That means it’s time to get our skis and snow wear into off-season storage. I like to get it all out of the house so I don’t have to move skis and snowboards and bags of gloves out of the spare room every time we have guests. Our storage unit is the perfect spot for winter sports gear.
Ski apparel
The warm weather meant we could quickly wash and dry all of our snow apparel. Every single item seems to have a different washing instruction, but once we got going, we got through it quite quickly. I gave everything a once-over – and I’m glad I did! I spotted a little rip in my ski pants. I did a quick repair to stop it getting worse, but now I know I should look out for a new pair in the sales. My wife found a busted seam on her ski jacket, which was new this season. Annoying, but we should be able to get it sorted out under the warranty, so it was lucky we checked. My daughter found 10 euros – which I think was mine, but she says she earned it by checking eighteen pockets and by pairing up all the socks.
How to store your skis
Last year I took our skis and snowboards to our local ski shop for a pre-storage waxing, but this year I decided to do it myself. I found a ski waxing tutorial on YouTube and gave it a go – it wasn’t too difficult or messy.
The spare room isn’t a bad place to store skis, but I feel much happier knowing they are carefully put away in a climate-controlled space. No moisture to cause rusting; no heat to dry out the plastics. Skis should be stored flat with nothing on top, so they go into our unit last of all.
Boots off
Our boots have been airing since my last skiing trip in April, so they were dry inside. My daughter’s feet have grown again, and I’ve popped her snowboarding boots on a local for-sale site. I’ve put a note on the calendar to get her a new pair in October. But I’ve packed my ski boots and my wife’s into ski boot bags and put them in our self-storage unit.
Goggles
Goggles are such small things that I thought about just sticking them in a drawer at home – but my experience is that it’s better to store everything for one activity together. And my wife pointed out that our boot bags actually have special pockets for ski goggles. How clever is that?
It feels really good to know that our winter sports gear is safely stored and all ready for us (apart from a few items that need replacing). The added peace of mind that self-storage insurance provides leaves me free to enjoy my summer – although I am, of course, looking forward to hitting the slopes again next winter.
