How to Store Furniture Long-Term in Fairfax, VA & Silver Spring, MD
Whether it’s a family piece that represents years of precious moments or a curated set you wouldn’t be able to replace, furniture is more than a place to sit or eat. It is how an empty space becomes your family’s home.
When you’re moving pieces into long-term storage, whether for a renovation or an overseas work assignment, you want everything to come out looking and functioning as good as it did going in.
At Georgetown Moving and Storage, we’ve helped families throughout the DMV, including Fairfax and Silver Spring, store furniture for months and years. We have the security, organization, and climate control to keep your items safe for as long as you need to store them.
What Happens in the Wrong Storage Environment?
The wrong storage environment can age or destroy your furniture. You locked the door and paid the monthly fee, but six months later, you open it and find the dining table warped. Your soft leather chairs have white mildew spots, and the dresser drawers stick because the wood has swelled and can’t return to its original shape. There wasn’t a fire or a flood; the damage came from the air itself.
The DMV area has weather extremes and high humidity, which are brutal on wood, fabric, leather, and pretty much anything that isn’t indestructible. Inside a standard storage unit, everything expands as it absorbs extra moisture in the air, then dries out and cracks in the winter.
The longer your furniture languishes in an uncontrolled environment, the more damage you’ll see. The right storage facility isn’t the most convenient one or the cheapest; it’s the one that controls against these climate extremes and protects your pieces until you’re ready to retrieve them.
How Climate Control Protects Your Furniture
Climate-controlled storage keeps the temperature and humidity consistent throughout the year. While the humidity outside swings from ‘swamp’ to ‘desert,’ climate-controlled storage facilities create a safe environment for even your delicate pieces.
While temperature and humidity control are important for most of your pieces, it’s critical for wood, leather, and upholstery. Wood is a living material that “breathes” with its environment, and leather and upholstery are magnets for moisture. Climate-controlled storage units also often have better air filtration, which means your pieces stay cleaner and don’t accumulate as much dust.
Our secure storage facilities in Arlington and Alexandria maintain conditions that protect your pieces, whether you’re with us for four months or four years.
What to Do Before Furniture Goes Into Storage
While climate control, security, and good air filtration are the baseline for keeping your furniture in good condition, how you prepare your pieces for storage is also very important.
Clean Every Item Before Storing It
You want to clean every piece of furniture before it goes into storage. For wood, this means wiping down surfaces (inside and out) and removing any residue that could attract insects or damage the finish over time. Add a coat of furniture polish to give it a moisture barrier.
Vacuum your upholstered furniture, and treat any stains now, because they’ll only be harder to get out later. For your leather pieces, cleaning and conditioning will make sure they stay supple rather than drying out.
Don’t Suffocate Your Pieces in Plastic
You’ve probably seen those big rolls of plastic film, and you can use that (a little) to help hold your blankets in place, but don’t put plastic directly against your furniture and don’t encase it in plastic.
Moving blankets protect the finishes and surfaces while allowing air to circulate. Plastic wrap traps moisture against the surface and invites mold to grow. Use blankets or fabric covers on wood and upholstery. For leather, cover loosely so the material can breathe.
Disassemble and Document
If you are storing larger pieces that break down, like tables or bed frames, disassemble them before storage. This protects the joints from stress during the move and saves space on the truck and in the unit.
If you disassemble the pieces yourself, keep all the hardware for each piece in a labeled bag and tape it to the piece it belongs to. You’ll thank yourself when it’s time to put it all together again!
For antiques or irreplaceable items, ask for custom crating. It provides structural protection that blankets can’t offer. And regardless of value, photograph everything before it goes into storage.
How Full-Service Storage Works Differently
If you’ve stored pieces yourself before, you know the hassle that comes with most storage options. You wrap and pack everything, rent a truck or hire movers with a truck, rent the unit, open it up, and put your stuff in. If you need something while it’s being stored, you hope you put that box or piece near the door and that it’s labeled.
At Georgetown Moving and Storage, we know you don’t have time and energy in your busy life to do all of that yourself. Our full-service storage takes care of everything from packing (optional) to pickup, meticulous inventory, and transport to storage. Whether you want a PODS-style portable unit or a standard storage unit, we pick everything up, bring it to our climate-controlled facilities, and deliver it wherever you want it when you’re ready, even if that’s across the country.
If you need an item or two from your storage unit, we’ll bring them to you. You never have to trek to the facility and dig around to find your stuff.
Your Furniture, Protected
Whether you’re storing a few pieces while you stage your home for sale or an estate’s worth of pieces while you live overseas, you want to know your furniture will be there and in good condition when you need it.
In addition to offering climate-controlled storage facilities, every member of our team goes through a comprehensive background check before handling a single piece of furniture. Our facilities are secure, with limited access and professional oversight. When your furniture sits with us for three months or three years, you know exactly who is responsible for it.
Call us at (703) 889-8899 or request a free estimate online. With over 20 years of serving Fairfax, VA, and Silver Spring, MD, we know how to take care of your most precious pieces.
