Attic Storage- Do you or don't you, I don't and here's why.

And now I digress, as some of my friends were talking at a meeting, the subject of attic storage came up.

Attic Storage-Don’t

Unless your attic is climate controlled

Has proper shelving

Has easy access

Isn’t available through pull down steps

Isn’t available through a small access panel

Isn’t available off your attic controlled climate living space

Note: Lots of people store things in their attic spaces. My advice is (unless the area is part of your living space with both heat and air conditioning)--don’t.

A few years ago, we had our attic “wrapped,” that’s where a company comes in and installs insulation foil rolls to the roof area to keep the outside heat out. [We live in the South, the attic was insulated, had end vents and an exhaust fan.] Access is available through a pull down set of attic stairs. Needless to say we removed all of the accumulated stuff that had been placed in the attic over the years. More than 75 to 80 percent of the “stuff” was now trash, and had to be put to the curb for pickup. Cardboard, paper, foam, plastic were all brittle, discolored, and fell apart…not to mention dusty.

About the only things that survived were glass and a few metal things.

As the years have progressed, we have found that navigation on these attic stairs have become more difficult.

Yes, we have a hand rail, and yes, we have available lighting; however, our bodies just don’t care for the physical act of climbing these stairs with various sized boxes and stuff in our arms. Just putting stuff up there and taking it down became a 2 or 3 person job. Therefore, my advice on using attic storage is simply, “don’t.’ You’ll lose most of the stuff to fluxing heat and moisture changes in the attic. Thankfully, we never stored our pictures up there.