There’s few things worse than opening up your storage unit to retrieve some items and finding out that you have some unwelcome visitors. Bugs, mice, etc, have a tendency to show up where they are not welcome. Storage units can offer an ideal environment for these critters, providing enclosed areas for shelter, material for nests, and protection from large predators. While that’s all good for them, it’s not good for you, so we need to try and keep them out of our storage units. Before you run out and start buying up traps, and poisons, here are some suggestions to set yourself up for success, and hopefully ward off any critters looking to make a home in your space.
Warding Off The Critters
Pack Items In Airtight Plastic Containers
Most of us have seen those plastic totes with the nice air tight lids. Not only are they a handy way to store items safely, they have applications in warding off pests. Being made of strong plastic, they will help prevent anything from chewing into them in an attempt to make its home inside. Additionally, the hard plastic isn’t an attractive material for an animal to use as nesting material. The air tight lid will keep the smallest of bugs and rodents from creeping its way in and turning your 100 year old bed sheets into a nesting ground for it’s colony.
Avoid Keeping Food In Your Unit
If you leave food for animals to find it, they are going to find it, eat it, and hang around for more. Don’t underestimate the attraction that crumbs can have as well. Keeping the unit well cleaned of crumbs or other foodstuff will lower the attraction your unit poses to something looking for a home.
Raise Your Items Off The Floor
Raising your items off the floor is going to get you a couple benefits. Firstly, it will help deter pests from taking up residents in your boxes or containers, by keeping them out of direct access from the critters on the ground. The other benefit is the prevention of moisture build up, which will ruin your items. You can raise them up using shelving if you’d like, but simple palettes, or a board across a few bricks would work well too.
Cover Up Furniture
Upholstered furniture or soft items like mattresses can sometimes have bugs that found their way inside them. If you end up storing something that has an infestation, it will spread to other items in your storage unit, running far more than just one mattress. Beyond bugs, rodents like to chew into furniture upholstery and cushions in order to collect material for nests, and to hollow out dens inside. Your best bet is to cover up all furniture to prevent rodents and bugs from getting into them, and on the off chance something already has some unwelcome guests, keep them from getting out into the other items.
Choose A Good Facility
There are a few things you can do to help ensure your storage unit stays pest free. All the prevention in the world won’t help you if you have chosen a low quality storage facility to house your items in. Taking care to select the right place, one that’s in good condition and takes steps to keep pests away, will help get you on your way to a pest free storage unit.