You have an important collection of books, magazines, or journals that you would like to keep in good condition while in storage. And the following simple guide will go over a few tips that should help preserve your precious materials.

The Right Temperature & Mold Protection

The biggest problem you may face with your reading content is mold. Keeping them in a case should help, but cases can also stick to your items when moisture is present, which can cause irreparable damage.

The best thing you can do is choose a temperature-controlled unit that can help protect your items. This will help prevent moisture (and insects) from invading your space. Make sure your unit stays between 65 to 68 degrees and that the humidity level remains between 25 to 65 percent, but 45 percent is ideal. 

You can talk to your storage specialist about other things that you can do to keep mold from affecting your important materials.

Cedar Oil For Insect Protection

Another issue that your storage content might face is the possibility of insects. Paper is food to several types of insects like roaches, beetles, or silverfish to name a few, which is bad news for your collection should you suffer an infestation. You should know that an insect's waste byproduct is acidic, which could eat paint or ink away. 

Consider putting cotton balls around your unit sprinkled with a few drops of cedar oil; that should help prevent insects from coming in. 

Cedar oil contains several bug-repelling compounds like thujone that help keep insects at bay. Insects might feel disoriented when exposed to the smell and should refrain from getting any closer to the source of the smell. And, should an insect wander near your items, the contents in cedar may dehydrate this insect to the point of death.

You can periodically come back to your storage unit, and replace the cotton balls to ensure that the smell stays strong.

Enclosed Unit Will Offer Sunlight Protection

Another important thing to consider is making sure the unit you choose is completely enclosed, meaning that sunlight will not penetrate through. The UV rays are dangerous because they can deteriorate paint rather quickly as well as dry the oils within paper, forcing the paper to prematurely rot. 

Now you have a few tips to protect your collection and know how to you choose the right storage unit, but remember that you can still ask a storage specialist (such as one from Midway Storage) for additional tips.

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