Why Summer Storage is Important
If your family doesn’t rely on summer storage tips during the hotter months, here’s why you should consider it.
Kids Visiting from College
For starters, it could be that your kids are visiting from college. You’ll definitely need the extra space for them to keep their stuff, especially if you moved into a smaller home after they left for college.
You Need to Store Away Winter Items
Winters call for shoveling snow, getting out winter clothes, and using the snow blower to get the snow off your lawn. But when summer comes around, you need to store these things away so you have room for summer items, which mostly includes pool toys and beach items.
Keep Your Items Safe during Summer Vacation
Summer vacation is a great time to visit relatives in another state or go for a holiday with your family. A summer storage tip is to store your valuable assets and keep them safe while you’re away.
What Most Families Store Away During the Summer
Want to make extra space during summer but don’t know what to start with? Here are some ideas as to what you should store away during the summer.
Winter Clothes
All those sweaters, scarves, jackets, and hats you used during the chilly winter months – put them away. Bulky woolens like these tend to take up a lot of space, which can be burdensome if your home is already small, to begin with.
Winter-Specific Items
This includes things like the snowmobile, shovels you use get snow out of the driveway, and the snow blower.
Student Dorm Items
If your kids have come to visit from college, it’s likely that they’ll need some storage space to put away their dorm items. Opting for summer storage means putting away winter items and giving the kids some extra room at home to relax.
3 Helpful Summer Storage Tips
If you’ve decided to rent a storage unit, here are a few quick summer storage tips to remember.
1. Donate Unwanted Clothes before Storing
Packing bulky winter clothes is a tiring job, so it’s best to make sure that you aren’t storing something you don’t intend to keep. This includes any sweaters, jackets, and coats you haven’t used in the last few winters and any boots that you don’t want to keep.
2. Throw Away Broken Items
Sure, it’s effective to specifically opt for summer items when choosing what to put away in summer storage. Nonetheless, it’s a great idea to give your home a quick check to see if there are any items you can store away to make extra room. When looking for such household objects, keep an eye out for broken or unused items that you don’t need – these can be donated or recycled.
3. Use the Right Storage Containers and Bags
Moreover, you should rely on the right storage bags and containers to put away clothes. It’s an effective way to keep moths from eating holes in your woolens and other clothes. Using airtight bags to keep puffy items like jackets can help you save space. Using plastic containers instead of cardboard boxes means better stack-ability in the storage unit.
What You Should Be Looking For In a Summer Storage Unit
Temperature Control or Insulation
During the summer, you’ll want your belongings to stay safe from high temperatures. Keeping your items in storage without temperature control can reduce the durability and impact their longevity. If you’re storing even basic items like electronics, wooden furniture, and clothes, getting a climate controlled unit can prevent them from getting damaged due to extreme humidity and heat.
A Charging Outlet if Necessary
Some electronic items need to be kept powered on so they stay in good shape for when you’ll need them later. Unfortunately, you need to make an extra room at home for fun summer activities. If that’s the case, select a storage unit with a charging outlet.
Drive-up Access
Don’t make storage more of a chore than it already is. Having to lug heavy boxed and furniture from the moving truck to the unit can be quite the challenge. Even if you have an extra pair of hands to help, it doesn’t imply that your belongings can’t get damaged on the short commute from the truck to the unit.
To avoid the extra hassle, choose a storage unit with drive-up access. Easy accessibility means it’s convenient to move items from the truck to the unit and organize them.
Storing Furniture
If you’re thinking of emptying out a room and storing away its furniture in a unit, take proper measures to wrap it properly so it stays protected from pests and temperature. You can follow our helpful guide on storing furniture to avoid any damage.
The guide provides easy to understand instructions on how to store different types of furniture based on the material and which items are best to disassemble.
What You Shouldn’t Keep in a Summer Storage Unit
Even though some summer storage units can offer amazing perks like a charging outlet, temperature control, and top-notch security, it still doesn’t make them the ideal place to store certain things. There are a few categories of items that you should refrain from keeping in a storage unit.
Plants
This should be pretty obvious, but many people think that using a smart watering method is enough to keep plants in a storage unit. Plants need a variety of factors than just water to thrive, so give them the sunshine and love they deserve, at home.
Perishable Foods
If you’re thinking of putting away a mini fridge in a storage unit, get rid of all the perishables, since a storage unit can mean spoilage.
Toxic Materials, Chemicals, and Flammables
Keep toxic materials, chemicals, and flammable objects and liquids out of your storage unit. These can affect other materials in the storage unit.
How to Find the Best Summer Storage Unit
Smith Valley Storage offers summer storage units with a number of features, such as temperature control, video surveillance, and drive-up access. Greenwood has fairly high humidity levels throughout summer, so you can rely on a safe summer storage unit to keep your belongings protected from the harsh summer weather.
What Our Customers Say About Us
Smith Valley Storage
1614 Smith Valley Road, Greenwood, IN 46142
317-882-7361
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