Boxing up autumn without crushing it

Velvet takes a dent and keeps it

A stitched velvet pumpkin is stuffing inside a nap. Press a heavy box onto it for eight months and the nap lies down in that shape, which no amount of fluffing fully lifts. Velvet goes on the top layer, never under anything.

If a pumpkin has arrived flattened from a long summer in a bin, stand it in a bathroom while a shower runs and let the steam do the work. Do not iron it and do not hold it over a kettle.

Felt wants flat, not folded

Felt has no weave to spring back, so a fold becomes a crease and the crease becomes a line you can see across a table. Stuffed felt shapes keep better standing upright in a box than lying under a lid that presses on them.

Preserved stems break where they bend

Eucalyptus loops and maple stems are dry by design. They do not wilt, they snap, and they snap at the point where the wire inside stops. Store a loop lying in a circle rather than squashed into a square box, and stand loose stems in a tall carton the way you would stand umbrellas.

• One layer of stems per carton, not a bundle.
• Keep the carton off a garage floor, where damp comes up.
• Label the outside, because a dark carton of dry stems looks like every other carton.

Where the box goes matters more than the box

An attic swings from cold to hot and back twice a day in spring, and that movement is what dries glue and stiffens fabric. A cupboard inside the house is duller and far kinder. If the only space you have is a garage, get the box off the concrete and onto a shelf.