Storing Furniture

[Bentley]

I'm looking for ideas on the proper care and storage of fine furuniture. I recently retired (after 31 years), and started a new job that allows us to move back home. (YEA !)
Anyway, we have a few acres of land in central Louisiana, and we built a 30 x 40' shop on it. We plan to store most of our furniture in the shop while we build our home. Most of the furniture is just regular stuff that's not worth an aweful lot, but we have several pieces of Stanley solid cherry (dresser, and highboy chest) that we do not want damaged. I suspect the furniture will be in this storage for 6 to 8 months. This time period will be from late February 2009 until October/November 2009.
Temperatures will range from mid 30's to high 80's, and humidity will be variable, but mostly high.

My thoughts are to do the following;
1. Place plastic sheeting on the concrete floor, and then place 4 x 8 plywood or osb on top of the plastic.
2. Place the furniture on the plywood.
3. Clean the furniture well in advance of the move.
4. Then apply a double coating of good furniture paste wax the day before the move.
5. During storage, keep it wrapped in moving blankets.

What am I missing? I would sure appreciate your thoughts and ideas.

B

[whiterock]

For those fine pieces, I would rent a climate controlled storage unit. I put some really good furniture in a storage bldg and pretty well ruined it. the heat and humidity caused the years of old wax to soften, and then to flake, removing some of the finish.

Another thing, DON'T put anything on the furniture, i covered chest and dresser with sheet, then put some boxes on top, bad move, can still see marks of the duct tape that secured the boxes, these were embedded in the old wax as it softened. This was my grandparent's bedroom set, and I have been trying to revive it for some time now.

Ed

[Katey]

I would put down a layer of pallets under the plywood, to make absolutely sure that there wasn't any moisture wicking up through the concrete slab. Also if you have an uninsulated metal roof above it, then you will have condensation drips during certain changes in the weather, and you should have a plastic tarp or a sheet of clear plastic over the pile of wrapped furniture to protect it.