How to store materials used for miniature room ideas: the honest picture

What to take away

Humidity does more damage to a supply cupboard than anything else, and it is measurable for a few dollars.
Wood, paper, textiles and leather are all food. Storage is a pest problem as much as a tidiness problem.
Airtight containers earn their place for anything made of animal fiber.
Attics and unheated garages are the two worst places to keep miniature supplies.

Humidity is the thing to measure

Mold needs four things at once, and you control one of them. NC State Extension's guidance on preventing mold in your home lists the requirements as a food source, moisture, an appropriate temperature and oxygen, and names wood, textiles, paper and leather among the household food sources. Every one of those is in a miniature supply box.

EPA suggests keeping indoor humidity below 60 percent, ideally between 30 and 50 percent. An inexpensive meter sold anywhere hardware is can check relative humidity.

It also advises opening windows for air circulation only when outdoor relative humidity is below 50 percent, which is the opposite of what most people do on a muggy day.

That single instrument changes how you store things. If the cupboard sits at 65 percent all summer, no container will save the card.

What eats what

Animal fiber is the vulnerable category, and Illinois Extension's carpet beetle page describes larvae a quarter to half an inch long, hairy, with black or reddish brown tufts.

They feed on wool, felt, fur, feathers, and bristles. They also eat down, horsehair, mohair, or any fabric made from animal fibers. Adults crawl along baseboards, closet corners, and windows, and both stages can arrive on secondhand items.

Store insect-free fabrics in plastic bags or other airtight containers, and keep lint and hair from accumulating in closets and under furniture. The heated cycle of a clothes dryer kills all stages.

Cedar oil vapors destroy small larvae but do not kill larger ones, which punctures a common belief. A cedar chest is not a sealed box, so it is not airtight.

Sorting the cupboard by vulnerability

Airtight, with a check every few monthswool, felt, fur, feathers, mohair, anything from a secondhand source.
Flat and dry, weightedcard, mat board, paper, printed textures.
Upright, lids clean, coolpaints, mediums, glue, sealers.
Closed and separateblades, pins, small metal parts that will rust in a damp box.
Anywhere at allstirene, acrylic sheet and most plastics, which want only to be kept from sunlight and heat.

Where not to put any of it

Attics swing through wide temperature and humidity ranges and warp everything flat. Unheated garages do the same and add condensation on cold nights. Under a sink is worse still.

The best place is usually an interior closet in a heated room, off the floor. Wood and card in that cupboard will find their own equilibrium with the room and stay there. That is exactly what you want before you cut them.

The same logic applies to the bench itself, discussed in judging a work surface, and to keeping only the current job to hand, covered in setting up in a small space.