It is the weekend after Bhai Dooj. The maroon runner has a ghee mark near one end, the gold cushion covers smell faintly of agarbatti, and the embroidered napkins are in a pile on the dining chair. The easy move is to fold the lot into a bag, push it onto the top shelf of the almirah and forget it until next October.
Much of the damage people find a year later is decided in that one hour. Linen in a cupboard gets hurt by three things: something for insects to eat, damp, and pressure held in the same place for months. Take away the first two before you pack, keep breaking the third through the year, and festive linen comes out looking much as it went in.
What actually damages linen in a cupboard
Clothes moths are the one people fear, and they are pickier than their reputation. The adult moth does not eat cloth. Its larvae do, and they are after protein: silk and wool, plus the food, sweat and body oil left on any cloth. That second part is the one people miss. A clean polyester runner gives a larva very little reason to stay. The same runner with a ghee mark, packed in a dark corner, gives it a meal.
Silverfish want something else: starch and sugar. A napkin starched for the puja, or a tablecloth with a spot of kheer dried into it, is food for them. They leave grazed patches and small, ragged holes rather than the neat tunnels of a moth.
Mildew needs damp, still air and a little dirt to feed on. In most Indian cities, it is the monsoon months from June to September that do this, not the winter. Linen packed in November feels dry and safe until a sealed box sits through four humid months. Our guide to monsoon textile care covers the damp side in more detail.
Creases are the slow one. A fold held under weight for a year sets into the fibre. On polyester it usually steams out. On real silk, a sharp crease held in the same place year after year can weaken the threads along the line until it shows as a pale stripe, and in time it can split.
Clean before you pack, but skip the starch
Every stain left on festive linen gets worse in storage. Oil and ghee darken and turn yellow-brown as they age, sugar stains can caramelise, and both feed the insects above. A mark that would have come out in November may not come out next October. Treat ghee, wax and kumkum before the wash, which our guide to removing candle wax, oil and rangoli takes step by step.
Wash, then dry it completely. Fully dry, not dry on the surface. Leave cushion covers and runners on a line or under a fan for an extra day after they feel ready, because velvet pile and thick embroidery hold water deep inside.
Leave out the starch for anything going into storage. Starch is what silverfish want, and starched folds crack more easily. Iron or steam the cloth when you take it out next year instead. If you are washing velvet covers before they go away, follow the instructions for washing velvet without flattening the pile.
Should you fold or roll silk, satin and velvet?
It depends on what the cloth is, and the label is not always a reliable guide. Plenty of festive cushion covers sold as "silk" are polyester made to look like silk, and the satin sold for home use is often polyester too. Our guide to satin and silk explains how to tell them apart. Read the fabric line in the description, and pack for what it says.
| Piece | What to do | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Real silk runner or table cover | Fold loosely with clean cotton or plain tissue inside each fold. Refold along different lines each time you check it | Moths, if any food is left on it. Pale lines at the old folds |
| Polyester satin or poly-silk cushion covers | Take the inserts out. Lay the covers flat, a few to a stack, with nothing heavy on top | Creases in the embroidery. These steam out, but heavy pressure can flatten raised threads |
| Velvet cushion covers and runners | Roll runners with the pile facing outwards, around a tube or a rolled towel. Lay covers flat, pile up, at the top of a stack | Crushed pile, which shows as a shiny, flattened patch |
| Cotton napkins and tablecloths | Fold flat and unstarched, wrapped in a clean cotton cloth | Silverfish if any starch or sugar is left in them. Yellowing at old stains |
| Anything with zari or metallic thread | Wrap it in plain cotton and keep it away from rubber bands and plastic | Tarnish, which happens faster in damp air |
Rolling velvet with the pile facing outwards matters because the pile is the part that crushes. On the outside of each curve, the pile is spread open. On the inside, it is squeezed together, and a year of that leaves marks that steam may only partly lift.
Mothballs, neem and cedar
Naphthalene balls work because they slowly turn to vapour in a closed space, and enough of that vapour kills larvae. That is also the problem. The vapour soaks into the cloth, and the cloth here is a runner that goes on the dining table and napkins that touch food and mouths. The US EPA's hazard summary for naphthalene links short-term exposure, including breathing it in, to haemolytic anaemia, and classifies it as a possible human carcinogen. For anything used at the table or by children, leave it out.
Dried neem leaves, cloves and cedar blocks are the traditional alternatives, and they smell far better. Treat them as a mild help, not protection. Cedar loses its scent over time unless you sand it to refresh it, and none of them will save a cloth that went in stained or damp. What keeps moths away is clean cloth, a closed but breathable container, and opening it a few times a year so nothing gets settled.
How to store festive linen: where, and in what
Breathable beats airtight for long storage. An old cotton pillowcase or bedsheet, or a cotton storage bag, lets the cloth breathe while keeping dust and insects off. Polythene does the opposite. It holds in whatever moisture was in the cloth or the air on the day you packed, and in a humid month the bag sweats from the inside. A polythene bag also gives zari a reason to tarnish faster.
Where the bundle goes matters as much. Avoid the top of the almirah if the room gets hot under a roof, the inside of an outer wall that goes damp in the rains, and any cupboard backing onto a bathroom. A steel trunk or a wooden almirah both work if the space is dry. A couple of silica gel sachets in a closed trunk help through the monsoon. Dry them in the sun or a low oven when they stop working; the colour-changing kind shows you when.
A re-air schedule until next Diwali
Storage goes wrong when nobody opens the box for eleven months. Four short checks across the year are enough.
- Late November. Pack clean, dry and unstarched, as above. Note what went where.
- January or February. On a dry, sunny day, open everything and air it for a few hours in the shade, not in direct sun, which fades velvet and silk. Refold silk along new lines. Look in the folds for webbing, dusty larval cases or small holes.
- May, before the rains. Check again, swap or dry the silica gel, and move boxes off the floor and away from outer walls.
- Late September or early October, as the rains end. Air everything, look for musty smells or grey spots, and deal with them before Diwali preparations start.
Then, a week or two before Diwali, take it all out, steam the creases and wash anything that smells stale. If you are doing the rest of the house at the same time, our pre-Diwali cleaning guide for soft furnishings runs in the same order.
Packing up a typical Diwali table and sofa
Say the festival linen in one home is a pair of embroidered gold covers, a pair of velvet covers, a velvet runner and a set of embroidered napkins.
The dupion silk chain gold covers are the clearest case for reading the label. The name says silk, but the description calls the fabric poly-silk dupion and the material polyester. So moths are not much interested in the cloth itself. The risk is creases through the embroidery and food marks from the festival. Wash them, take the inserts out through the hidden zip, and lay them flat on top of the pile.
The embossed velvet maroon runner is 175 GSM polyester velvet, 32 cm wide and either 150 or 240 cm long. Folded in thirds, it would spend the year with two crushed lines across the pattern. Rolled pile-out around a cardboard tube a little longer than the runner is wide, it has none. The same goes for any runner from the table runner collection with a pile or raised pattern.
The gold velvet covers go flat, pile up, never at the bottom of a stack. If a cover comes out next year with a flattened patch, hold a steamer a little way off the back of the cloth rather than ironing the face. Pile that has been crushed for a full year may not fully recover. If you are replacing one, the velvet collection is the place to match colours, and our guide to festive cushion covers helps you plan next year's sofa.
Napkins are the easy part. The damask cotton festive napkins are mercerised cotton with embroidered corners, so wash them, skip the starch, fold them flat with the embroidery on the outside of the fold, and wrap the set in a plain cotton cloth.
Common questions
Can I store festive linen in plastic storage boxes?
Yes, if everything is completely dry and the box is opened a few times a year. A rigid box keeps out insects better than a bag does. Wrap each piece in cotton inside it, and add silica gel for the monsoon. The risk is packing on a humid day and sealing the damp in.
Do I need to wash cushion covers that only came out for a week?
Yes. A week of festive use leaves oil from hands and hair, food and incense residue. These are invisible now, but by next October they can show as yellow patches, and they are what draws moth larvae and silverfish.
Is camphor safer than naphthalene for table linen?
It is a different chemical, but still one to keep away from food and children, and it does not stop a stained cloth from being eaten. If you use it, put it in a cloth pouch that does not touch the linen, and keep it away from children. Clean, dry cloth is the main protection whatever you add.
How do I get storage creases out of velvet?
Steam it from the back, or hang it in a steamy bathroom, then brush the pile gently with your hand in its natural direction. Do not press a hot iron on the face of velvet; it flattens the pile into a shiny patch.
Leave a comment
This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.