Storing items in a crawlspace below a house is a great way to utilize storage at a lower, stable temperature. Items stored below are at risk of moisture or potentially rodent damage.

The best crawlspaces I’ve worked on and seen, are always unvented and plastic sealed. Moisture is always wicking from the ground without a plastic vapor barrier. The idea of venting a crawlpace can work if it is heavily vented year round. Venting a sealed crawlspace in summer only is flawed. Summer air is always more moist, so one is just venting moist air inside a crawlspace.

The floor joists in my photo are a little ugly from the original build. I restarted construction in the spring time on the foundation directly over the snow. After melting, the crawlspace sat with water in it for some time until seeping into the ground. They are nice and dry and in excellent shape 15 years after construction.

When storing items down below, one always needs to think about the potential of a crawlspace or basement flooding. Crawlspaces often have smaller access holes to get limited size pieces in as well. So the shelves in the photo are 2’x 8’ that are were built below. Then hung from floor joists.

The storage tubs have little vent holes poked in the handle area. This helps keep things from molding inside the storage tubs. With the tubs on the shelves, if water comes from above things will stay dry, and if water comes from below things will stay dry.