When you’re considering whether the extra cost of a climate controlled self storage space is worth it for you, there are two factors you should consider specifically:
- the value, financial and emotional, of your possessions;
- the severity of your environment’s conditions.
As with most extra costs, climate controlled self storage comes with extra benefits. Spending a little more on your storage space may result in saving a lot by not having to replace your valuables. Not to mention that many of your possessions have sentimental value that makes them irreplaceable.
Climate controlled storage protects belongings like wooden furniture
Photo credit: mikecogh
There are many benefits to using a climate controlled storage space:
- Sentiment
- Savings
- Sensitivity of Materials
- Special Storage Needs
- Temperature
- Humidity
- Peace of Mind
Sentiment
Many of our possessions are worth much more to us than they would be on the market. Family heirlooms like photographs and letters, souvenirs from vacations and the kids’ childhood, the vinyl collection from your teenage years – all of these items are made of sensitive materials that need to be protected from high humidity situations and fluctuations in temperature, which can bring about consequences like mold, mildew, and warping.
Savings
On the other hand, many of our possessions are things that would have to be replaced, at a cost, if they were damaged: clothing, electronics, furniture, books. Spending a little more to protect these important items may cost less in the end than having to replace them entirely because they were stored without regard to climate control. Sadly, not everyone is aware of the risks involved in ignoring the option of climate controlled self storage. As a result, many people’s most valuable possessions get damaged because of poor storage conditions.
Sensitivity of Materials
Because we live in homes where we’re protected from extreme heat, humidity and cold, we rarely think about how sensitive our items might be to these conditions. That wooden chair you inherited from your grandmother or that shelf your kid built in shop class are prone to warping under the wrong conditions. That expensive computer will get damaged if it’s in a moist environment. The stuff that lives in our homes benefits just as much as we do from a climate controlled environment. It’s important to make sure you provide that when storing your possessions.
Special Storage Needs
At the same time, some people – and some items – have special storage needs. Musicians may need to store precious and expensive wooden instruments such as guitars or violins. Collectors can benefit from self storage space and cannot settle for less than optimal conditions for their collections, which may also be financially valuable. Some examples include comic books, which are susceptible to mold and mildew; antiques, which can rust or warp; or even wine, which will spoil if it is not stored under the right temperature conditions. Certain valuable clothing items and accessories also have special storage needs, such as furs, which require a cool, dark storage environment, and leather and suede clothing, footwear, and handbags, which are vulnerable to mold and mildew.
Paper is one of the most sensitive materials of all, requiring protection especially from humidity, which is why archives, whose role is to preserve documents, are so attentive to the way they store and handle their materials. If your business requires document storage, climate control is a must.
Temperature and Humidity
You probably know that if you live in a climate with wide seasonal variations in temperature, it’s important to protect sensitive items from temperature extremes. What you may not know, however, is that high and low temperatures aren’t the only factors that can cause damage to items. Fluctuations in temperature or humidity can be enough to cause damage, even if these fluctuations don’t hit the extremes. In a non-climate controlled environment, your possessions are exposed to fluctuations in temperature throughout the day, during overnight drops, and from season to season. Temperature drops can increase relative humidity, which causes problems like mold, mildew, and rust. Fluctuations in relative humidity are also very hard on wood, which swells and shrinks in response, causing damage to your wooden furniture, instruments, and antiques.
Peace of Mind
In the end, the various advantages of climate controlled self storage can be summarized as “peace of mind.” By regulating temperature and humidity, climate controlled self storage protects high-use items that would be expensive to replace against mold, mildew, corrosion, warping, and more. Depending on your needs, it can protect irreplaceable heirlooms and souvenirs, the tools of your trade, or precious collections that have taken years to build. Our possessions are valuable to us in many ways and vulnerable to the environment in ways we don’t normally have to consider, which is why many self storage customers find that climate controlled self storage is right for them.
