Home Renovation Storage: Keeping Your Belongings Safe During Your Remodeling Project
At some point in every homeowner’s life, you’ll need to engage in a major or minor renovation project, either by necessity or by whim. This could be as simple as sanding down and repainting a wood-panel wall, or something as intricate as demolishing and rebuilding a kitchen or bathroom. As anyone who has done this type of work will tell you, the dust and debris created by home renovation projects are plentiful and pervasive, finding their way into nooks and crevices of your home you didn’t even know existed! This is particularly concerning if you wish to protect and safeguard your furniture, appliances, clothing, decorative items, fragile mementos, and expensive keepsakes from the ravages of home renovation. The best way to do so is to remove them from your premises completely, by placing them into home renovation storage.
Types of Storage Solutions for Home Renovations
There are two main types of home renovation storage solutions a homeowner can entertain:
1) On-Site Storage
This means you will keep your furniture, appliances, and other belongings on your premises while you perform your home renovation project. To protect them from paint, dust, and other forms of potentially damaging elements you can either:
i) Cover & Protect Your Belongings
For large items like furniture and appliances, placing a protective material over them (like extra blankets, bedsheets, or preferably, a thick plastic cover) would seem like a good solution. For smaller items (like kitchenware, clothing, or kick-knacks), placing them in boxes or plastic storage containers may seem like a similarly good idea.
Although this option may save you a few bucks in moving costs and keep your couch or treasured vase safe from a stray splash of paint, it won’t keep your belongings from being invaded by construction dust. Notoriously difficult to wash off, vacuum, and altogether remove, keeping any of your belongings in the same zone as your renovation project, no matter how well you protect them, is an invitation for soiling and damage.
VERDICT: Avoid keeping your belongings in the same area as your construction project.
ii) Place Belongings in Spare Rooms or Use Portable Storage Containers
Another option you may be thinking of entertaining for home renovation storage is to place your belongings in a spare room (or attic, basement, etc.), a portable storage container, or an on-site storage unit.
While this removes your belongings from “ground zero” of your home renovation project, it doesn’t necessarily free them from the potential to be damaged. Construction dust can permeate every area of a home to some degree, even with closed doors and protective coverings. And although your belongings can be stored in a container in your driveway or backyard, if your home renovation project includes any form of electric, plumbing, or landscape work, you run the risk of fire, flooding, or physical damage to the container.
VERDICT: Avoid storing your belongings in your home or on-premises during your home renovation project.
2) Off-Site Storage
Off-site home renovation storage means relocating your belongings from your home to a temporary storage facility like the one offered by Mini-Entrepôts Sauvegarde. This way, your possessions can be safe from errant streaks of paint, construction dust, or possible fire, flooding, or physical damage.
Each of Mini-Entrepôts Sauvegarde‘s storage units is clean, securely constructed, well-guarded, surveilled around the clock by state-of-the-art security systems and personnel, and safe from theft, fire, and water damage. Choosing Mini-Entrepôts Sauvegarde as your home renovation storage facility means your belongings will never be safer from damage!
VERDICT: Store your belongings and possessions at a temporary storage facility like Mini-Entrepôts Sauvegarde for optimal protection during home renovation projects.
How to Pack and Organize Your Belongings
Partaking in home renovation storage itself is a smart way to safeguard your belongings from potential damage, but there are extra steps you should take to keep your items safe during transport and storage.
As you are packing, make sure to do the following:
- Wrap large items (like furniture and appliances) in heavy moving blankets, or extra bedsheets with an additional layer of thick, protective plastic or shrink wrap. Although construction dust may permeate such layers to some degree, regular dust will have a hard time penetrating such a defensive sheath.
You should also cover corners with extra padding to protect from bumps and scrapes coming out the doors of your home.
- For smaller items like books, clothing, or knickknacks, it’s advisable to forgo cardboard boxes and use hard plastic, transparent bins. This way, your boxes are easily stackable, less prone to being crushed, fit uniformly in spaces, and their contents are visible.
You should also label each box with its contents in a visible and comprehensive format, and make a master list for you to keep both in your storage unit and at home.
You should also consider placing silica packets in the containers/bins to reduce humidity and infestation by insects.
- For fragile items, like kitchenware, glass, and collectibles, consider using bubble wrap or brown moving paper to wrap each item. Don’t wrap your plastic container or bin too tightly, and fill empty spaces with excess paper or bubble wrap for extra protection.
Finally, you should organize your storage unit by placing furniture in the rear of the unit and boxes in the front. Always make sure to leave a path or runway for you to access all your items at all times.
Additional Tips for Safe Home Renovation Storage
Deciding to move your belongings to a storage facility and taking great care to pack and organize them properly are the main considerations of home renovation storage, but not the only ones.
Here are a few more to consider:
- Insurance: Check your house insurance policy to see if you are covered for relocating furniture, appliances, and other belongings to a storage facility during your renovation project. However, whether you are covered or not, it never hurts to have a little more insurance! You can either enquire with a private company, take advantage of the policy Mini-Entrepôts Sauvegarde offers, or both! Our Longueuil location currently offers insurance, and our Lachine and Saint Laurent locations will soon follow suit!
- Climate Control Unit: If you are storing things like electronics, wood furniture, antiques, printed materials like books or magazines, or other fragile items, consider renting a climate-controlled storage unit. These units keep the temperature and humidity level at an even level throughout the duration of your rental This prevents a buildup of heat and humidity that could lead to the development of rust, mildew, fungus, warping, and other forms of damage and corrosion that could seriously deface your belongings.
Properly packing and ultimately storing your belongings at a storage facility like Mini-Entrepôts Sauvegarde during your home renovation project is an excellent way to secure both their protection and longevity.
If you need home renovation storage, then contact us to explore storage solutions that will keep your belongings safe and secure!