Rodents: Mice, Rats, Squirrels. . .can cause problems

Let’s take a look at five ways you can prevent rodents from investing and ruining your belongings while they are in storage.

Self Storage + Food = Bad Things

Obviously in an ideal world food remnants would never make their way into our storage units. Nor would uncleaned appliances or furniture, unfortunately, we don’t live in an ideal world and precautions need to be taken.

Be sure to clean out appliances, especially microwaves and refrigerators. Rodents smell a lot better than we humans do so even we don’t smell food they might. Learn more about smells that rodents and other pests dislike here: Pest Control Smells

Canned food, MREs (Meals Ready to Eat), dried pasta art, and even food scented candles are all items that should never find their way into your self storage unit. Before moving into your storage unit, for your own piece of mind sweep out any dust or debris, you never know what was stored there before your arrival.

 Furniture Covers, Mattress Covers, and upholstered furniture

If you’re taking the time to store furniture you owe it to yourself to take those few extra steps to preserve your belongings. Plastic mattress covers will help protect from bed bugs or other insects. Rodents and insects alike can easily be deterred by a simple layer of plastic. That is to say that they don’t like the taste and unless you’ve forgotten to clean there shouldn’t be any smells to lure them to the delicious fabric of your furniture. Read more about how to properly apply covers to upholstered furniture here: Pest Control – Furniture Covers

Plastic Totes & Clean Boxes

Getting packing supplies for free has its upsides as well as downsides. Boxes that once held food items also hold a lingering food smell. Sure we might not smell this but rodents sure do, and that could be a major problem. Opt into buying new boxes or plastic totes. Learn more: Storage Boxes and Plastic Totes