Top Winter Storage Tips

Winter is upon us. Right now, people are bringing Christmas trees, presents, and decorations into their homes. You may be wondering what you can do to make room for this new stuff. We have some suggestions for you!

Self storage is perfect for safekeeping items you don’t need in the winter. In the summer, you don’t need your heavy coats and sleds, and in the winter, you’re not likely to need your beach toys and shorts. Here are our suggestions for what items to store during the winter, and how to store them.

Climate Control

During dry, cold months, you’re going to want a self storage unit with climate control. Think about what cold, dry weather does to your skin. The skin on your knuckles cracks. You get chapped lips. In an unprotected unit, those conditions also affect your things.

Wood, in furniture, musical instruments, picture frames, and so on, can get dried out and crack. Delicate parts inside computers or other electronics can snap and warp. Paper, in personal records, books, and magazines, can get weaker and more brittle. Over time, this sort of weather can cause serious damage to your belongings, so make sure you have a climate controlled unit.

Wardrobe Swapping

Self storage works great as a place to keep your off-season clothes. In the summer, you’ll want your tank tops, shorts, and flip-flops. Heat and humidity (another good reason to have a climate controlled unit, by the way) necessitate lighter clothing to help keep you comfortable.

In the winter, your wardrobe goes through a dramatic shift. Depending on how cold it gets where you live, you may be wearing sweaters, thick jackets, thermal underwear, furry boots, gloves, and knit caps.

As winter approaches, pack up your summer clothing. Give everything a good washing, make sure it’s dry, and pack it into sturdy boxes. You may want to consider using tight-sealing, plastic bins, or vacuum packing your clothing. Bring your summer wardrobe to storage and swap it out with your winter clothes. Then, when summer is rolling around, store your winter clothes in much the same way, and take out your summer clothes. This will save you a lot of dresser and closet room at home.

Summer Toys

Do you have kids? If so, you might want to put their toys specifically for the beach or park in storage over the winter. This is especially true if your area gets especially cold and snowy.

Much like your wardrobe items, clean and thoroughly dry beach and park toys. These store well in plastic bins, toy barrels, or sports equipment storage bins. Since you’ll have a climate controlled unit, it’s not necessary to store them in an airtight container.

Bikes and Skateboards

Riding your bike or skateboarding on icy pavement is a recipe for falling and breaking an arm, and riding on salted roads can cause damage to your wheels and the body of your favorite ride. We recommend that in snowy areas, you put your bikes, skateboards and roller blades in storage for the winter.

Clean them with warm, soapy water and dry them thoroughly. You will need to let them air dry a bit. In storage, park your bike or scooter beside your boxes. Skateboards can go on top of higher boxes, wheels up, and rollerblades or roller skates can go in in boxes.

Vehicles

Do you have a vehicle that you need to put in storage over the winter? Maybe you don’t use your motorcycle during that time, or you have a second car that you don’t want getting its parts frozen over months if disuse. Perhaps you travel in your RV during the summer, and you don’t want your pipes to freeze over the winter. Maybe you have a jet ski, and zipping around in the ocean or local lake is out of the question when the temperature gets too low. Each of the links here will give you specifics, from topping off the gas, to changing the oil, to draining water systems and adding antifreeze.

For larger vehicles, from jet skis to RVs, you’ll need to rent a vehicle storage unit. We suggest you find out if the facility where you already have a unit also has vehicle storage. If not, you can find another local facility that does.

Once winter ends, you can retrieve your warm-weather items and store your winter goods instead, and with this cycle, keep your home less cluttered while protecting things you don’t need now, but will want back later.