Know when to hold them and when to fold them ...

Know when to hold them and when to fold them ...

• 8.10.08

OK, the heat has driven me to the Seasonal Wardrobe Exchange.

If you're an Enthusiastic Closet Organiser, you'll know what I'm talking about. Your diehard summer clothes are folded or rolled in some kind of storage facilitators ('boxes' are so last century). You put them there a few months ago after laundering them and line drying them on a bright, sunny day while you whistled a happy tune. Perhaps you even nestled in some fragrant sachets as you lovingly tucked them in for a little hibernation. And a few months later, when you realise that everything you go to wear makes you perspire just thinking about it, you know it's time for the Seasonal Wardrobe Exchange again.

(If you're a Reluctant Closet Organiser, maybe you just grabbed anything without sleeves that was in plain sight, including the great unwashed, shoved it all into a garbage bag and jumped up and down on it until it was compacted enough for you to tie the bag shut.)

But whichever kind you are, a word of caution. Do not cull before you put clothes into storage. (And Reluctant Closet Organisers: fight that urge to take the entire garbage bag of clothes and drop it in the local thrift shop bin to save the effort of climbing up into the crawl space.)

Things that you can't bear the sight of by the end of summer may be like comfortable old friends (or grown-up children) to you by the time you've had a little holiday from them for a few months. And if not - then it really is time for them to move out of home.