How To Restore Your Furniture After a Flood
Going through a flood can be one of the most catastrophic things to happen in your life, but if you’re facing the aftermath of a flood, portable storage containers can be one solution to salvaging as much as possible. Floods happen for many reasons; sometimes when it’s due to a hurricane or severe storm you have enough advance warning to prep your home and belongings and save them from the worst of the onslaught. Other times, the worst just happens and you have to flee the rising waters, leaving everything behind. In these cases, you might return to find your home a chaotic disaster.
Why Use Portable Storage Containers?
Organization can be key to remediation after a disaster. Before you begin, make sure your home is safe to enter following a flood. Once it’s safe to enter, you’re likely to walk in on a disaster. Starting to sort and organize this mess is a necessary first step. Furniture will likely be in varying states of water damage. You will need to separate the worst from what might be saved.
- Try to document everything with photos. The insurance company may need this for your claim.
- Throw out the items that cannot be saved. Very often this includes mattresses and other soft furniture that has absorbed too much water.
- Keep in mind that even if something is not wet, the very humid air in a water damaged building is conducive to mold, mildew, and bacterial growth, which can do even greater damage in the long run.
- Weigh the value of the item against how much it will cost to restore it. Some items, such as family heirlooms and collectibles, clearly have a worth that justifies extensive restoration, while other items are easier to toss and replace.
Once you have made your evaluations, you will need to set aside the furniture that is beyond repair for your insurance claim. You’ll need to separate the stuff to be thrown out from the stuff to be repaired, and even separate items that need to be removed from the home but that are still in good condition, while the house itself is being remediated.
How Portable Storage Containers Can Make Clean Up Easier
Keeping an external storage on your property during clean up and remediation can save a lot of headaches. Portable storage containers:
- Give you a close by place to store your stuff while you wait on the insurance company.
- Allow you to check in as often as needed to make notes to a claim or refresh your memory on the extent of the damage.
- Give you a place to keep items separate so more damage doesn’t occur between sodden items and less damaged items.
Floods are a catastrophic life event that everyone hopes doesn’t happen to them, but if you find yourself faced with the unthinkable, consider portable storage containers to help make clean up easier.
