During my years of violin lessons, I was taught to store a violin with the
strings loose--the bridge is not glued down and it may shift but it is not
unusual to have to adjust it occasionally.  Also, I'm not sure of specifics
but the humidity factor of the storage place is a concern--my violin case
even has a gauge for humidity just for everyday use.

Random household hint--to clean the dust out of the inside of a violin--place
some rice (raw-not cooked!!) in the F holes and shake that around and then
carefully dump out.  Hopefully the dust bunnies will exit with the rice.  My
violin teacher promised this worked although I've never tried it.  She also
told the funny story of someone trying this with cooked rice--needless to say
the violin suffered a lot of damage!

--Mary Clancy Haack
Association of Youth Museums
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