Moving to South Florida? What the Humidity Does to Your Wardrobe
People arrive, unpack, and about eight months later discover that a wardrobe which survived a decade somewhere else is falling apart. It is not bad luck. The rules are genuinely different here.
1. The closet is the danger, not the weather
Elsewhere, a closed wardrobe is safe storage. Here it is warm, still and humid, which is exactly the condition mould needs.
What to change:
- Leave air space between garments rather than packing a rail tight
- Leave closet doors slightly ajar, particularly in summer
- Never store anything in the dry cleaner's plastic. It is for the journey home only
- Keep valuable items on interior walls rather than exterior ones
- Do not use the garage or attic for clothing, ever
2. Nothing gets stored dirty
This rule exists everywhere and is enforced here. Body oil and perspiration oxidise into yellow marks over months, and that residue is what attracts moths and carpet beetles, which are after the soil rather than the wool.
Clean everything before it goes away for a season. Everything.
3. Your winter clothes are now storage items
Wool coats, heavy knitwear and anything you kept in rotation before are now things you use rarely and store constantly. They need cleaning before storage and checking on a couple of times a year, which is a habit most new residents do not arrive with.
4. Linen and cotton become the default, and behave differently
Most people shift toward linen and light cotton within a year, and then treat them like the synthetics they replaced.
Linen creases because the fibre is stiff, and that stiffness is what makes it cool. Fighting it is pointless. What matters is not putting it away damp, not using fabric softener, which coats the fibre and reduces the wicking, and pressing it while damp rather than dry.
5. Salt is a thing now
If you live near the water, salt in the air shortens the life of fabric and tarnishes metal fittings, zips, buckles and trim, noticeably faster. Swimwear left to dry with salt in it loses elastic quickly. Rinsing matters more than it used to.
What this adds up to
Mostly that clothes need attention more often and storage needs more thought. Neither is dramatic, but both are different from what you are used to, and the cost of learning it slowly is a wardrobe.
We can help you reset
If you have just moved and things have been in boxes through a summer, having everything cleaned and properly stored is a sensible starting point. Free collection across Broward and northern Miami-Dade.
Call 954 983 7519 or request a free pickup. See our dry cleaning page.
La Mar 1 Hour Dry Cleaners, 6430 Pembroke Rd, Miramar, FL 33023. Family run since 1962, so we have watched a lot of people learn this.