I need to put most of my books and papers in a non-climate-controlled storage unit, and would like to know the best way to store them to prevent any significant damage. They may be there for just a year, or may wind up being there for a decade.
They’re stored in cardboard boxes. Should I tape the boxes shut, or leave them unsealed for circulation?
You don’t want circulation. Ambient outdoor humidity is not your friend. Rubber bins would be better than cardboard to protect your stuff, although nothing short of hermetically-sealing is going to protect them forever.
I stored a bunch of books in an outdoor storage unit for about a year. Some were in cardboard boxes, some were in rubbermaid bins. The cardboard did a poorer job of protecting the contents than the bins. None of my stuff was outright ruined. But some of the pages in the top books in the cardboard boxes got a little warped. If cardboard is your only option, I would try to wrap the boxes in plastic wrap if you can.
An easier option is to get a bunch of large clear garbage bags and use them as box liners. That is S.O.P. for me for just about anything I store in cardboard. 30 gal. size works well for average file boxes.
(They don’t actually have to be clear. I just think it makes them look less “garbagey.”)
This is smarter than my idea, do it!
Sliding this up to IMHO.
Do storage businesses provide pallets to place the boxes on? Should the boxes be off of the concrete floor? I read somewhere that you want circulation. Is this true?
If it’s outdoor storage, you want to protect against mousies. I had stuff in an outdoor storage facility for 3 months, and mice ate/tore up portions of my books, and shat upon things, as well.
I suggest plastic bins with lids.
This is an excellent idea. Modern paper isn’t nearly as durable as it was in the past and humidity can cause a lot of damage. Plastic bins would be better, but being sure the bags are tightly sealed will work as well.
While you are boxing everything up, be sure to lay everything flat. Flop the books around so the spines are on alternating sides.
Concrete is porous and will absorb moisture, but the real reason to use pallets is in case of flooding which is a very real possibility if the OP is using one of those storage places.
Pallets are pretty easy to come by, so this is an excellent suggestion for the OP.
bobot is very right about rodents and the damage they can cause. I’m not big on using poison, but in cases of outside storage I really do recommend using it. At one point in my career as a Records Manager, we had 1200 boxes of paperwork in outside storage and the RatKing and his minions happily moved in.
I’m doomed if rodents are a real problem at a storage facility that you pay a monthly rental fee for. I’d hope they would take preventative measures.
You don’t need pallets, you can use two 2x4s to keep the boxes off the ground. You should do that. And yeah, if you’re going to use boxes, use plastic bags as liners. I like bankers’ boxes myself. They’re inexpensive and stack easily.
From what I understand, storage facilities don’t care about your stuff. All they care about is their monthly fee. Its your responsibility to see that your stuff is packed properly and safely. I’m quite sure that the management at your storage place doesn’t want rodents infesting their place, but they can’t put poison bait in your storage unit. Protect yourself lest the RatKing moves in.
I have quite a bit of experience with this actually. I used to collect baseball cards in the 80’s, magazines/comics through the 80’s-90’s, and textbooks since 1999. My advice: don’t even try. Paper is ridiculously hard to preserve. I’ve gone through extreme lengths, and nothing can stop the environment, bugs, temperature, etc. from degrading paper. I’ve also talked to librarians who have experienced the same issue. The best you can possibly hope for is to delay the decay, but it is impossible to stop. And even if you put it in the perfect environment to preserve the paper, usually paper products are not 100% paper. I’ve got several books that are less than 10 years old where the glue in the spine disintegrated, cloth in covers that dried up, staples in comics that rusted, etc.
Honestly, the best results I have had in all the different types of preservation methods I have tried is to wrap paper in less valuable paper, e.g. newspaper. The moisture/bugs/etc. will usually attack the outer layer and leave the inner layer relatively untouched. You can also get this effect by using cardboard boxes to store your paper. In 10 years, the box will melt but the papers will be OK.
And even then, there’s no guarantee. Usually, the reason you are trying to preserve paper is the ink on that paper. Ink is incredibly unreliable. It will fade, stick to the page above it, bleed through to the opposite side of the paper, etc.
If you really, really, really want to preserve documents, I would recommend just getting a good camera and converting them to digital and making new copies every 1-5 years.
As a self-storage owner, for some 16 years or so, I’ve seen quite a bit. What others have suggested are good ideas.
You want air circulation in your unit. Virtually all roll-up doors at the non-climate controlled self storage facilities have several inches of gap at the top. This is to help with airflow. The pallets, or any type of boards laid across the concrete floor is to help with air circulation. It also helps prevent mold problems. I normally don’t think it is necessary for people going to these great of lengths, but if you plan on having lots of boxes of books, magazines, paper records, etc, in the unit, it’s generally not a good idea at all to place them directly on the floor, especially if it is going to be long term unless you have them on some types of boards. You can generally get away with it in my area, but a few times a year you can expect concrete slabs to sweat in non-climate controlled units. Some areas will experience more, others less. This is nearly always generally due to weather phenomenon, with rapid temperature changes, and dew point being the main culprit. This article explains it quite well.
Someone brought up rat poison in the units, and the owners of facilities won’t put it in there because it was illegal. AFAIK, it’s not illegal, but a liability concern. If a pet or little two year old Timmy decides to make a meal out of a block of rat poison in the unit, you may find yourself at the end of a lawsuit. I use rat poison throughout all of my buildings, and also another poison spray that I place directly on the concrete and helps keep critters like crickets and other bugs dead for a good 6-9 months. It’s just the OTC stuff that you can get at Lowes, Home Depot or Walmart in their lawn and garden section.
I have the blocks of poison set up where the rat block of poison can only be accessed by very small critters, and can only go through a 1 ½” opening, right by the door openings, but kids and pets are not able to reach it. I’ve never had any issues with this. I don’t have rats where I’m at, but do have the occasional mice that gets in. This is nearly always due to the roll-up doors themselves. No matter how tight you try to put the door in the tracks, mice have an amazing ability to squeeze through the smallest of openings. What few that get in my facility, tend to go belly up fairly quick. Some customers also put out their own rat poison. When they leave, if they don’t take it with them, I get it all out myself.
The garbage bag liners work well, that another suggested, many do this at my facility. The rubber tubs, also work great, but more expensive. Many also use these. It not only helps with sweating concrete, but helps keep the critters out especially if longer term. They also stack well. In a really bad winter, mice will eat just about anything including the tubs, so bring your own poison if the owner of the facility doesn’t use it.
To the OP: If you think it might be for many years, even a decade that you want to store the stuff you’re describing, I do hope you periodically check on the contents. Lots of things can happen during that time. You want to at least check on the unit after a really good rain initially too, and every so often continue doing so or having someone else do it if you are away.
Is it a good idea for boxes filled with books to line them with paper bags, bubble wrap or anything like that?