I’m not sure if I’m just lucky, but I have never found a moth hole in anything. I store winter clothes in covered rubbermaid-type totes, in an attic closet.

Me neither but a friend did and now im skeered

Sometimes, it's not moths, but carpet beetles eating your clothing. Whatever the pest, the safest way to store fabrics is in airtight containers with a desiccant.

So far I haven't had to worry about moths which is fortunate since I do not take any special precautions - everything is in my walk-in closet and remains there all year with the exception of coats, jackets and raincoats - they are in one of the hall closets. My closet has built-in drawers, lots of shelves and rods for hanging. There isn't any seasonal changing of the clothes, everything just stays put unless I discard something to make room for a new item. My wool and cashmere sweaters remain in the drawers or on the shelves. Every now and then I think about putting them in plastic bins but I never do.

Cedar closet.

I envy anyone with that much closet space!

Sue, you can also store in breathable containers with cedar blocks or lavender. I keep lavender in my regular closets. Not so good for fabrics to be in plastic containers.

My winter clothes are the same as summer. Same closet. Cotton only. Never wool. Long pants, shorts, short sleeve shirts, and different weight jackets. I have one long, down coat to use once or twice a year from Lands End. One black dress for funerals, short sleeve with a black coat if needed.

I used to have lot moths but did a major battle against them. Took everything out of my closet , washed and vacuumed every nook and cranny, tossed any clothes with moth damage, washed and dry cleaned the rest. Then I sprayed with insect killer, closed the door and let it marinate for a few days.

After dry cleaning the winter clothes I put them in the garage which is the only place I feel confident does not have a lurking moth.

I had a nice Fleurette camel coat that was decimated by moths. It was horrifying yet impressive.

I keep those aticky moth traps in every closet to see if anything is hiding in there.

Sue - my closet is a nice size, by preference and necessity. But I don't have a lot of clothes either. My year round uniform is Lands End jeans and Polo or T shirts.

I don't have a dresser or chest in the bedroom for clothes . When we moved here we put our 50 year old bedroom furniture upstairs in a guest room and treated ourselves to new - but we didn't want a lot of pieces. We have a king bed, nightstands, a highboy and reading chair with a small table. Both our closets have custom built-ins. DH's closet is extra wide with bi-fold doors and we mounted a TV inside. He uses that closet and the highboy and I use the walk-in closet. It's an odd shape, triangular with 6' walls on 2 sides and it has everything from socks and underwear to handbags and shoes.

I store all my sweaters in plastic bins with dessicant packets. Wool suits and knitted dresses stay on hangers in their plastic bags (open at the bottom) and go into different closets.) In a perfect world I would co-opt one of our main floor guest rooms as a closet / storage center for clothes and table linens. It sounds crazy to say we don’t have enough storage in a 5000+ sq ft house but we don’t have the right kind of storage.

We had a fantastic walk-in closet our former house, with a jewelry drawer, lots of shelves, hanging space for dresses/suits and double-height hanging bars for shirts, etc. Then we moved to a 1900 Victorian house with miniature closets. Now my clothes and shoes are divided among 3 closets in 3 rooms. Well, it keeps me from hoarding!

Why is it bad for clothes to be stored in plastic bins, cyn.?

Clothing - especially natural fibers - need to breathe. Because I collect, all my Chanel and vintage is kept in individual garment bags. Sweaters are in drawers and I haven’t had any issues. I also use moth patties in my closet and storage unit where I keep eBay stock, but only one patty half unwrapped.

A long time ago, I read an article quoting one of the conservators from the Smithsonian. It said that the key to keeping moths from eating your clothes is to always store them clean - freshly washed or fresh from the dry cleaners.

I’m lucky to have a large-ish closet. Everything stays were it is. Winter coats and rain coats are hung in a coat closet. DH had a coat problem, so we have an exceptionally large coat closet near the door to the garage.

I use shoulder covers similar to the full length covers Spanish posted. Knits are stored folded in a plastic box with cedar cubes.

Ah, moths... I have a cedar closet, but I think it is a dud, because it was built with a one-inch gap across the entire bottom - which rather defeats the purpose of cedar.

many years ago, i inherited a real-fur coat that had belonged to my great-grandmother, a tiny woman, and I would have been able to wear it in spite of it not being au courant nowadays. I kept it in that cedar closet. You guessed it: to my utterly shocked dismay, moths found it and TOTALLY ate all the fur, leaving just the shell. le sigh... >{

I store anything with fur in these

“ … everything is in my walk-in closet and remains there all year with the exception of coats, jackets and raincoats - they are in one of the hall closets.”

This is me, too. I have a pretty big closet in comparison to the size of our house (under 2,000 sq ft).

I’ve only ever had two moth incidents, both in my former house — a wool coat and my Stetson cowboy hat. I wasn’t keeping my hat in its box like I should have, and they really went to town on it. An expensive and dumb mistake I made.

Now I keep vulnerable items protected in bags, as many have posted above, and hats in boxes.

I gradually send my winter sweaters to the cleaners as winter wanes and then store them in a spare closet with winter coats. Everything else stays in my closet, but rearranged like moving winter boots to a top shelf and moving sandals down.

Sue, 1929Spanish beat me to it. The natural fibers need to breathe. When I got my porch cushions back after cleaning last fall, I called the owner of the dry cleaner (best in the DC area-really) to ask him if they would be okay if i kept them in the plastic cleaner bags until spring. His answer was no, they need to breathe. My mother and grandmother had always said the same thing (so of course, I had to listen! ;-) ).

One advantage of living in a mild winter climate, few winter clothing items.

I have neither a raincoat nor boots, no heavy coat. Large areas of the country snicker at what we consider chilly weather (daytime temps in the 50s).

A mud room? I wish that we had enough rain that mud would be a problem.

A mud room? I wish that we had enough rain that mud would be a problem.

LOL it is not literal. A mudroom is a place to store any outer garments, as well as sports eqp, bookbags, grocery totes, etc etc

I have always heard fibers need to breath, but it got me thinking so, I googled and ...

Yes, moth larvae can easily chew through cloth bags, especially those made of natural fibers like cotton, linen, or canvas, to reach the wool, silk, or fur stored inside. They do not eat the bag for nutrition, but they will breach it to access the food source within, meaning fabric bags offer no protection against infestation.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/how-to-pack-protect-summer-clothing/

If you alreadyhave a moth problem, consider introducing parasitic wasps to your closet!

NYT article about moth control ⬅️

I don't have a moth problem. I never have. But a friend did and I made me wonder if I should do something differently

Sometimes I wonder about Wirecutter. In the linked article, it says to use the plastic, sealable totes to store clothes, but then tells people to remove the plastic drycleaning bags from clothing and linens because they do not allow the fabrics to breathe. Hmmm. Anyway, I have never had moths chew through a canvas bag, so that is what I will continue to use as needed.

I wondered the same, @cyn427 (z. 7, N. VA). Apparently ...

• Unlike thin bags touching the fabric directly, solid plastic bins allow for better, albeit limited, air circulation
• Used properly (dry clothes, breathable space), solid bins prevent the rapid oxidation that causes yellowing from thin, low-quality, chemical-laden dry-clean plastic.