What Items Should NEVER Go Into Storage

Storage units can hold anything, right? Not true. Some are safety hazards or attract pests. Other items will get ruined in storage or ruin everything around them.

Here are seven things that should NEVER go into a storage unit.

1. Anything Flammable or Explosive

Storage facilities will kick you out if they find gasoline or propane in your unit. One leaking gas can in a storage building can blow the place up.

You may think you can store a half-empty gas can from your lawnmower, but if fumes leak out, they will accumulate inside the closed space. One spark and 50 people lose all of their stuff. This is why storage facilities have zero-tolerance policies on flammable materials.

The same applies to the propane tank you used all summer. Does it seem empty? Propane is heavier than air, so whatever is left sinks and pools at the lowest point of the tank. In a storage unit, any spark could ignite it.

Aerosol cans don’t emit fumes, but they are under pressure. If the can fails, you’ve got a mess at minimum, and a small explosion at worst. No one wants hairspray all over their clothes.

2. Food and Perishables

Stored food attracts pests. Mice smell food in your unit. They get in through invisible gaps, eat the food, nest in your furniture cushions, chew through boxes, and poop everywhere.

Then those mice move to the next unit. The storage facility ends up with an infestation problem, and guess whose belongings are destroyed? Everyone’s.

Pet food counts as food. Bags of dog food or cat food will attract the same pests as human food. Even sealed bags of pet food have a smell that rodents can detect.

Refrigerated or frozen items obviously won’t work in storage. Storage units don’t have electricity for refrigerators or freezers. Anything that needs to stay cold will spoil within hours.

Plants don’t survive in storage either. They need light, water, and air circulation. A storage unit provides none of these things. If you’re moving and need to store plants temporarily, find someone to keep them or give them away.

3. Items That Can’t Handle Temperature Changes (Unless Your Storage is Climate-Controlled)

Although our climate-controlled storage units keep everything at a safe temperature and out of the humidity, there are several things you should never store without climate control.

Wooden furniture expands when it gets hot, then contracts when it cools back down. You might not see the damage right away, but over time, expansion and contraction cycles pull apart the joints. Drawers start sticking. Table legs get wobbly. The finish on the wood develops cracks. Antique furniture is more brittle and less able to handle another year of extreme swings.

Leather dries out when it gets hot. You might not notice right away, but after a few months in a hot storage unit, leather furniture develops cracks. You can use leather conditioner to make it look slightly better, but those cracks don’t go away.

Electronics are more fragile than people think when it comes to storage. It’s not even really about the heat or the cold by itself, but about what happens when the temperature swings back and forth. When the device gets cold overnight and then heats up during the day, water condenses on the circuit boards and internal components. Over time, it will slowly corrode all those complex circuits and ruin them.

Musical instruments don’t handle temperature changes well either. Old photographs and film deteriorate in heat, and vinyl records will warp.

4. Anything Illegal or Stolen

Storage companies will call the cops if they find stolen stuff or drugs in your unit. You lose everything you stored, plus now you’re facing criminal charges.

Prescription medications are legal and safe to store UNLESS they were prescribed to someone else. There are federal rules about storing controlled substances.

5. Hazardous Materials and Chemicals

It is easy to think paint cans would be fine in storage, but oil-based paint is flammable. Water-based paint can freeze in winter and separate. Once it separates, you can’t use it anymore.

Your cleaning supplies may seem harmless, but bleach or ammonia leaking in a closed storage unit means fumes are building up with nowhere to go. These chemicals also corrode metal shelving. Then your boxes fall, and you’ve got a bigger mess.

Motor oil and antifreeze? Storage facilities classify them as hazardous materials. They’ll make you remove them if they find them.

Pesticides and herbicides are toxic. The labels on these products tell you to store them in well-ventilated areas away from where people live, and a storage unit is definitely not well-ventilated.

Storing batteries is fine, though, right? Batteries leak acid as they get old. Car batteries are the biggest problem because they contain a lot of acid. Even your regular AA and AAA batteries can leak and cause damage.

6. Important Documents

Birth certificates and Social Security cards. You don’t need them every day. But when you need one? You need it now.

Tax returns come up when you’re applying for mortgages, and if they’re buried in storage, you’re making extra trips. Keep important documents in a file box at home, not in storage.

7. Cash, Jewelry, and Valuables

Storage facilities won’t insure cash. They say so in the rental agreement. Someone breaks into your unit? You lost that money.

Insurance coverage for Jewelry caps at around $100 per item. If your ring is worth $3,000, too bad. The insurance covers $100 of it. You can buy extra coverage, but now you’re paying monthly fees to store valuables in a facility with a padlock. Banks have safe deposit boxes with actual vault security for less money.

Collectibles work the same way. Comic books and rare coins are easy to steal. The insurance won’t cover what they’re worth. If you’re trying to protect things worth thousands of dollars, storage units weren’t designed for that.

Climate-Controlled Storage in Northern Virginia

Our highly secure storage facility stays at the same temperature all year. Plus, you don’t have to rent a truck and haul your stuff to a storage unit.

Storage with Georgetown is easy. Here’s how it works:

We pick everything up and drop it off. If you’d rather have a PODS-style portable unit, we have that, too.

Call (703) 889-8899 or contact us online to book.