A Guest Post For Art Lovers and Today’s Daily Doodle: Greenery
Thanks to Matt Schexnayder for writing this incredibly useful guest post about art storage. Having lost original art to mold and moisture because of horrible storage conditions, this really hit home.
Proper Art Storage
If there is one thing a fine art collector knows, it’s that it is impossible to own too much art. However, because of this, it is possible to eventually run out of room for your art collection. Your home is only so big, and you can’t just throw these items in a closet or in your garage, so what do you do?
Recently, self-storage facilities have become increasingly popular for this type of thing. They provide the perfect conditions for storing artwork. But not just any old storage unit will do, you must consider multiple things when choosing your facility. Here are a few tips to help ensure that your valuable art collection is kept pristine.
- Temperature. An art storage facility has to maintain an even temperature to prevent artwork from degrading. Storage units in Tucson for example, can reach temperatures well above 100 degrees. For this reason, it’s imperative that when you put your art into private storage, you rent a climate controlled unit.
- Coverage. It’s important to cover your art to keep it free of dust, but only use sheeting. Wrapping a painting in plastic can be like putting it into a mold pressure cooker. In other words, a very bad idea.
- Do not stack. Never stack your paintings on top of one another. Keep them upright for proper storage.
- Keep them off the floor. Use a pallet to keep your stored paintings off the floor. This prevents your art from coming into contact with any elements that could promote mildew, and it’s also good practice to keep them raised in the unlikely event that your storage unit is ever flooded.
Take these tips seriously. The last thing you want is to put your artwork into a unit, only to come back later and find that some, if not all, of your pieces are ruined. Assure yourself that your items are safe and create room for more and more works by properly storing them in a self-storage facility.
Matt Schexnayder is on the SpareFoot marketing team. SpareFoot is the largest online marketplace for self-storage. With more than 5,000 self-storage facilities listed nationwide, SpareFoot offers consumers the most complete comparison shopping experience in the storage industry. Matt also writes for the SpareFoot Blog as well as a blog for self storage facility operators at SelfStorage.com.
Postcard coming soon.
