I stored dozens of plastic totes of fabrics and quilts in my Dad's basement-no heat or AC. They were there for almost 2 yrs and every thing was as clean and fresh as the day I packed them. I did use packing tape around the lid closures as a precautionary step to keep out spiders or ants. We live in an area where Brown Recluse spiders are as bad as ticks in population and I really hate ants.