garb storage

[Lady Christina de Pond]

alright so i've never had to store my garb before. yes i've put it my closet but thats only because i usually wear it to Garf in April and sometimes a halloween function in Oct so i just keep it in my closet but in 2012 i won't be anywhere near a renfest and it's too expensive to come home for a weekend visit to Garf or anything stateside so i need to find some way to store most of my garb i won't be storing my shirt and i'm still not sure if i'm storing my corset or not. I how ever need to store my skirt,  real sword, plastic sword, boots, pouch, hat with feathers,  and some costume jewlery as well as a fan and possibly a corset. i'm just not sure i would have a funtion to wear my corset to or not while i'm abroad but anyhow i was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on storing these items it's just going to be over a year before i will actually wear any of them so i don't want anything to happen to them while i'm away. your suggestions would be helpful

[Stasiakatt]

I store most of our things in the plastic under the bed boxes.  For the more expensive clothing, I wrap it in quilter's tissue paper -- it's special tissue paper that doesn't have an chemicals or dyes that's made for quilters to use to store quilts.  I try to roll the grab, if I can so there are not fold lines when I take it out.  But most important is to make sure everything is clean.  For leather stuff, like our boots and pouches, I make sure they are clean, oiled if needed and they go in the closet, boots with the rest of the shoes and pouches in a basket on the shelf.  I don't put that stuff in a box because I don't want to dry out the leather.

[gem]

First, will you still have a home while you're abroad, or will you need to rent a storage unit for all your stuff? And if you do have a house/apartment, will there be somebody else living there while you're gone, and do you trust those people?

We have much more garb than you're describing (first, there are two of us!), and we store ours year round in the guest bedroom closet + a big wooden chest (for anything flat or foldable--shirts and skirts and Milord's pants). We've done Rubbermaid bins in the past, but we've outgrown them. I would probably recommend getting one of the really nice, larger bins with wheels, like this:



It will work in a closet, basement, or storage unit, and you could tape it closed if you really want to keep nosy (but not thieving) fingers out of it.