, holes or musty smell. The same threats apply over that shorter time: damp, heat, insects, light and acidic materials. They just have less time to do damage.

Step by step: packing clothes away

1. Sort first. Keep what is worth a second child: seams intact, buttons secure, elastic that still springs back. Our six hand-me-down tests take under a minute per piece. Donate or recycle the rest now, so you aren't storing clothes you will throw out later.
2. Wash everything, including pieces that look clean. The institute says plainly that “soil invites infestation.” Treat stains before washing.
3. Leave out starch. Conservators note that soils and finishes such as starch are food for microorganisms, and silverfish will chew through cotton to reach starch.
4. Dry completely. Let thick seams, waistbands and cuffs dry fully, an extra hour on a rack if needed. Damp packed into a closed bin is how mould starts.
5. Empty pockets and remove pins, clips and safety pins. The institute warns that pins put stress on fabric and are “almost certain to rust.”
6. Fold with as few creases as you can, and pad the folds. A roll of acid-free tissue or a clean cotton cloth inside each fold stops a hard crease setting in. Knits stretch if hung for long, so fold them.
7. Pack by size and season. One bin per size, for example 3–4Y summer, labelled on two sides. Lay heavier pieces at the bottom and don't cram the bin.
8. Store inside the living space and check regularly. We suggest twice a year, when you swap seasons. Open the bin, look for insects, damp or a musty smell, and refold pieces so the creases move.

Label by the size on the tag, not the age of the child who wore it. Children reach each size at different ages, and our guide to what size to buy for kids explains how to check a stored piece against a younger child's height when you open the bin. If you are storing sets, keep both pieces together. A blouse and skort set is far more likely to get worn when the halves come out of the same bin.

Plastic bins, cardboard boxes or vacuum bags?

Use a clean bin made of polypropylene or polyethylene, and skip plain cardboard, bare wood and dry-cleaner bags. The institute says “polyethylene plastic and acid-free cardboard boxes are fine for storage” and tells readers to look for the letters PP and PE on moulded boxes. The common online advice to avoid cardboard because of pests is fair, but the bigger reason is chemical. Regular paper, cardboard, wood and some adhesives give off acids, and the institute says wooden drawers or shelves can emit vapours “that will yellow the fabric and make it brittle.”

The letters are usually moulded into the base of the bin. PP is polypropylene and PE is polyethylene. If a bin has no marking, a lined, clean bin kept in a dry room is still a better bet than a cardboard box.

Vacuum bags are the gap in the evidence. We found no conservation guidance written about them. Two parts of the institute's advice point against using them for years: it asks for “as few folds as possible,” padded with tissue, and a vacuum bag presses every fold flat under pressure. And a sealed bag holds any moisture left in the clothes. Our view is to use them for bulky items like snowsuits over a single season, after the clothes are fully dry, and to use bins for anything you want to keep for years.

Where should you store outgrown clothes?

A closet, under a bed or on a shelf inside the heated part of the house. The institute's guidance is cool, dark, dry and stable, away from heating vents, fireplaces and bright light. Each of the usual overflow spaces fails one of those.

• Attics get hot in summer. The institute's rule of thumb is that every 5°C rise doubles the rate of chemical decay: materials that might last a century at 20°C last about two decades at 30°C. The institute's figures are for acid-damaged, unwashed cotton and older synthetics, and the institute says high temperatures speed up the chemical decay of all materials.
• Basements run damp. The institute names cabinets pushed against a cold exterior wall, “such as a basement in summer,” as a way to get damp. University of Maryland Extension says silverfish prefer “damp, cool places such as basements, laundry rooms and under sinks.”
• Garages and sheds swing between hot and cold and are open to rodents. The institute warns that “mice and other rodents are attracted to textiles as a source of nesting material.”

If the basement is the only space you have, keep bins off the floor, away from outside walls and laundry areas, and check them more often. Never pack anything damp. If you open a bin and find mould, the institute's advice is to isolate the affected pieces in sealed plastic bags straight away so it doesn't spread.

Why do stored clothes turn yellow?

The usual causes are acids from the container or shelf, residue left in the fabric, and age. The institute says wood products can emit acidic vapours “that will yellow the fabric,” and its guide to textiles notes that cotton “may yellow over time” in any case. That is why tissue or a cotton liner between the clothes and the container helps, and why the institute says to replace tissue as it ages.

Many parents find yellow or brown spots that weren't visible when a piece went into storage. The usual explanation is food or body-oil residue that darkens with time. That fits what the institute says about soils, but the sources we read don't test it directly, so take it as a likely cause, not a proven one. The fix is the same either way: wash before storing, and treat stains before the wash. If a stored piece smells musty when it comes out, our guide to why clothes still smell after washing covers what to do.

How do you keep moths and silverfish out of stored kids' clothes?

Clean clothes, a closed bin and a dry room do most of the work. Clothes moth and carpet beetle larvae feed mainly on wool. The institute says they “will attack silk, cotton and synthetics if soils are present,” which is another reason to wash first. Silverfish are the insect to watch with cotton. Mississippi State University Extension says that if you find holes in cotton or linen, suspect silverfish rather than moths, and that items “left undisturbed for a long time are most likely to be damaged.” Their answer is moisture control: fix leaks and keep humidity down.

The institute says not to use mothballs when storing textiles, and to avoid cedar chests because cedar vapour has limited effect. It also advises against scented padded hangers, because the dried flowers in them attract pests. If you find spiders around stored clothes, the institute treats that as a sign to look more closely for insects.

What to check before you hand clothes down

Wash the piece again, check that it still fits the child, and check that it is still safe. Clothes that were fine for an older child can have a problem the family never heard about.

• Look up recalls. Health Canada says that when you sell or give away a used product, “it's your responsibility to make sure it's safe, even if it's being given away for free,” including that it isn't recalled or banned. Children's clothing does get recalled. In the week we wrote this, the Government of Canada's recalls and safety alerts site listed a “Mermaid Princess” dress recalled for a flammability hazard. In the US, search the CPSC recalls list.
• Check hood and neck cords. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission treats hood and neck drawstrings on children's upper outerwear in sizes 2T to 12 as a strangulation hazard. Waist and hem drawstrings in sizes 2T to 16 are limited to 3 inches outside the channel, with no toggles or knots on the ends. Check every jacket and hoodie, whatever its age. The CPSC recommends snaps, buttons, Velcro or elastic instead.
• Test the closures. Tug each button and snap, stretch the elastic and look at seams under the arms and in the crotch. A loose button is a quick fix with a needle; a split seam is often a sign to let it go.
• Check the size against the child, not the label. A piece stored at 3–4Y may suit a younger sibling a full year earlier or later than it suited the first child.

Some clothes are built to make this easier. Woven cotton and natural buttons, like the corozo buttons listed on our Copenhagen shirt, have nothing to peel or crack in a bin. The label tells you more than you might think about how a piece will age, and our guide to reading a kids' clothing label covers the fibre content and care symbols to look for.

How long can you store kids' clothes?

Years, if they go in clean and dry and the space stays cool and dry. No one has published a test of a family storage bin, but the conservation guidance is written for keeping textiles for decades, so a gap of a few years between siblings is a modest ask when storage is right. The things that shorten it are the ones above: damp, heat, insects, acid and light. Stretch elastic waistbands when you take a piece out. If one no longer springs back, the piece needs new elastic or a new home.

What we don't know

The institute's guidance is written for museum collections kept for decades, and nobody we found has measured how long children's clothes last in a family's plastic bin. We found no study of vacuum storage bags on cotton. We also found no direct test of whether invisible food or body-oil residue causes the yellow spots parents find, though it is the most common explanation. The humidity and heat figures above are museum benchmarks; your closet will vary by season and by house, and a cheap hygrometer is the only way to know what yours is doing.

Made for a second child

100% combed organic cotton, ages 2 to 6, made by GOTS-certified manufacturers: Cotton Buds (certified by IDFL) and R K Exports (certified by GCL). Designed in Canada, made to be handed down. Free shipping across Canada and the US, with 60-day returns.

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