Chemical Storage in the laundry room

[Digidurst]

Hi all! I have recently cleaned out my laundry room so that it can serve double duty as my darkroom. Plus it has a nice, high shelf where I have been storing my chemicals. The temperature is pretty constant but yesterday it occurred to me that maybe the humidity from when I run the dryer isn't doing my chemicals any favors. The dryer is vented but still the air changes if that makes sense.

All the chems are stored in brown jugs or glass bottles. Should I be worried or do you think they'll be ok in there?

Thanks in advance

 

[Monophoto]

If your chemicals are stored in bottles, then they are not going to be significantly affected by any humidity in the laundry room.

Some chemicals are affected by light, and storing them in brown bottles protects them from that form of deterioration.

You didn't mention if you were using any plastic bottles. Theoretically, plastic bottles can breathe, and are not as good as glass for long term storage. Whether this is actually a concern really depends on how long you store the chemicals. If you cycle through a set of chemicals in six months or thereabouts, my experience suggests that plastic is not a problem.

The only other issue is whether you have little people in the house who could get into those chemicals. I know that you said high shelf, but some of those little foks are pretty creative. The best way to store chemicals in a darkroom that is shared with other household functions is to have them in a locked cabinet. And if you do that, then you don't need to worry about brown bottles since the cabinet will be dark most of the time.

 

[David Brown]

My opinion (just that) is that chemicals are not a problem (see Monophoto's comments). I would not, however, store paper or negs in the laundry room! Or the enlarger!!!

David

 

[Digidurst]

I'm actually setting up a darkroom for contact printing and things of that nature so no enlarger is involved - guess I shoulda called it the photo-workroom!

Thanks for the info!