Is My Attic Good for Storage?

We all have more clutter laying around our homes than we want to admit—and, seemingly, not enough storage to properly organize it. But if you take the time to consider your attic as one of these potential areas, the possibilities might surprise you. Here is how to tell whether your attic is suitable for storage and a few key traits to look for during your assessment process.

Your Roof Is Leak- and Damage-Free

If you want to use your attic to store your possessions, it’s crucial that you first make sure that your roof will protect them. Damaged roofing materials are prone to springing leaks and dripping water into the space. This can severely harm the items you’re trying to keep there and cause mold growth along the room’s wooden frame. So completing a proper roof inspection to gauge its performance is a great step to take.

The Attic Floor Is Structurally Sound

You can also tell whether your attic is suitable for storage by assessing the strength and stability of its floor framework. Just like your roof needs to block out the elements, the floor must be strong enough to withstand the weight of the items it’s holding. As such, take some time to have a professional check your attic floor for damages. This step is especially important if you live in an older home that may have some structural weakening. Since most of the items you are going to store are holiday decorations and keep sakes, most attics are strong enough to handle additional storage, just make sure you don’t store items like lawn mowers or snow blowers unless you drain all of the gasoline out of the unit.

Your Attic Space Is Climate-Controlled

Another thing to be on the lookout for is whether your attic can maintain a fairly stable temperature in various seasons. Depending on what you want to store, your belongings could sustain damage in extremely hot or cold climates. Because of this, it’s often best to ensure that your attic has the right amount of ventilation and insulation to use it for this purpose.

You Have Easy Attic Access

Most importantly, any attic you use for storage must have easy access—both by foot and for item transportation. This requirement is often where these spaces fall short, as most attics have only one narrow entry point. If you have a pull down attic ladder for access, you can improve the safety by adding an attic ladder safety rail. Fortunately, by installing a railing system and attic lifting device, these concerns could easily be a thing of the past. delete

You shouldn’t feel like you need to throw away your belongings just because you don’t have enough ground space for them. We at VersaLift want to make accessing your attic space and transporting items to this area a simpler and safer process. Our motorized attic lift mechanisms allow easy movement of heavy items from downstairs to the upper floors—saving you time and, of course, much-needed garage and living room space. Our lifts can be installed in a garage, loft, hallway, pantry, bedroom, we have even installed in a living room where the homeowner had a custom cabinet built over the lift to disguise it as a pretty piece of furniture.