What can I store in damp cellar?

[SIHastingsLiketheBattle]

We're a family of five and have a pretty big cellar beneath the living room that's currently empty. It is damp but is there anything i could store down there without it getting ruined? Obviously anything wooden/fabric is out.

How damp is it? My cellar has a dehumidifier and is now dry enough to use for normal storage. Its connected up to quite a large tank (water cooler bottle size) so it only had to be emptied once a month

@BaronessBomburst

You could breed silverfish.

😂😂

My cellar floods when there's heavy rain. I've got pallets down and everything is on them. Chest freezer, tumble dryer. Theres a door to the garden in it so I leave that open most days to let it air out, adding air bricks can help

@Bibbleybetto pretty damp and ventilation really needs sorting. No funds to get it sorted at the moment though. We've a dehumidifier and it fills up after about 10 hours

@Beetlewing

My cellar floods when there's heavy rain. I've got pallets down and everything is on them. Chest freezer, tumble dryer. Theres a door to the garden in it so I leave that open most days to let it air out, adding air bricks can help

In some houses, this is caused by broken and leaking drains. Most often where an iron downpipe joins a clay gulley at ground level. IME the clay gulley, and the nearest joint, are always broken and leaking.

I am told there is an old house in the country where the clay gullies are not broken, but I have never seen it.

Signs include damp patches on the wall, sunken ground, cracked paving, and patched or repaired concrete near the drain. If the soil pipe is also broken, there may be wild tomato plants and red worms.