Stacking plastic totes on gravel was a terrible move

I spent three years storing my holiday decorations in those big yellow totes sitting right on the gravel pad behind my shed. Every spring I'd pull them out and find the bottoms cracked or warped from the moisture and uneven ground. Last October I finally got tired of replacing totes and bought a $30 metal shelf unit from the hardware store. Now those same bins sit on the shelf about 6 inches off the ground and they've stayed dry and solid through two winters. The gravel was trapping moisture against the plastic and the weight pushed cracks into the bottoms over time. Has anyone else learned the hard way that ground contact ruins storage bins way faster than you'd expect?

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix_martin403d ago

Did I learn this lesson? Yeah, about six broken bins ago. My totes were sitting on damp dirt under the porch and I kept wondering why the bottoms kept splitting when I lifted them. Finally got a cheap plastic pallet from a warehouse loading dock and stacked everything off the ground. Problem solved in five minutes.

quinnm773d ago

Wait, did you ever check what was actually growing in that damp dirt under your porch? I had a similar situation where I stacked my totes on a concrete slab in the garage, but the slab was slightly sloped. Ended up with one bin sitting in a puddle every time it rained, and after a few months the bottom was completely rotten and full of mold. Not just the plastic cracked from lifting, but the whole thing started crumbling when I tried to move it. Took me forever to clean up the mess and figure out the water was just running down the wall and pooling right under that spot. So now I keep all my bins on some scrap 2x4s I spaced out on the floor, gives enough air gap to keep things dry. Works way better than those fancy shelf systems everyone talks about.

patricia323d ago

Nope, never actually lifted the totes to check. That's on me. Just assumed the plastic would hold up.