What about the attic of the garage? We have a friend who built a loft in his. (that's where his man cave is; he uses the garage for storage). He has a very skinny nailed-in permanent ladder staircase on the back wall. He just nailed down plywood onto the roof rafters to create the floor. And there is an opening that the ladder goes up that is large enough for him to get in and out of, and he got a few things up there too.

What's the climate like where you live? There would be different needs in California vs. Vermont, for example.

To be truthful, I'm not sure this is a good idea, depending on where you live. If you really want to keep the stuff safe, you need a permanent, waterproof structure.

My advice would be to weed through everything and at least try to donate/give away some of it. Giving the family furniture to other family members is a great idea!

Consider carefully why you are keeping this stuff, if you have no plans at all to ever use it.

There's a lot of stuff in my house that belonged to my parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. The last time I moved, I realized just how much space was taken up by all these "memories." I'd moved some of this stuff 7 or 8 times and never used it.

So for the past year or so, I've had a goal of "use it or lose it." I'm slowly going through all the boxes and drawers of stuff. I'm keeping the best and offering the rest to the family. If they don't take it, I donate it or sell it on Craigslist. The rest--well, I'm using it.

Great-Grandma's huge embroidered linen tablecloth makes a perfect summer bedspread. I start weekends sipping tea out of one of Grandma's collection of china teacups. The good silverware gets used every day. (I have visions of my poor grandmothers wringing their hands over this, but better used than stuck in a drawer, I say.) An old quilt gets used as a tablecloth sometimes.

I will admit that I come across something pretty and I work to find a use for it so I don't have to give it away. A pretty covered china bowl? It can hold my bracelets. A lone, single, etched wineglass? Votive candleholder. Silver coffeepot that's lost it's lid? Instant vase.

Not all my stuff gets used every day. But the things I'm keeping can be used in some way. They no longer sit in boxes wrapped in paper, in a stack of other boxes. They are out in my home where I can see them.

Something that Peter Walsh of Clean Sweep said has stuck with me. If you really value something, you give it a place in your home. You protect it from dirt and water and extremes of temperature. You don't stick it in a box and bury it under other boxes.

Overhead garage storage?

Here is a link that might be useful: Sears

I don't know that there is a safe way to store the items you described outdoors, without being in a climate controlled atmosphere.

What are you saving them for? Are you waiting for a larger house when you can use them? Is that going to happen within a few years?

ML

Be careful in considering overhead garage storage. We did that in a previous home as we wished to store exactly the type of family goods you do- furniture, 'heirlooms', etc. Above the garage was floored and looked like the perfect solution.

HA! One day we noticed the garage ceiling was sagging in the middle! We were lucky- we saw it just before everything was about to crash through onto our cars. When everything was removed and the storage area flooring torn out it was found that there was a big knot in the center of one of the ceiling beams which of course was an unseen very weak area and the weight of our stored goods was too much.

Needless to say, nothing went back up there. We finally bit the bullet and admitted we were never going to use most of this family stuff and that's why it was all up there. Unfortunately the fact that we didn't want it was shared by our adult kids, so don't expect to pawn off to other family members. We kept a few items, but the rest was all disposed of. Do it now as others have said! You won't even miss it once it's gone.

Humidity and temperature fluctuations are the enemy of wooden items, fabric, etc. ABout all you can store outside is plastic and maybe metal. Everything else runs the risk of being ruined

I've just spent a day unloading stuff from GFs mother's house. Trips to library, to recycling, to garbage, to charities...all day at it. And this is after years of purging where she could on her thrice yearly trips to her mother's home. An absolutely amazing amount of stuff that is no longer needed...or if needed, impossible to find....or if found, damaged by moisture or creatures. It looks like we barely made a dent. And no way would her mother ever qualify as a hoarder. Only that 50 years of stuff accumulates and much of it no longer serves her current lifestyle. So all that stuff that was so exciting or so necessary or so important when new really loses it's value with time.

I've had to clean up more households than I care to remember over my years as family members have passed or moved. It's difficult but you really need an objective eye. If the stuff is still really good and you can't use it, then wouldn't it be better to let it go to someone who could? (I know I'm guilty and still have way too much stuff....so I can relate.) And we underestimate the value from the space we gain when we clean up. DH was soooo difficult in cleaning out the bottom garage, with every thing tossed a sentimental trip and a reason for mourning....until he saw he gained a place to park his tractors and such.

Further, alleviating stuff actually lifts a weight off of one's shoulders.

And when your stuff leads to life/limb issues as in Patty's case, it really is time to rethink the whole process.

Thank you all for your ideas--and cautionary tales! :O)
Peanut

Dear, dear peanut, follow all this good advice.

My aunt, now in her nineties, kept all the lovely old things from her mother in the basement. Most of them were ruined by damp and neglect - lovely old first editions eaten up by mold and insects, silver pitted and corroded beyond repair, china cracked, pictures ruined by rising damp.
She, who was the least materialistic of all humans on the planet, thought she was saving everything for us, but in fact she lived so long that she kept it all long past our desire to have it, and her version of saving obliterated most of it.

Let the good things go somewhere where they can do the jobs they were created to do, and be loved by someone who wants to care for them.

When I was about 30 and single I bought my first house. I became the repository for all old family furniture, gewgaws, quilts, etc. that had been at my parents' homes previously. My only other sibling was 18 at the time, and a boy, and not in any way sentimental. I used the dining table, the china cabinet, the buffet, put the china in the china cabinet . . . you know the drill.

But eventually I realized I wanted the dining room furniture that "I" wanted, and I was beginning to feel burdened by the obligation of The Stuff. I decided to put the word out to the few sparsely scattered cousins that they were more than welcome to come get anything they wanted. Otherwise, I was letting it go.

Not one taker.

I got rid of almost all the furniture (I still have one Cushman Colonial-type desk/dresser from my dad's childhood room). I held onto the china and crystal because it was easy to store once well packed up. And this last Christmas, I was ecstatic to send that china and crystal off to Texas with my bother and his adorable then fiancee (now wife), who will use it and love it.

What I learned about myself from this process is that "I" was the one placing a lot of emphasis on the sentimental value of these items. Nobody else really cared about them that much. So try to step back from it a bit and take a new, objective look. You might just find you're a little too close to it, and a solution will present itself.