What a Kansas Winter Does to the Things You Store

A drive-up storage unit is not heated, so in winter it gets cold when a front comes through Manhattan and warms up again when the afternoon does.

NOAA’s climate normals for Manhattan put the average January low at 17.5°F and the average high at 40.7°F. In a typical January, 28 of the 31 nights drop to freezing or below, but only about 8 days stay below freezing all day, and an average winter brings about 5 nights at zero or colder. That leaves roughly 20 days in the month that freeze overnight and thaw by the afternoon, in a season that runs from mid-October to a last freeze around April 21 in an average year.

Tools, holiday decorations and patio chairs come through that fine. A shorter list of things does not, and for most of them the harm comes from moisture and from the repeated swing between freezing and thawing more than from any single cold night.

Wood furniture

Wood takes on moisture from the air around it and gives it back, swelling and shrinking as it does. The Canadian Conservation Institute, which advises museums on caring for furniture, says those changes in humidity can split or crack wood and damage its finish. Veneer can buckle in damp spells, when the thin top layer swells across its grain and the glue under it softens. A winter of cold snaps and mild afternoons keeps the humidity changing for months.

If it is a bookshelf you could replace next weekend, a drive-up unit is a risk you can weigh. An antique, a veneered piece, or the dining table your family has eaten at for thirty years belongs in climate control.

Upholstered furniture and mattresses have their own version of the moisture problem. Fabric and padding that stay damp can grow mildew, so they do better in a unit that holds steady.

Electronics

Apple rates the MacBook Air for storage down to -13°F, far colder than a normal January night in Manhattan. For most electronics, the moment to be careful is the day you bring them home.

Carry a cold laptop, TV or game console into a warm house and moisture condenses on it, the way a glass of ice water sweats in July, and some of it forms inside where you cannot see it. Leave it in its box or bag until it has come all the way up to room temperature, then plug it in.

Batteries need their own plan. Charging a lithium-ion battery while it is below freezing can damage it permanently, so let cordless tool and e-bike batteries warm up before they go on a charger. For expensive electronics you will not touch until spring, climate control is the simpler choice.

Instruments

Instrument makers publish specific storage conditions, and a drive-up unit in January cannot hold them steady. Martin and Taylor both recommend keeping an acoustic guitar at 45 to 55 percent relative humidity, and Martin warns that a rapid change in temperature or exposure to cold can put small cracks in the finish. Steinway says a piano’s wood and felt are highly sensitive to extreme changes in temperature and humidity, recommends a steady temperature around 68°F, and warns that sudden swings can throw off its tuning and regulation.

Taylor also recommends a guitar humidifier and a digital hygrometer to measure the humidity where the guitar is stored. If an instrument has already been somewhere cold, Martin’s advice is to let it warm up to room temperature inside its case before you open it.

Photos, papers and books

Photographs are sensitive to damp. The Library of Congress recommends keeping photographs at 30 to 50 percent relative humidity, without it moving more than 5 percent in a day, and warns that at high humidity photos can stick to smooth surfaces. Paper and books that stay damp can grow mold.

If a box of photos has spent time somewhere cold, bring it inside and leave it closed until it feels as warm as the room before you open it. The National Archives allows about four hours for a shoebox of photos coming out of cold storage, and overnight for a bigger box.

For photo albums, family papers and records you are required to keep, a 5×5 is often enough. It is our smallest climate-controlled size and holds photo boxes, documents, a few totes of clothes and small electronics.

Anything with liquid in it

Water expands by about 9 percent when it freezes, which is enough to split a bottle or bulge a can.

Latex paint is water-based and can freeze. Sherwin-Williams says a can that froze may still be usable if it is thawed slowly and looks normal after stirring, but a lumpy or thickened can should be thrown out. Soda, beer and wine are at risk too, along with water-based cleaning products and toiletries, and the ice in a sealed bottle can crack it or push out the cork.

Before a kitchen box or a garage box goes into a drive-up unit, look through it for the bottle of dish soap, the can of paint left from the last project, or the case of water someone set on top.

Keep anything liquid out of a drive-up unit from the first freeze in October until the last one in April. If you are not sure whether something is fine to store at all, ask us before you load it.

Leather

Leather, like wood, does best when humidity stays in a middle range. The Canadian Conservation Institute notes that mold can grow on leather and fur once relative humidity climbs above 65 percent, and that leather kept in very dry air loses flexibility and gets easier to damage.

That makes a leather couch, a good jacket, a fur coat, or a saddle and tack a poor fit for a drive-up unit over the winter.

What is fine in a drive-up unit all winter

If it would sit in an unheated garage over the winter without a second thought, it will be fine in a drive-up unit. That includes:

• Tools, ladders and yard equipment
• Metal, plastic and resin patio furniture
• Bikes and sporting gear
• Holiday decorations packed in plastic bins
• Dishes, pots and pans
• Clothing, bedding and linens, packed clean and completely dry

A drive-up unit costs less than a climate-controlled unit of the same size, and you can pull right up to the door to load it. For everything on that list, there is no reason to pay for climate control. Drive-up sizes are on our storage unit sizes page.

How to decide, item by item

If you are sorting a garage full of boxes, run each item down this list:

1. If it has liquid in it, keep it out of a drive-up unit in winter.
2. Antiques, good wood furniture, instruments, paper, photos and leather go in climate control.
3. Anything with a screen, a circuit board or a battery can usually take the cold, as long as it warms up before you power it on or charge it. If it is expensive, put it in climate control.
4. If you could replace it with a trip to the store without much regret, a drive-up unit is fine.

Splitting the load between climate and drive-up

Only part of a typical load needs climate control, and it tends to be the smaller part: boxes of photos and papers, electronics, a guitar, a dresser or two. The couch headed for the basement and the patio set can go drive-up. Splitting the load between a small climate-controlled unit and a drive-up unit costs less than putting all of it in climate control, and our largest climate-controlled unit is a 10×10 in any case.

Our climate-controlled units come in 5×5, 5×10 and 10×10, and they hold a steady temperature all year. A 5×10 fits a mattress set, a dresser and boxes, and a 10×10 fits about what a one-bedroom apartment holds: appliances, a couch, a bedroom set and a few dozen boxes. Not every size is open at every location, and the mix changes as units rent, so call or text us at 785-236-8202 and we will tell you what is open where. You can also compare the sizes on our climate-controlled storage in Manhattan page.

If you reserve a unit and it turns out to be the wrong size, we will move you to the right one or refund you.

For the summer side of the same question, read what belongs in climate-controlled storage in the Kansas heat. If you are storing a boat or camper, start with winterizing it before it goes into storage.

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Written by Thomas Weeks, Director of Operations at Axis Self Storage. Nearly a decade in storage and property management, and the owner you will actually reach.