As summer wraps up and you get ready for the winter away from your pool or the lake, you will want to store your items properly. This makes sure that they last longer, and are ready to go when spring shows its face next year.
Here are some things to consider when storing your summer items for the winter.
Summer clothes
Put your summer clothes in a sealed container that will keep them free from dust or – depending on the size and layout of your home – grease and oil from cooking. Clean these items before putting them away, and be ure to do an extra rinse to get bleach out from the material. Over time bleach exposure breaks down fabric fibers, shortening the life of your clothes. It is far easier – and less expensive – to wash an item and keep it in good shape than to drive someplace and try to replace it.
Pool toys
For storing your pool toys, it just takes a few simple steps. First, rinse them with water other than pool water. This can be tap water or other clean fresh water. The key idea is to get the bleach off the items, because bleach can break down some items over time.
Then give those toys adequate time to dry. Allowing all of the water to evaporate means that when freeze and thaw cycles happen, your pool balls won’t be slowly torn apart.
Also, take the air out of the inflatable items. Obviously this makes more storage space for everything you will store, but additionally it will expand the life cycle of these items.
If possible, store items where they won’t freeze
Since the freeze / thaw cycle can be so destructive, the best possible step to keep your items safe for the next season is to keep them where they won’t freeze at all. For many people, this place doesn’t exist – the pool toys stay outside all year round. That’s okay, just make sure that they are completely dry when put away. And be sure that the storage space will keep them dry all winter long. This might include putting them into a plastic bin inside of the poolside chest.
With a few simple steps you can keep your items longer. Spend more time poolside than at the store replacing items you could have saved with a few minutes’ work this fall.
Photo by Juan Salamanca: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-inflatable-floatie-61136/