Cedar Chests - Storage Classics

As a child when you went to grandma's house, you may have marveled at the cedar chests she had in her home. They were large enough to jump inside and hid under the blankets so you could win the game of hide and seek, and they smelled great. That cedar smell still likely brings back fond memories of those days in your youth.

Why not bring those memories into your current home. Cedar chests are still on the market, are as popular as ever, and offer great old-fashioned storage options for your home.

From a storage standpoint, cedar chests are great places to keep wool blankets, wool sweaters and other similar items because of their moth repellent qualities. Really, cedar chests are moths' worst enemy. Back in pioneer times, good cedar chests were the only way they could keep the moths out of their clothes. Can you imagine today, putting that designer sweater away, then pulling it out to find it full of holes and destroyed by moths? Sure there are other ways to get rid of moths, but once you toss mothballs into a chest with your clothes, that moth ball smell never really leaves. The odor in itself can make you hate those clothing items. Cedar chests do the whole job, with a pleasant cedar scent instead of that aromatically painful mothball smell.

Cedar chests do not only have to be a place to store wool items, they can be a great storage for anything you would like to put away, but know where it is. Some people use cedar chests as a fancier file cabinet for all their important papers, so they know, when they need them, everything is one place.

In some cultures cedar chests make great hope chests, the chests that a family prepares for a young woman to take with her when she marries. The cedar chest will be filled with the items she needs to begin a home of her own. That may include table linens, bed linens, china and silverware. All the things a woman traditionally would use to set up a home as her own.

For others, cedar chests are a great place to keep all the family keepsakes, safe and sound. They may hold scrapbooks, old photos passed down through the generations, baby clothes of your children, or military metals of family members who have passed on. Having all these things in one place creates a legacy box, showing who your family members are and where they came from. Cedar chests used in this way become a treasure chest of family history that your children will be glad to have and then pass on to their own children.

There is no denying the beauty of cedar chests. The wood itself is often artfully stunning, and once you add in the craftsmanship of the Amish or other wood workers, you are met with an amazing array of striking pieces of wood work, that are also a great place to be able to gain a little more storage in your home.