Storing and Caring for What You Buy

People spend a good deal on items and then keep them in a way that undoes most of it within a fortnight. Storage is unglamorous and it is most of whether a purchase stays what it was.

Sealed, not airtight forever

Most items arrive sealed for a reason and keep best that way. Opening and resealing repeatedly is what fades them fastest, since each time exchanges the air inside. Decide what the item is for and handle it accordingly rather than checking on it.

Cool and dark

Heat and sunlight are the two things that degrade both fabric and scent quickest. A drawer is better than a windowsill, and a cupboard away from a radiator is better than either. This is the single largest factor and it costs nothing.

Keep them apart

Two items stored together become one indistinct thing. Separate bags, and label them if you have more than a few, because you will not remember which is which as reliably as you think you will.

Do not wash unless you mean to

Obvious, and it still happens, usually via a well meaning tidy up by somebody else. Which leads to the part people ignore.

The discretion side

Think about where these live if you share a home. Not because there is anything to be ashamed of, but because a conversation you did not choose to have is worth avoiding. Somewhere private with an ordinary looking outside solves it entirely.

Keep the details

A note of what it is, who it came from and when. If you buy from the same seller again it makes reordering simple, and it saves the slightly embarrassing message asking what it was you had last time.

Treat what you buy as something that has a condition and can be preserved, and it will still be what you paid for in six months.