So my wife and I got into it last weekend. Not a fight fight, but one of those disagreements where you’re both standing there wondering how the other person’s brain works.
We’re clearing out the basement because our daughter is moving back home temporarily. There’s this old camping gear from like 2019 sitting in a corner. Tent, sleeping bags, camp stove, all stuffed in bags.
My wife goes “just throw it in the storage unit.”
I go “we can’t put that in storage, it’s dirty.”
She goes “it’s camping stuff, it’s supposed to be dirty.”
And I’m standing there holding this tent that got packed up wet three years ago and never opened since. You know what’s in that bag? I don’t either. But I know it’s not good.
Anyway that’s what got me thinking about writing this down. Because most people are like my wife. Not in a bad way. Just in a “it’s fine, throw it in” way. And most of the time? Yeah it’s probably fine. But that one time it’s not fine? You lose stuff.
Let Me Tell You About My Brother’s Couch
This is a true story and my brother still gets mad when I bring it up.
He had this leather recliner. Nice one. Expensive. He’d had it for maybe five years. When he moved cross country he put it in storage for six months while he got settled.
Day before he moved into his new place, he went to pull the recliner out. Opened the unit and the smell hit him from like twenty feet away. You know that smell? Like wet basement mixed with old cheese.
Turns out his kid had spilled juice on that recliner like two years earlier. He’d wiped it up. Thought it was fine. But some of that juice had run down inside the recliner mechanism where you can’t see. Sat there for two years. Then six months in a hot storage unit and that juice turned into something else entirely.
The recliner was done. Couldn’t save it. The smell was in the leather, in the foam, everywhere.
So yeah. Clean your stuff. Even the stuff you think is clean.
What I Learned From My Own Dumb Mistake
I’m not just lecturing you. I’ve messed this up plenty.
Few years back I stored a bunch of kitchen stuff. Plates, glasses, pots, all that. I’d washed everything before packing. Thought I was being careful.
But there was this one plastic container. You know the ones, like for leftovers. I’d used it for soup, washed it, dried it, put the lid on, packed it in a box.
That lid created a seal. Whatever tiny bit of moisture was still in that container? Trapped. Six months later I opened that box and the smell was unreal. The container had grown stuff. Green stuff. Fuzzy stuff. The box smelled like it and everything around it smelled like it.
Now I leave lids off everything. Let stuff air out for days before boxing. Learned that one the hard way.
The Thing About Mattresses Nobody Talks About
People store mattresses all the time. Guest room mattresses, kid’s mattresses, whatever.
Here’s the thing about mattresses. They soak up sweat and dead skin and god knows what else over the years. You can’t see it. You sleep on it every night and it’s fine. But put that mattress in a dark warm storage unit for a year and all that stuff starts to break down.
When you pull it out, it’ll have this stale sour smell that doesn’t go away.
I rented a storage unit to a guy once who stored his mattress without a cover. Just laid it flat. When he came back a year later there was a mouse nest in the corner of the mattress. Mouse had chewed a hole and moved in. Made babies in there.
He blamed us. Said we had mice. We did a full inspection and found zero mice anywhere else. Mouse came in with his stuff, found a warm mattress, made a home.
Cover your mattress. Vacuum it first. Get one of those zipper bags. Don’t let mice move in with your bed.
My Sister’s Christmas Disaster
My sister loves Christmas. Like really loves it. She has those plastic bins full of decorations. Lights, ornaments, that little village thing, all of it.
One year she stored a wreath that had gotten rained on. She’d hung it on the door for December, took it down in January, threw it in the bin with everything else.
Next December she pulls the bins out and every single thing in that bin smells like wet pine and mildew. The fabric stuff, the paper stuff, all of it. Had to throw away like half her decorations.
Now she’s crazy about drying things before storage. Everything sits in the garage for a week before it goes in bins.
What Actually Matters
Look I could give you a hundred stories. The point is pretty simple.
Anything organic grows stuff in storage. Food crumbs, sweat, spilled drinks, plant material, all of it. Give it darkness and warmth and time and it’ll grow. Mold, mildew, bacteria, sometimes bugs.
Anything fabric holds smells. If it smells even a little bit now, it’ll smell a lot later.
Anything with moving parts can have stuff stuck inside you can’t see. Recliners, blenders, vacuum cleaners. Check them.
Anything that’s been outside probably has something living on it. Spiders, eggs, dirt, moisture. Clean it before it comes inside your unit.
The Storage Unit Itself
We keep our units clean. Really. We sweep them between tenants, we check for leaks, we make sure the doors close tight. But we can’t control what goes in them.
If you bring dirty stuff in, that dirty stuff affects everything else in your unit. The smells spread. The moisture spreads. One damp box can ruin ten dry boxes around it.
I’ve seen it happen more times than I can count.
What About You?
I don’t know what you’re storing. Could be furniture from your grandma’s house. Could be your kid’s old toys. Could be boxes of books you can’t fit in your apartment.
Whatever it is, take five minutes to think about it before you pack it. Is it actually clean? Is it dry? Is there anything hiding in it that’ll cause problems later?
If you’re not sure, bring it by the office and ask. We’ll tell you straight up if it’s gonna be an issue. We’re not here to upsell you on cleaning products or make you feel dumb. We just don’t want you coming back in six months with a horror story.
One Last Story
My cousin stored his fishing gear one winter. Rods, reels, tackle boxes, all of it. He’d been out on the boat the weekend before, got everything wet, threw it in the garage to dry. Forgot about it. A month later he packed it up and put it in storage.
Spring comes. He pulls out his gear. Every single reel is seized up. Rust inside. Salt water had gotten in there and sat all winter. Hundreds of dollars worth of reels, ruined.
He still brings this up at family gatherings. “Remember when I ruined all my fishing gear?” Yes. We remember. We were there when you opened the tackle box and the smell of rust came out.
Don’t be my cousin.
Anyway that’s all I got. Clean your stuff, dry your stuff, check your stuff. It’s boring work but it beats throwing stuff away later.
If you’ve got questions about what fits in our units or how to pack something tricky, just ask. We’re here every day. Well not every day, we take Sundays off. But most days. Stop in and we’ll help you figure it out.
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