A November plan for restaurant patio furniture storage, counted in square feet

By the last warm Sunday in October the patio looks exactly the way you wanted it, and that is the trouble. Forty-eight chairs, twelve tables, six umbrellas, a heater and a row of partition stands all stand where they stood in May, and not one of them has a place to go.

Most storage grief starts with a question nobody asked at the time of purchase: where will this sit in January? A chair that stacks, a base two people can lift, and a tabletop that lies flat on a shelf all make that January easier. The answer is arithmetic, and a tape measure plus the product listings will get you there.

Count the pieces, then count the pounds

Start with a list by type, not by corner of the patio: chairs, tables, bases, umbrellas, heaters, partitions. Give each type a quantity and a weight.

Say the patio holds 12 tables with four chairs each, so 48 chairs. An outdoor ladder-back chair lists 16 1/2 inches wide and 18 3/4 inches deep, and it stacks. Stack six high and you have eight stacks. Round each footprint up to 24 by 24 inches so hands fit between them, and the stacks claim 32 square feet of floor.

Tops are flatter work. A half-inch outdoor resin tabletop is the sort of piece that wants a rack, because twelve of them pile up six inches high and a floor corner is where they get kicked.

Then the heavy end of the list. A cast iron umbrella base lists 95 pounds, so six bases come to 570. A 7.5-foot aluminum umbrella lists 19 pounds, and six of those add 114. Weight decides who can move a piece. Floor area decides where it goes. Write both numbers down before you look at a single shelf.

Measure one stack of your own

Listings give a chair's overall height, not what five of them measure nested. Stack five of your own, measure from the floor to the top, and you have the number the shelf, the ceiling and the doorway all have to beat.

One rule of thumb to carry: stack no higher than the shortest person on your closing crew can lift off without a step stool. A pile that needs a ladder gets dragged, tipped or left outside, and the chair at the bottom takes the abuse. Six high is a fine start for the chairs above; five may suit your crew better, and the floor simply grows to match. Ten stacks of five, one of them short, ask for 40 square feet instead of 32.

Check the doorway as well. A stack that fits the shelf and not the door is a problem you discover in November with the truck gone.

Rinse, drain, dry, in that order

Hose everything before it moves. Grit and dried drink residue stay on the piece all winter if you leave them. Then let water leave: tip chairs forward, stand tops on edge, and turn bases so nothing holds a puddle. Dry comes last, and it takes longer than people allow.

Here is the mistake that costs the most. Someone stacks damp chairs in a closed shed on a cold Tuesday, drapes a sheet of plastic over the pile, and walks away. The plastic holds the moisture in, and in April the pile smells like a basement. Use a cover made for patio furniture, tie it down so wind can't lift it, and leave the bottom edge loose enough to breathe.

Frames and seats dry at different speeds. A woven or rope seat holds water longer than an aluminum rail, so give those pieces an extra day before they go under a cover.

Decide what stays out and what comes in

Only pieces listed for patio use belong outside to begin with, and even those need a cover or a roof once the season ends. If room is short, the heavy items are the ones to cover where they stand: a 95-pound base is better left in place than carried to a shed it barely fits.

Some pieces have to come in. A black metal armchair with a synthetic teak seat is listed for a covered patio only, stacks, and weighs 18 pounds. Its winter is indoors.

The heater needs its own plan. The listing gives 89 1/2 inches tall and 66 pounds, with room for a 20-pound propane tank. Take the tank off. Tanks have their own storage rules, so ask your gas supplier and the local fire authority before one shares a room with the chairs. Partition stands list 36 inches tall and 13 pounds each, so they stack neatly against a wall.

Umbrellas list an overall height of 96 inches. Lay them flat or give them a ceiling taller than eight feet.

Leave a landing spot for the next delivery

New pieces come on pallets, and standard pieces need 14 to 21 business days of lead time, and the road time comes after. Your crew does the unloading, ready to start within about 30 minutes of the truck arriving. Where do the pallets sit until someone opens the cartons?

If you plan to add 24 chairs in March, the winter storage plan has to include a clear patch of floor near the door for that day. Read the delivery page before you pick the spot. A landing area that blocks the shelves you just built is a mistake you make exactly once.

Mark the shelf before the first frost

Write the storage map into your patio plan while you still remember it. A line such as stacks of six by the east door, bases under the stair, tops on the rack takes ten seconds now and saves an hour in April. The plan keeps your chairs, tables, quantities and notes in one place, and you can download a plan sheet for whoever opens the shed.

The reopening checks pick up where this leaves off, and the guide to chairs after rain covers the days in between. For a first look at what belongs outdoors at all, start with the outdoor buying guide, then browse patio chairs, patio tables and patio umbrellas with your storage number in hand.

Before you order anything, lay painter's tape on the floor in a 24 by 24 inch square, stack one real chair stack inside it, and see how the room feels. That square is the unit the rest of the winter is counted in.