Storing Clothes - What Works Best?

 I joined a new (to me) group on Facebook, called upcycling clothes. I asked this question (shown in Italics) edited and improved and amplified here):

My problem is storage. I save so much. I never throw away. So, how should I store all my clothes? Is it better to fold, or hang them with two items on a hanger? I sometimes hang three items which match in colour, fabric and style, together. short sleeved top or blouse, jacket, skirt. But then the thinest space-saving metal hangers sag and the cheap plastic ones break.

Do I put scarves with matching outfits. Or all scarves together in a drawer?

Shoes are taking up less space under the bed. But then they get lost under the bed. I can't find them when going out. I find them weeks later. How about slippers, shoes and short boots hidden and warmed and dried under a radiator? But will that dry them out? Make them crack?

Should I put suitcases in the attic? That involves a stepladder, my husband moving things overhead, and he has head two hermia operations. Maybe I should move summer clothes into a storage facility in winter.

My husband wants to put suitcases in the garage. But that involved covering suitcases to stop them getting dirty. As well as leaving the car exposed to thieves on the driveway. I've read that nowadayss more than a quarter of homes are using garages only for starage of household items, not for cars. My husband wants the garage cleared so he can put the car back. But temporarilly, entertaining family and friends over Christmas, we need to clear the kitchen for drinks, the dining room for dining, the spare room for visitors and their coat. So the garage is the quick solution.

However, I am afraid items will go mouldy.

What about moths? You are supposed to move items around to disturb moths.

I still have shoes with high heels which I do not wear. Can I remove high heels from shoes despite the central metal bar, to make flat shoes. Even with physoiotherapy and losing weight, I won't go back to high heels. I am not the only one who has this problem. A new friend met at a wine-tasting dinner began by telling me how she can no longer wear heels.

Please tell me what works - and doesn't.

I was new to the page and did not have an established set of people with similar niche crafts such as croshet nor conversations with people I already knew locally or from sewing circles. my amateur hand sewing was outclassed by the elborate designs created by people who had sewing machines with dozens of programmes. So do I, but I use only one.

So I was astonished and delighted to open the page in the morning and find that Americans who are on a different time schedule had been busily writing replies. I had more than a doen replies and three of them had written several sentences, a huge block of text. I was really pleased to have such an instant rapport and to have made such a useful contribution.

What were the suggestions? Several of them, predictably, told me to get a grip and throw things away, or give them away, give them to charity, or sell them.

Space-saving Hooks

The most useful and surprising idea was that hanging rails do not contribute but keeping clothes crease free and storing them compactly. On the contrary, the lady and her hausband had found that they stored twice the number of jeans and jackets in a closet (cupboard, wardrove, or walk in windowless box room) by hanging clothes on numerous heavyweight hooks which they installed all around the cupboard, using, I presume, three walls plus and two quarter walls either side of a door or arch.

Add Shelves

Another suggestion was to add shelves. I have also seen half shelves on the backs of doors, like the shelves on the inside of a fridge door.