Flammable Items
The last thing you need is a blaze spreading in your attic, and if you store gasoline or spray paint cans in there for example, you’re definitely playing with fire. Keep them in a storage place that won’t turn them into a powder keg waiting to happen.
Attics are great storage spaces, but some things need to be treated with care. Abandon them in your house’s overhead storage and it’ll be like “Toy Story” - all emotions and tears.
Photos
Your attic is basically a sauna; it’s where a lot of the heat in your house goes to retire, and hopefully you wouldn’t store photos in one of those, right? The temperature destroys beloved memories, fading them into ghosts. Keep them stored in a low, cool place instead.
Candles
Yeah, candles are no good in the attic purely because of what they’re designed to do under intense heat: they melt! Solid wax becomes warm goo, leaking everywhere and staining clothes, keepsakes or whatever else it touches before solidifying like concrete. Think “House of Wax” with less murder.
Important Documents
While it might seem like a good idea to keep valuable papers in the convenient heat dome - what could possibly go wrong? - the conditions aren’t ideal for deeds, wills, or signed documents. Attic pests love to eat paper, and they’ll munch away your details while they dine.
Vinyl Records
Let’s face it, lots of vinyl records end up in the attic, and for older ones, it’s too late. But since they’re coming back in style, don’t repeat the mistakes of the past! The attic’s heat warps vinyl and turns them all wobbly - they tend to skip and lose quality, if they play at all!
Electronics
Retro video games, cool little electronic gadgets or similar treasured memories need to stay out of the overhead sauna. It’s not just the heat (though that plays a massive part); it’s also the inevitable dust that chokes important parts. Circuit boards don’t stand a prayer.
Leather Goods
Leather’s renowned for aging well, but that doesn’t apply when it’s left in the attic. We’re not just talking about how it cracks and peels here - and it does both of those things - we’re also referring to how it molds profusely.
Wooden Furniture
Surely wood ages just fine in the attic, right? Actually, it fares quite badly! The atmosphere leads to multiple changes in the material, from expanding and shrinking to splitting. It will ruin your nice antique furniture and turn it into damaged splinters.
Paint
Paint looks great when it’s applied carefully to surfaces and used for artful decoration. When it’s crammed into an attic and it slowly turns into mush, it will stink and stick to whatever has the bad fortune of coming in contact with it.
Batteries
It’s no secret that older batteries can burst and leak acid over your property. But did you know they’re serious fire hazards? Rechargeable lithium-ions, 9-volts and to a lesser extent Alkaline AA or AAA batteries are especially prone to setting attic fires.
Food
Hopefully none of you are storing food in any form in the attic for too long, but it does happen - especially if you’re preparing for your storm shelter and don’t get around to moving it! The problem is that food attracts pests, and soon you've got a rodent banquet.
Musical Instruments
The same problems that afflict wooden furniture also apply to instruments, but you won’t get away with the brass kind, either - they tend to rust, so you need to store them in cooler places with utmost care if you ever plan to use them again.
Wool Clothing
Clothing is a common “dump it in the attic” item, but if it’s something you’re never going to wear again, you’re better off upcycling it or donating it to charity. Moths love a nice, warm attic snack, and they’ll quickly make holes in your sweaters.
Books
In the same way that gribblies love a document snack, they’ll devour books in no time at all, too! It’s not just that, though; pages curl in the heat and mold likes to nestle down and propagate on pages. It’s like a love hotel and family home all in one.
Photographic Film or Negatives
Unfortunately, old film and photo negatives are just as vulnerable to the horrors of attic conditions as the photographs themselves are. They’re super-sensitive and between the heat and the dust, the atmosphere will just ruin them - they need to be kept in a place protected from extreme temperatures.
Holiday Candies
The same rules that apply to food also apply to candies; it’s tempting to put all your excess holiday snacks away until the following year. But before the year is up, the candy becomes goo and the leftovers will be ant and rat food. Yikes.
Toys With Electronics
We’ve covered what happens to batteries in the attic, and electronic toys face similar problems - their batteries will often leak over time. The toy’s casing will probably protect other items, but not the toy itself - it’ll look like the Wicked Witch of the West in a water gun fight.
Heirloom Quilts
Those beautiful patchwork quilts that your beloved grandparents made for you from pieces of treasured materials to represent a life’s journey definitely don’t belong in attic storage. Stains, smells, mold and moths will turn them into something unrecognizable.
Wedding Dress
Lets face it, you don’t use your wedding dress every day, so storing it is logical. However, you should place it somewhere lower and cooler unless you were married in a heatproof gown (which is awesome, but unlikely). Delicate lace should be treated with care.
Furs or Faux Furs
Whether they’re real furs that you can’t bring yourself to get rid of or the faux kind makes no difference; exposure to an attic’s heat will make them shed and their most attractive feature will be all over your attic floor like dog or cat hair.
Vintage Clothing
For the same reason as wedding dresses, avoid keeping any vintage clothes in the attic. They’re usually made of hard-wearing material such as leather, but as we already know, even that is no match for the extreme conditions of your overhead storage.
Perfumes or Cosmetics
Making cosmetics is a science, and there’s a lot of chemical reactions that go into unassuming perfumes and makeup. That will come undone when they’re exposed to oppressive heat, so in the attic they will spoil, separate and rot. Aux de attic is not a good smell.
Papers in Cardboard Boxes
Ah, the paper conundrum rears its ugly head, and this time it has a dance partner - cardboard. Moisture and humidity stains papers and turns cardboard into mush, which mold finds absolutely delightful. You’ll have a box full of white furry fungus before you know it.
Vinyl Toys/Collectibles
When kids get older they go off toys, and many of us just keep them in the attic, possibly for the next family generation to come along. But they can warp, melt and experience color fading, and those same toys become unrecognizable abominations.
Old Mattresses
Mattresses are another material that you should definitely avoid sacrificing to the great attic gods of heat and the damp. They’ll absorb those conditions like a sponge and turn into the perfect breeding ground for mold.
Seeds or Gardening Supplies
Seeds stored in the attic might as well be thrown away; the conditions will essentially kill them. It’s not warm enough to keep them alive, and it’s too hot to allow them to germinate - you might as well be planting false hopes.
Medications
Even if you discount the use by dates on medication - which will almost certainly tick by if they’re in the attic - they won’t be of any use when you retrieve them from storage. The heat destroys their composition, so always store meds in a cool, dry place.
Liquor or Wine
It’s true that wine ages finely, but usually that’s in a nice, cool wine cellar and not in the sauna that is your attic. The heat will spoil everything that makes wine taste good, leaving you with bottles full of funk and nastiness. Tasty.
Artwork or Paintings
If you value your art, please keep it out of the attic - especially if it’s a lost masterpiece or a personal project you’re passionate about! The colors will change and works on canvas can crack, leaving you with something more like Dorian Gray’s picture than a self portrait.
Mirrors
You know that superstition about breaking mirrors and bad luck? Well, if your mirrors are in the attic, it’s inevitable! All that heat will crack the glass, and the next time you go to collect them you’ll have a fun house mirror. Which is entertaining, but presumably not what you want.
Plastics
Plastic is super hard-wearing - that’s why there’s so much of it littering the world - but attics will warp it into strange shapes and make it sweat until it stinks. There’s also the chance it might combust, so storing it above you is only fanning the flames.
Vinyl Flooring or Tiles
There are so many reasons you should avoid storing these materials in attics. Even the basic aesthetic reasons - the fact they crack and warp - is bad enough. But in an attic’s heat some of them might even release off-gas chemicals!
Luggage
Suitcases are another item that regularly ends up in the attic for your next annual trip. However, when you get back to them you might not find the pristine luggage you expect, but a stinky and moldy replacement with seized zippers and warped wheels.
Clocks or Watches
Since timepieces are made from tiny pieces, they’re extra vulnerable to the kind of heat attics experience all the time. Those parts can change shape under the pressure, and it doesn’t take long before they’re out of time.
Firearms or Ammunition
You should always store firearms in a safe place, and that is not loose in your attic. Ignoring the disaster that could follow a theft, there’s also the heat to consider, which could cause a nasty reaction in ammunition.
