What Can You Do to Prevent Mold Inside a Storage Unit?

—
February 6th, 2026

The Importance of Managing Humidity Levels in Self Storage

Self-storage gives you a better environment than storing your personal belongings in a basement or garage. When renting a self-storage unit, opt for one that is climate-controlled to ensure humidity levels are monitored and closely controlled! Implementing solutions to keep your items dry and clean will give you the best chance of preventing mildew or mold from growing. Continue reading to learn about how you can avoid any mold from growing in your storage unit!

Clean Your Belongings To Prevent Mold Growth

One of the easiest ways to unintentionally allow mold growth to occur within your storage unit is by not cleaning any of your belongings. Before storing, all items should be thoroughly cleaned and dried. This includes hard surfaces like dishes, hard furniture, glass, and other items where mold growth doesn’t typically occur. If not cleaned, spores may be transferred into the storage area and move to other surfaces that allow growth to more easily occur. Using diluted bleach, according to the manufacturer's instructions, will kill almost all mold and mildew, preventing future growth. Anytime one of your items has come into contact with food, like trash bins, drinkware, or cookware, there is a possibility of mold growth. To ensure no mold spores make their way into the storage facility, thoroughly clean these items and allow them to completely dry before packing them into containers.

Leather goods should be treated before storage to reduce the chance of spores from being carried into the storage facility. Even in a storage facility that has controlled humidity levels, fungal spores can bloom on dirty leather. By cleaning and conditioning your leather products properly, you create a barrier on the leather that prevents any potential growth.

Find A Storage Facility That Will Control Humidity

If you’re storing sensitive items or belongings that are susceptible to mold and mildew growth, we highly recommend you seek out a storage facility that controls the indoor climate. Often, home storage areas are musty, dark, and lack airflow, which creates a perfect environment for mold growth. Most of the time, we don’t have the means to control humidity inside basements, garages, or attics. By moving your belongings to a climate-controlled storage unit facility, you’re drastically reducing the chance that any mildew or mold will grow. When selecting a storage facility, look for one that has a controlled climate. A storage facility with climate control will ensure the humidity levels stay in an acceptable range. Some storage facilities offer controlled climate units while also offering units that aren’t controlled. When renting a storage unit, ensure that you're signing up for one that is climate-controlled. Awesome Possum Storage offers both climate-controlled units and standard units with easy drive-up access. To learn more or see which units we have available, contact Awesome Possum Storage.

Keep Air Circulation In Mind

Warmer temperatures with high humidity levels are ideal conditions for mold growth, especially if the air is stagnant. You can prevent moisture from building up by maintaining a proper airflow throughout your entire unit and between stored boxes and items. Anytime storage units don’t have airflow, the chances of mold growth increase. Air circulation reduces any moisture buildup from occurring, and a dry environment is not hospitable for mold and mildew. By organizing and arranging your storage items in a certain way, you can encourage good airflow. By elevating furniture and boxes off concrete floors, moisture cannot get trapped underneath them. Items placed directly against the walls of the storage unit will also prevent any air from getting behind them. For long-term storage, use clean pallets, ideally made of non-porous materials, or metal shelves to keep everything off the ground. If water somehow made its way across the floor of the storage facility, your boxes and the items within them will stay dry. While you can do everything possible to take care of your storage space, you don’t know what the owners of units next to yours will do.

Use Moisture Absorbers When Packing

These moisture absorbers reduce the water present in the air. By placing these strategically throughout your boxes and items, you’re reducing the moisture and water buildup that could occur. When boxing up belongings, adding moisture absorbers like silica gel packs prevents any trapped water or humidity from creating an environment for the mold or mildew to grow. Most stores that sell packaging materials should offer these. These packs absorb moisture efficiently and are used in commercial packaging to prevent mold growth. Anytime you use a moisture absorber, it’s important to note that they won’t last forever. Over time, they degrade and can only absorb a certain amount of moisture before they are ineffective. Keeping the air dry inside packages, boxes, and containers is the easiest way to stop the spread of mildew. Before packaging any belongings into boxes, make sure they are clean and completely dry. Any small amount of moisture or water can cause problems, and your best chance of avoiding issues is to be thorough. If you’re not using desiccant packets or other moisture-absorbing products, there are other simple measures you can take to avoid trapped moisture. When packaging in airtight containers without moisture absorbers, it’s best to leave the lid cracked. This allows air to circulate and let any moisture evaporate out of the container. Any steps you can take to prevent moisture from lingering reduce the likelihood that any mold will grow.

If Necessary, Monitor Humidity Levels

If you’re storing your belongings at home in a basement, attic, or garage, it’s important to monitor humidity levels. If you’re stuck using a self-storage unit and you’re concerned about the humidity levels, keeping track of the humidity can save you time and money. Some storage facilities have non-climate-controlled units, which can get very humid at certain times of the year. By purchasing a small humidifying sensor, you can keep track of the humidity each time you visit your unit. Awesome Possum Storage provides climate-controlled storage units so you never have to worry about the climate inside our facility.

Awesome Possum’s Climate Controlled Storage

Awesome Possum provides indoor, climate-controlled self-storage units that keep your belongings safe and dry. All of our indoor units have air conditioning, which reduces the humidity in the air and ensures airflow throughout the building. No matter what season, the temperatures indoors will remain within a desirable range. We provide storage units in many sizes so you can customize your unit to fit your exact needs. To rent a storage unit today, contact our offices and get started!