Can you help me not ruin my grandmother's dining room table?

September 14, 2006 9:05 AM

How can I store furniture in our shed without ruining it?

We have several pieces of old furniture (technically antiques, I guess, but with more sentimental value than monetary) that I'm not ready to send off to Goodwill yet, but don't fit in our house any more. All wood, no upholstery.

I would like to store everything in the shed in our backyard, which has windows and electricity but no heat or a/c. How should I configure the space so the pieces don't end up ruined? Windows opened or closed? Should we have a fan running all the time? A dehumidifier?

Any suggestions would be helpful. We live in the southeastern US, if that info is of any use.

posted by Sweetie Darling to home & garden (5 comments total)

If it is just wood and the finish is in reasonable shape then you shouldn't have any problem at all. The wood will move with the seasons expanding when humid, contracting when dry but it should be able to handle that just fine and would do the same thing in the house. Give it a good coat of paste wax all over before you pop it in there.
posted by zeoslap at 9:41 AM on September 14, 2006

Is the other stuff you keep in there stay in reasonable shape?
posted by zeoslap at 9:42 AM on September 14, 2006

place it up on something nonporous if you have any ground water/ground water seepage. don't stack things on top to prevent sagging. use pest repellants and regularly check the items for spider egg cases which can stain and are definitely a pain to clean off.
posted by crush-onastick at 9:43 AM on September 14, 2006

Make sure it's on a concrete slab, wrap it in plastic to keep out bugs and dust. We stored furniture for years this way. The thing you do have to watch out for is termites and wasps.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 12:18 PM on September 14, 2006

I'm glad to hear this is so easy - thanks!
posted by Sweetie Darling at 5:30 PM on September 19, 2006