Around seven years ago, on the first brisk day of fall, my husband Matt and I discovered we had moths when we pulled our favorite sweaters for the first time since the spring. The moths had clearly had a feast in our closet. Since we’d never had moths before, we turned to our dry cleaner, who told us to bring him every single piece of wool or cashmere in our closet, and then to scrub down every surface they were in. I think the bills were close to $600, which was a huge blow on top of losing many of our favorite clothes.
That was in our old apartment, and luckily we haven’t had them at our new place--yet. But just a month ago, my husband swore he saw a moth and panicked. We scoured the Internet to see if there was some great (and non-toxic) solution out there, and learned a lot of new-to-us tips.
What We Learned The Hard Way:
It turns out that the most important time to think about moths is just as summer arrives, when you’re packing up clothes for winter storage. I had no idea that what attracts moths are human smells on sweaters (sweat, food spills), and putting away a sweater that hasn’t been properly cleaned is a sure-fire way to solicit them. Even if one sweater is put away worn and unwashed, it could affect all the other cleaned sweaters. Also, the way you store the sweaters matters: Moths don’t like cotton, so if you get some muslin cloth and layer your sweaters in that, you can also deter the evil critters.
But I’m so not the expert on this—and I’ll leave you with two tips that, for me, explained the process the best.
Bringing In The Professionals:
My favorite resources are a likely one, Martha Stewart, and an unlikely one, Christopher Brosius, the owner of CB I Hate Perfume. He’s an artist who makes perfume (the name comes from his dislike of perfumes that he feels make everyone smell the same), and has battled moths for over 20 years. He’s made an amazing wardrobe spray in cedar and lavender, and even if you don’t have moths, it’s nice to mist your clothes with it.
CB I Hate Perfume Cedarwood Spray has hints of lavender. It's so pretty you can mist onto your clothes even if you don't have moths!
Now, I’ve looked at dozens and dozens of opinions online, and no one articulates how to deal with moths better than Martha and this guy. Martha really covers all aspects of the issue, and has great suggestions on how to clean up the moth-mess (white distilled vinegar mixed with water works great!) if you’re unlucky enough to have them. Bookmark these moth-tip pages, because if you’ve ever had them, you know how much you need to never have them again. It’s so worth putting the time into proper storage now, because the last thing you want is to lose your beloved cardigan and to spend a fortune on getting everything else cleaned. And of course the moths always go straight for your favorite sweater.
Yolanda Edwards has worked at Elle, W, and Conde Nast Traveler, and was the founding travel and lifestyle editor of Cookie. Today she is a consultant and author of the family travel blog Travels With Clara.
