Storing SmarterThan Ever Before

If you need to move into a smaller home temporarily, you may wonder what to do about your excess belongings. You might have an extra bedroom set you won't need, and you may even need to thin down the clothes and belongings you have in your closets if your closets are much smaller.

If your move to a smaller place is for the long term, it may be worth it to sell the things you don't need. However, if you'll be moving again in a year or so, you may want to put your things in a climate-controlled storage facility instead. Here's how a climate-controlled facility works and why it's preferable over outside storage.

How Climate-Controlled Storage Works

Climate-controlled storage doesn't have a constant temperature all year long. Instead, the humidity and temperature are kept within a safe range in all seasons of the year. The temperature may vary, but it won't get too hot or too cold in your unit. By controlling temperature, humidity is also controlled, and that keeps your things from getting musty.

Climate-controlled units are often housed inside a big building rather than being lined up in rows outdoors. This makes them a little less convenient to get to, but once you're inside, you'll be comfortable working inside your unit since you'll be protected from temperature extremes.

Why A Climate-Controlled Storage Facility Is Best

Since both climate-controlled units and outside storage are available, you may wonder what's best for you and why climate control is preferable. It sort of depends on what you're storing. If you'll be putting household goods, such as furniture, clothing, and decor in storage, you'll probably want climate control.

An outside storage unit will have temperatures close to the outdoor temperature. Extreme temperatures are hard on electronics, paintings, documents, fabrics, metal, and wood furniture. Freezing temperatures are just as bad as extremely hot temperatures. Too little is just as bad as too much humidity.

Controlling the temperature and humidity range protects your wood furniture from cracking and warping and metal from rusting. You'll save your electronics and fabrics from damage. It's worth the extra cost to make sure your belongings will come out of storage in good shape so they're ready to be put to use as soon as you move to a bigger home.

Another reason climate-controlled units are often preferred is that they are inside a larger building and better protected. The inside units have more protection against vandals, wind, rain, insects, and mice than a unit that sits outside through all seasons of the year. 

For more info about climate-controlled self-storage units, contact a local company.