What Not to Put in Storage

If you are new to renting storage, you may not be aware that there are several types of items it’s best to avoid placing in your new unit. Whether this is for the well-being of your items or for the well-being of others, there are some things you just shouldn’t plan to store.

Vegetation
When the number of daylight hours begins to dwindle, some people decide to move their houseplants out of their homes and into a storage property. Bad idea. Live plants, or even dead ones for that matter, attract pests that range from winged insects to furry, four-pawed destroyers of all things vegetation. No sunlight and rare drinks of water turn healthy plants into shriveled, brown plants inside a storage unit.

Food
No, we’re not talking about the food you consume daily. Instead, we’re talking about long-lasting food such as dry and canned goods. Although you might think packaged foods work well as a storage option, the fact remains that many types of wildlife possess super keen senses of smell that can detect a whiff of canned beans from miles away. No food, no pests invading your storage unit.

Hazardous Materials
If you won’t store something in your garage or basement because it poses a threat to someone’s safety, why would you store at a facility that is accessed by dozens of different people? The answer is you wouldn’t, which means you should store hazardous materials at locations that accommodate the safety requirements of the materials. Corrosive, explosive, and flammable materials have no place sitting inside a storage area.

Highly Scented Items
If you plan to store a scented candle or anything else that takes little effort to smell, you might as well place a Welcome mat out for the squirrels, raccoons, and other species of wildlife that live nearby. Wild animals use their noses as radars to detect possible food sources. Although a scented candle is not considered a food source, it is the nose alarm that sends scavengers into storage facilities on the hunt for some tasty morsels.

Valuables
What is considered valuable to your neighbor might not be valuable to you, and vice versa. For storage purposes, anything of value brings a high sale price in the open market. Storing things like high-end jewelry and electronics inside a unit attracts another type of pest. They are called criminals that make it a point to target storage facilities for the bounty that often waits for them inside.

If you want a reminder of what not to put in storage, just read the contract you are about to sign with a storage facility. Everything that is banned should be in the fine print of the storage contract. Violating the provision of the banned items of a contract can lead to penalties as stiff as a hefty fine.