After insulating my attic from the elements, I decided to make an effort to keep it clean and use it for storage. Before I came up here to make my improvements, there was enough dust and cobwebs in here to fill the bed of a pickup truck. I used my shop vacuum and filled the drum twice gathering everything bit of dust and dirt that I could find. Insulating the attic wasn’t difficult because of the reflective foil insulation that I purchased. It’s lightweight and easy to work with, but it’s also incredibly effective at reflecting radiant UV rays from the sun. The reflective foil insulation looks almost identical to sun visors for cars, but usually the foam core is more robust. Some people use the same thing but with bubble wrap inside instead of foam; personally, I think this results in less UV reflection. Between the cleaning and the new insulation, my attic is shaping up to be a wonderful storage space. I like to keep my space heater and portable air conditioner up there whenever I’m not using them. The portable air conditioner is for emergencies while the space heater is used every year during winter for added heat in my bedroom. It was the second week of October so I decided to pull the space heater out of storage and turn it on to start using it again. Without fail, my space heater always produces a gross odor when it’s used again after a long period in storage. It’s a natural byproduct of dust and dirt settling on the heating coils and burning off when the machine is powered on again. After an hour or so of burn-off time, usually the space heater loses its gross odor.