You likely use your garage as your at-home storage unit where you can conveniently place winter-wear or other seasonal clothing, lawn equipment, and other unused items where you can get to them in case you need them. However, your garage isn't the best place to store everything.
The unpredictable temperatures, easy access for rodents, and lack of space in your garage can make housing certain household items less convenient. Here are items you store in your garage that should be in selfstorage instead and why renting a storage unit is beneficial.
Your garage isn't the best place to store clothing. The other common items you keep in the garage, such as car parts and lubricants, paint supplies, and pesticides, all leave behind odors and fumes that can get on clothing. Even if you store clothes in airtight bins or containers, your seasonal wear items can still become susceptible to damage from other garage items, particularly sensitive materials such as lace, leather, fur, or satin.
Instead, store all clothing in a climate-controlled storage unit. House all clothing items in an air-tight plastic bin with a lid, and stack bins on pallets to keep them off the ground. Label all clothing bins with sizes, gender, and type of season they are to be worn to help keep these items organized.
Your garage is not as secure as a self-storage unit as far as keeping out moisture, heat, and pests. This means anything you consider to be of value - including photographs CDs, jewelry, electronics, scrapbooks, and family mementos - are at risk for damage if you leave them in the garage.
All valuables should either be kept in the home inside an attic or closet area or placed in storage. A self-storage unit is your best option, as it allows you to save space in the home and keep your valuables protected. Let your home insurance company know what you have in storage and add storage insurance to your policy if needed.
Heat makes tires go flat, so your garage is not an ideal location for bicycles, ATVs, dirt bikes, and other wheeled equipment in the summertime. Unless you use these items on a regular basis throughout the year, keep all wheeled equipment in a climate-controlled storage unit to preserve the tires. Spare and unused car tires should be placed in storage as well.
Before placing any tires in storage, air all tires according to manufacturer instructions. This way, the tires should be full and able to use when you take your wheeled equipment out of storage.
One of the most common garage items are seasonal decorations: Christmas lights, blow-up lawn decorations, and other items get shoved in the garage to be forgotten about until the next holiday they're needed.
Your garage is not ideal for seasonal decor for a few reasons: insects and rodents can get into wired decorations and destroy them or moisture can get into your garage and cover holiday pieces in mildew and mold.
To preserve your holiday accents, place them in a storage unit that you can drive up to for easy access. When you need to remove one holiday box, simply drive up to your unit and remove what you need, then replace one season's decor with another to keep decorations organized.
It's fine to keep car-related items, yard equipment, and other household necessities in the garage, but many things you place in this part of your property should be in storage instead. To find out what size and style of storage unit you need, talk to our specialists at
All Secure Storage
today. We offer a variety of units to meet your needs and help you keep your belongings safe.
