How do I store soft items in winter?
Q: Do you have any tips for storing precious linens in the cottage over the winter? —AUDREY MORITZ, VIA EMAIL
A: When it comes to leaving soft items in any cottage, two of the biggest enemies are moisture and rodents. Good news: an unheated, cold-as-heck cottage is a gentler environment for delicate things, says Mary Ballard, a senior textile conservator with the Smithsonian’s Museum Conservation Institute in Maryland. “Freezer-like temperatures preserve better than fridge-like temperatures. The cold can really work to your advantage.”
Unfortunately, winter visits, or even passive solar heating, can crank up a building’s indoor humidity. Humidity means moisture, and moisture brings mould and mildew. Boo. “You want to store items in such a way that you exclude these changes in humidity,” says Ballard. She recommends galvanized metal over any other material. In theory, there are lots of containers that could work: a large, old cookie tin; a metal storage box—the kind that tradespeople
