Storing Furniture in a Storage Unit

What It Takes

Storing furniture in a storage unit might seem like an easy task. Rent the unit, throw in the furniture, leave. Well, its easier said than done. There is a lot of hard work involved from treating your pieces, taking the climate into consideration and which unit is best for your items. Below, we will outline what it takes for storing furniture in a storage unit.

How to Store Your Furniture

Wrap It

The most ideal way to store furniture is by wrapping it. This means giving the furniture an airtight seal so that no moisture, dust, or bugs can get to your pieces. This is extremely important when you are storing furniture in a storage unit that is not climate controlled. When storing furniture in a storage unit you have to consider what kind of materials your furniture is made from. Below are the different makeups and what can happen to your favorite pieces if they are not stored properly.

1. Wood: Wooden furniture like coffee tables, nightstands, and chairs can dry out. Wood can also be warped and/or cracked.

2. Fabric: Fabric covered furniture like couches, head boars, and mattresses can fade in color or even attract moths that munch on the fibers.

3. Metals: Metals like rot iron chairs and metal finishings can tarnish. It is important to wrap them to get all of the air away from the metal so it will not oxodise in storage.

4. TV/Electronics: The wiring can fail when left stored incorrectly.

Leave It How You Found It

Leaving things how you found them might be the biggest lesson that mom taught us. This could not be any truer when it comes to storing furniture in a storage unit.  It is very smart to disassemble, clean, and store items in the original packaging. The item started that way for a reason.

1. Wood: By disassembling furniture (like wood) you can reduce the risk of damage to the piece. This also makes it load easier when it comes time to wrap the piece. You can also save so much space in a storage unit if you bring in furniture that has been broken down. A helpful tip for when you do disassemble your furniture: put all of the screws and tiny parts in a plastic baggie and tape it to the underside of one of the wooden pieces. This will save a headache when putting it back together again! It is also smart to store wooden furniture in the back of your storage unit. This is to keep it as far away from the door as possible to avoid any chance of moisture getting in.

2. Fabric: The main reason why we clean fabric before we store it is to avoid that musty smell when getting the pieces back out. Nobody wants that old french fry smell from dad’s recliner that you stored before cleaning it. Another major reason is so that the fabric will not attract bugs because of the smell. When something has an odor on it, it typically means that there was a spill or something got onto and seeped in the fabric fibers. Clean the fabric to reduce the chance of bugs and even mold/mildew, yuck!

3. Metals: POLISH, POLISH, POLISH! You will want to polish any metals that you are storing, especially before you wrap them. This is so important that we have to repeat ourselves.  You do not want to trap unpolished metals in shrink wrap before you polish them as the build up on the metals will oxidize and could cause rust or items to tarnish. So make sure you give them a good shine before storing.

4. TV/Electronics: Place items like these in the original packaging. TV’s come in boxes that have a little extra padding in them. This is so damage does not occur to the TV when it is being shipped. Also, you can slip the cords and remotes in this box so you don’t misplace them. Let’s be real, the first thing we typically want back in the house is the TV and the couch. By having the original box this will also keep dust off of the items if you need to store them for a long period of time.

Factors to Consider

Humidity

Wood and humidity is a definite no-no. Do you remember when you were younger and your mom would yell at you for not using a coaster? And the condensation from the cup left a ring on the coffee table? And there was always that constant reminder of that one time mom didn’t see it and now there is a permanent ring in the center? Yeah- humidity and wood are just like that! But all over! In extreme cases when humidity spikes, wood can begin to buckle if it is left in the humid air. Yes, you can always let the furniture “dry” back out but it will never be the same. Now the fibers in the wood have been weekend, there might even be a rippling effect on the surface. When storing furniture in a storage unit it is a great idea to get a climate controlled unit to avoid this. The ideal humidity level for furniture, especially wooden, is between 35 and 55. Now, what happens with the humidity lowers. As the humidity goes down, our wooden furniture shrinks. This can cause the wood to split! This is an un-fixable problem. One of the most important steps with storing furniture in a storage unit is to find a climate controlled one.

Temperature

Much like humidity, temperature plays a similar role when storing furniture in a storage unit especially with wood involved. Wood is one of the most sensitive pieces of furniture. The reasoning is because of its porous makeup. When the temperature goes up you can almost guarantee that the humidity will as well and like stated above, the wood will expand with the moisture. Then again when the temps drop, the humidity does as well and pulls the moisture out of the air (and wood) causing the contraction and cracking of wood. Outdoor wooden furniture is a bit of a different story compares to indoor furniture. The makeup of outdoor furniture is compounded differently so it can withstand most of these drastic drops, however, mother nature is not thinking about our furniture when she decides to go from sunshine one day to snow the next. Indoor wooden furniture is created as indoor furniture, so it may not have all of the weatherproofing finished added to the piece.

Climate Controlled Storage

A climate controlled storage will be your best friend when it comes to storing furniture in a storage unit. By being climate controlled, this means that when the temperature drops outside, the unit will adjust accordingly. When the weather outside rises, the unit will also adjust. This will save some of a headache when it comes to storing furniture in a storage unit. You may not also have to wrap your wooden pieces as tightly or stress about putting the TV in the correct box. To learn more about a climate controlled storage unit, click here!

Storing Furniture in a Storage Unit – Greenwood, Indiana

The place for storing furniture in a storage unit in Greenwood, Indiana can be found at Smith Valley Storage. Smith Valley has climate controlled units, video surveillance, family-owned, 24-hour access, and a variety of sizes in units. Being Greenwood, Indiana weather has a huge role in our daily lives. I’m sure you know that our area is HUMID. Our humidity levels stay pretty consistent through the year but summers are where its the highest. In the mornings we can reach levels as high as the 80’s. In the evenings we get to the mid 50’s. Humidity and furniture is not always a good mix, as you read above. We also get below freezing temperatures in Greenwood, Indiana and we can go from 80 degrees one day to negative temps the next. For a monthly break down of temperatures in Greenwood, Indiana click here! Drastic changes are both hard on us, and our furniture.

Smith Valley Storage

Get started today and store your furniture the right way! Visit us online to rent a unit today or give us a call at 317-882-7361