QUESTION: Most of the books I have for sale are stored on shelves in my garage. I keep the more expensive books inside my house.
My garage is clean and dry, and the books are well off the ground, but I am concerned about the temperature extremes. I live in New England, so it can get quite cold in the winter. In the summer I used a dehumidifier, which definitely made a difference. But there is little I can do about the cold. What effect, if any, will the dry, cold air have on these garage stored books?
ANSWER: When I started selling books online full-time, I lived in a one-bedroom apartment. I had to go shopping for storage space, and all the storage units with heating/air conditioning seemed outrageously expensive. Since I couldn’t afford climate-controlled storage for my books, I got a regular Public Storage unit, which resembled a single-car garage. It had a rickety orange door that rolled down in front; it was about as thick as a tin can. On the right is a picture of the place — I must have lugged 5 tons of books in and out of there.
So for my first three or four years, my books weren’t protected from temperate extremes at all. Pretty soon, I had about 15,000 books listed (I had to get two more storage units and was paying $1,200 a month is storage fees) and I was worried about the effect on the books. With all the temperature and humidity changes, I was afraid the books would crack to pieces.
Fortunately, I never noticed any damage to any of the books — except for one that got mildewed. That’s what I think the main problem is — mold and mildew. I never had much of a problem with it, even though the summertime here in Virginia is very humid.
Also, I turn over inventory relatively quickly. My average book isn’t sitting there for years, deteriorating all the time. Within a few months, the average book is sold and shipped to a buyer. If my books had been sitting around like this for years, maybe some damage would become apparent.
In my storage units, I set out mothballs and bug repellent but I’m not sure whether those did any good or not. I never found any silverfish. Of course, the books worth more than $100 I kept indoors. And now I have a big basement for storing all my books, and I have better book-preservation habits.
One hassle I did have at my storage units: During the winters, whenever we got a big snow, I’d have to shovel the snow from the front of my storage doors, and it would take forever. That’s a great way to spend your morning — huffing and puffing, sweating like a pig in your winter coat, with a baby crying in the car. But I could never afford to wait a day or two until Public Storage got around to plowing — I had to get my orders out.
Anyone else have stories about makeshift book storage or techniques for protection from the elements?
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8 Comments
I’ve now twice attempted to buy books in bulk from Craigslist listings and both times the books were stored in storage units and were in pretty terrible condition. Just a ton of books haphazardly thrown into a ton of boxes thrown into the garage. And the unit seemed a bit damp and I ended up backing out of one of the deals after seeing the books.
Yes Yes & Yes
Basements = Mildew and Mold
Attics = Dry Rot
A Garage will turn shelved books into bowls and boxed books will weld/glue to each other.
Books aren’t ‘books’ they are PAPER – a natural reprocessed organic plant fiber. The Thread is cotton a plant. The covers are linen – a cotton as well. The glue is animal or plant based. Chemical glues came about in the late 1930′s.
Books are still absortive and permeable. Put a MMPB in a sink add water and watch it swell to 4 times its size.
Improper storage does the same at a microscopic scale. Slow death.
Addition……….
The units described are out-of-door [a garage equivalent] and in a temperate climate.
Further South they would crack [dryrot], in the Northwest Mildew and mold.
In the Northeast both extreames. The write is just very very lucky. Also shouldn;t it be the responsibility of the Storage Co. to plow snow?
Storage for a business should be interior even if not temp controlled.
I use interior.
Don’t even think basement!
I lend my house to house guests during my absence last summer. I live in Delaware and it’s pretty steamy in the summer. However, they decided to turn off the de-humidifier in the basement (to save us electricity?!).
2000 plus books all gone – the mildew was crawling up the stairs to get us when we came home after 2 months.
My entire business wiped out, and forget the insurance, they refused to pay.
Think carefully where you store. These books are your livelihood. Imagine them all gone….
I can’t report from experience…yet, but I will tell you what I’ve done and report back later this spring. I started amassing an inventory of books 2 years ago, and they were wall to wall in my singlewide mobile, mostly in boxes. Other work circumstances kept me too busy to really launch my bookselling business. When the boxes multiplied to the point I could barely turn around in my own house, last fall I had them moved, still in boxes, to an outbuilding on my property that is poorly insulated but has electricity and stays dry. It used to be a workshop, but now is carpeted over a concrete floor. I was afraid my electrical bill would go sky high if I kept a heater on in there all winter, so I’ve taken a chance on other measures instead. The books have remained in boxes.
I live in western Washington State. On Freecycle I got a dehumidifier. It was on for several weeks without collecting any water. Then I looked at a tag on it and learned it won’t start dehumidifying until the temperature gets up to around 60 degrees. So I’ll definitely turn it back on this spring.
A handyman told me that moving air can prevent a lot of mold and mildew, and fans use very little electricity. So I’ve had a large rotating fan going in there all winter, even though most of the books are still boxed.
I’m now doing bookselling full-time, starting with a lot of books that remained in my house on bookshelves (they take up every inch of wall space, and my long hallway is lined with bookshelves). Once the weather warms up, I’ll be in the outbuilding, unpacking and shelving the books. I’m hoping that letting the place stay cold and keeping a fan going has retarded the growth of mold. The place doesn’t smell musty so far. Once the books are on shelves, I’ll probably add more fans. \
Anyway, I’ll let you know what happens, because while our summers here aren’t as muggy as other states, our winters are definitely soggy!
Sara
I came across this Q&A; info while researching something else, it sounds like the same principle for books:
Q.Some customers are very strict about controlling the temperature in their storage container in order to prevent damage to their antiques. Are they correct?
A: No. According to George Read in his “Art & Antique Quiz” in the May 2003 issue of House Beautiful the customer has confused temperature and humidity. It is changes in the latter that cause both shrinkage and swelling. Humidity can easily be controlled by placing an inexpensive humidity control product in the storage container. These products can help protect your belongings from the damaging effects of moisture.
From personal experience I can say that I had books stored in boxes in an outside storage unit, non-climate controlled, for over a year and they came out just as nice as when they went in. I also recently purchased a very large amount of books that have been stored in a semi-trailer for over a year that have not shown any signs of mold so far. I live in the SE where humidity is brutal in the summer so a dehumidifier has been a good investment that I use as a precaution indoors. I have no experience with basements but it sounds like a large capacity dehumidifier would be essential.
Steve: Even in Virginia, for $1200.00 mo. can’t you rent a strip mall or some other retail space, albeit in a rundown area? You don’t have to be ‘open,’ but I can’t even imagine storing books in a storage locker. Too much to consider, too much worry. Even low end book buyers deserve a good quality book (esp. because now with all these shipping fee increases many are pretty close to a new book that is remaindered), so I have an open shop. Were I to close (something I may wish to do down the road so I can actually keep some of my profits from online!), I would only sell as many books as I could shelve in my house.
Debbie K.
Steven,
Having extensively used public storage places in the past (stored inventory in them for over 4 years), I can say you describe the situation well.
I think the key, if you are using u-store type facilities for book storage that do not have climate control, is to keep it very short term (or as you have pointed out – turn the books fast enough).
You indicated that one of your books did become moldy. I think that is probably a pretty good indicator that over time most of the books would become moldy – or at least the ones that stay in inventory for a long period of time.
When I was shopping for public storage facilities, I found that when I asked about “climate control”, I just got a blank expression, or “no”. When I asked about any “heated space”, some said yes. So we ended up only using storage facilities that provide some heat – they usually kept it around 60 degrees in the winter.
I have posted my long term book storage suggestions here (more for the collector than the book dealer- but should be helpful for anyone with books they care about)
http://www.pacifictrailbooks.com/Blog.aspx#0002
Dave
Pacific Trail Books
Portland, Oregon