Protecting Valuables from Environmental Damage
Keeping Your Valuables Safe by Monitoring and Maintaining Proper Environmental Conditions.
Perhaps you’ve spent good money on musical instruments, firearms, an art collection, fine wines, baseball cards, and comic books, or maybe you’re into cigars. Maybe you keep important documents in your home, or enjoy photo albums and scrapbooking. And what about that classic car or motorcycle lovingly tucked away in your garage?
Whatever your passion, it makes sense to protect your investments. A big part of preserving valuables and collectibles is storing them in a safe environment and striving to maintain conditions that are stable. That means keeping close tabs on conditions like temperature and humidity that can have a negative impact on sensitive items. And if your valuables stay in a storage area like a basement, attic, or garage, it also helps to strategically install leak detectors. That can help provide warning in time to move things to safety in the event of flooding or water leaks.
Safe Conditions for Displaying Paintings and Art Storage
Problem
Artwork can be damaged by improper art storage conditions. Sunlight, moisture, and temperature all can deteriorate your valuable collection.
Solution
The terms "art" and "artwork" consists of an incredibly wide variety of mediums, utilizing a practically limitless array of materials. For advice on conditions where a particularly unique or valuable piece of modern art is being displayed or hung, it may be best to consult the gallery where you purchased it. But generally speaking, avoid keeping artwork, such as a painting, near sources of heat or direct sunlight. Maintaining a relative humidity around 55% is often a good idea too. Use a humidifier or to increase humidity or a dehumidifier to decrease humidity. A humidity controller is often used for valuable collections. Comfortable indoor room temperature (68 to 72°F; 20 to 22°C ) is typically appropriate for artwork (since that's generally where art is shown, anyway). More importantly, avoid rapid changes in conditions. For transport or long-term storage of artwork, always do your research or hire an expert, since these represent common situations where permanent damage can occur.
AcuRite Solutions & Tips
- Monitor Art Storage Conditions: Place an AcuRite Monitor in the places where you display or store artwork, to measure ambient room conditions and ensure safe, controlled temperature and humidity.
- Monitor for leaks: Position a Water Leak Detector in a place where leaks or flooding may occur.
- Use a Home Environment Display for convenient viewing of conditions measured by Monitors and Sensors in multiple rooms around your home.
- Set alarms to alert you of undesirable conditions. These can include:
- Undesirably low or high temperatures
- Undesirably high or low humidity
- Presence of water leaks or flooding
- Set alarms to alert you of undesirable conditions. These can include:
There are many great resources on keeping valuables safe. Here are a few options we recommend:
- Wine Spectator offers wine storage basics, including wine storage temperature
- Cigar World provides some basics on caring for cigars, such as using a humidor hygrometer in a cigar humidor
- Hagerty Classic Vehicle Insurance offers these steps for proper car and motorcycle storage, including winterization and long-term storage
- Bikebandit.com has 10 steps for winterizing and long-term storing a motorcycle
- Premiere Guitar offers these tips on guitar storage and using a guitar humidifier
