How to store a canvas and leather bag over summer
British weather is hard on bags from October to March; summer is hard on them in a quieter way. Heat, sunlight and a cupboard that bakes against an outside wall do more damage over three months than a winter of rain does. The good news is that putting a bag away properly takes about twenty minutes and stops most of that damage before it starts. This is the routine for a waxed canvas and leather bag that is about to sit unused from June to September.
Step one: empty it completely
Take everything out, including the things that live in the bottom of the bag and you have forgotten about: the loose receipts, the pen that leaked, the mints. A bag stored with a heavy load in it keeps its shape only in the shape of the load; a bag stored empty but unstuffed collapses into creases that set over the summer. Both are wrong. Empty it completely, then move to step two.
Step two: clean it gently
Brush or wipe the bag down to remove the dust and grit of the season. For the waxed canvas, a dry brush first, then a barely damp cloth for any marks. For the full-grain leather trim, a dry cloth only. Do not reach for a leather cleaner unless the leather is visibly marked; a damp cloth removes most of what a winter commute puts on the surface. The full cleaning routine for each material is in our waxed canvas care guide and our full-grain leather care guide.
Step three: condition the leather lightly
Condition the leather trim once, lightly, before storage. The reason is that a stored bag cannot absorb the small amounts of moisture it would normally pick up from your hand and from the air, so the leather needs a little help staying supple through the dry months. Use a small amount of a beeswax and oil conditioner on the straps, the base and the corners. Less is more; a bag that goes into storage heavily oiled will darken unevenly and may attract dust.
The break-in guide explains why light conditioning matters and how much is too much: how to break in a full-grain leather bag. If the bag is brand new and not yet broken in, summer storage is a fine time to start the process gently; the same rules apply.
Step four: stuff it, don't just fill it
Stuff the bag with tissue paper or a clean cotton sheet, not with clothes or towels. The point of the stuffing is to hold the bag's shape, not to make it heavy. Crumple the paper loosely so it holds the sides out without stretching them. The bag should keep its silhouette when lifted but should not feel full. A bag stored with no stuffing at all will develop creases at the fold lines that are hard to remove later.
Step five: wrap it in cotton, never plastic
Wrap the bag in a cotton dust bag or a clean cotton pillowcase. Never store a leather bag in plastic: plastic traps moisture, and a bag that goes into a plastic bag in June can come out with mould in September. The cotton lets the leather breathe while keeping the dust off. If you do not have a dust bag, a pillowcase is the perfect size for a holdall or a weekender.
Step six: choose the right shelf
Store the bag flat or upright on a shelf, away from three things: direct sunlight, radiators and outside walls. Sunlight fades waxed canvas and dries leather faster than anything else. A radiator, or a wall that bakes in summer sun, dries the leather out and can crack it by September. A cool, dark, dry cupboard is the ideal; if the only option is a wardrobe against an outside wall, keep the bag in its cotton wrap and check on it once in August.
Step seven: check on it once
Once in the middle of the summer, take the bag out, feel the leather for dryness and look for any patch of mould. This takes two minutes and catches the two failures that storage causes: leather drying out and mould starting in a damp cupboard. If the leather feels dry, a light conditioning fixes it. If there is mould, brush it off in a well-ventilated space, let the bag air for a day and move it to a drier spot. The materials behave differently in storage; the comparison of waxed canvas, dry canvas and polyester explains why waxed canvas is the more forgiving of the three: waxed versus dry versus polyester canvas.
Bringing it out in autumn
When the bag comes out in September, do not just load it and go. Let it sit in the open air for a few hours to rebalance any dampness, give it a light conditioning if the leather feels stiff, and carry it empty for a day before the first full commute. The bag will look the way it did in May, and the first week back will re-set the creases that storage put in. The holdalls and weekenders in our range are built to survive exactly this cycle, year after year.
