Seasonal Storage: Protecting Cashmere and Wool From Moths and Moisture

Cashmere and wool garments should be cleaned before long-term storage, kept in breathable garment bags rather than sealed plastic, and protected from moths using natural deterrents such as cedar rather than mothballs.

Between Hong Kong's fast seasonal turnover and the limited closet space most people are actually working with, packing away cashmere and wool for months at a time is something almost everyone here has to deal with every year. Most of the damage that happens during that stretch is preventable, and it usually comes down to a handful of habits people get backwards without realizing it.

Clean Before You Store, Not After

The instinct to store a garment as-is and deal with cleaning later is exactly backwards. Moths aren't actually attracted to clean wool or cashmere fibre itself — they're drawn to the residue left behind on it: body oils, sweat, food stains, anything organic that's accumulated from wear. A garment that goes into storage freshly cleaned is genuinely less appealing to moths than one that goes in "good enough," even if both look equally clean to the eye. This single habit does more to prevent moth damage than any product you could add afterward.

Sealed Plastic Feels Safe. It Isn't.

A lot of people assume a sealed plastic bag is the most protective way to store a garment, since it looks airtight and secure. In practice, it's often the opposite of what you want. Sealed plastic traps whatever moisture is already present in the fabric or the surrounding air, and that trapped humidity creates exactly the damp, unventilated conditions where mildew and musty odours develop — particularly relevant in Hong Kong's climate, where ambient humidity is already working against you most of the year. A breathable garment bag — cotton or a similar woven fabric — allows air to keep moving through storage while still keeping dust and light off the garment, which is the balance you actually want.

Natural Deterrents vs. Chemical Ones

Cedar and lavender are the two most commonly used natural moth deterrents, and both work by way of scent that moths find unappealing rather than by killing them outright — which means they need occasional refreshing (cedar can be lightly sanded to renew its scent; lavender sachets eventually need replacing) to stay effective over a long storage period. Mothballs, by contrast, use active chemical compounds and tend to leave a persistent odour in fabric that can be difficult to fully air out afterward, along with raising questions some people have about prolonged skin contact with treated garments. We're not going to tell you which to use — that's a genuinely reasonable personal choice — but it's worth knowing the actual tradeoff rather than assuming one option is simply the modern version of the other.

Cashmere Needs a Gentler Hand Than Wool

Cashmere and wool get grouped together constantly in care advice, but they're not equally durable. Cashmere fibre is considerably finer than most sheep's wool, which is exactly what gives it that characteristic softness — and that same fineness makes it more prone to friction damage, pilling, and stretching under its own weight if it's hung rather than folded. Fold cashmere for storage rather than hanging it, and handle it with slightly more care at every stage than you would a heavier wool piece. The extra caution isn't excessive; it's proportionate to how much more delicate the fibre actually is.

The Yoo's Club View

If you've read our pieces on Botto Giuseppe or VBC, you already know how much control goes into producing genuinely fine cashmere and wool at the mill level — the sourcing, the vertical integration, the traceability back to specific farms and herds. None of that care at the production stage means much if the finished garment spends six months a year sitting in a sealed bag in a humid closet. Seasonal storage is the unglamorous back half of the same story those articles are telling.

From Seasonal Chore to Long-Term Value

Good storage habits don't take meaningfully more time than bad ones — cleaning before packing away, choosing a breathable bag, tucking in a cedar block. What they take is a small mental shift: treating storage as part of what you're actually paying for when you buy well-made cashmere and wool, not as an afterthought once the season's over. You already made the harder decision when you chose fabric with real provenance behind it. This is just making sure that decision holds up for as many seasons as the fibre is capable of giving you.

Explore the more at Yoo's Club.

FAQ

How should I store cashmere over summer? Clean it first, fold rather than hang it, and store it in a breathable bag with a natural moth deterrent like cedar, in a cool, dry space away from direct humidity.

Are mothballs safe for cashmere? Mothballs are chemically effective against moths, but they can leave a persistent odour in fine fibres like cashmere and raise concerns for some people around prolonged fabric contact. Natural alternatives like cedar or lavender are milder but need periodic refreshing to stay effective.

 Daniel Hui, Founder, Yoo's Club