Guitar Storage and Maintanence Issues

I now have 18 classroom instruments and I'm trying to figure out how to store them. I went down to the 'unclaimed furniture' room at our school and got a couple of small tables to get all of the instruments off the floor. I've got three full-size guitars coming from the music store later this week. So I need to have a place to put everything.

Until I can get more permanent cases for the guitar I'm taping the boxes they came in. I've always used clear packing tape for this but have recently decided to give duct tape a try. After seeing a couple of duct tape guitar straps, and a duct tape cowboy hat and wallet, I figured that duct tape would work for taping these boxes. I'm taping the edges and corners where they usually tear up first.

The main issue is finding the time to do all of this maintenance. Well, I was passing by study hall today and noticed kids in there doing nothing and thought, "dude!". I got about five girls and trained them in the delicate art of taping guitar boxes. We implemented the Bush Doctrine and taped up the three newest boxes first. I'm really curious to see if this slows down the classic box deterioration.

I've also got four 3/4 size guitars that I got from the elementary teacher.  These came in gig bags and sit on a multi-guitar corner stand.  This is pretty convenient for storage, but would be hard to use with the humidifiers I make for the guitars.  If I could get some smaller guitar humidifiers, gig bags and some hangers, this gig-bag and stand/hanger combination would be really appealing.  Right now, I use home-made guitar humidifiers that go in the boxes and they'd be a tough fit in the gig bags.  Probably the best long-term option would be to have a system to accurately control the room humidity.
 

It's important to control the humidity in the winter months when you start running the heater.  If you live in a dry climate such as Arizona, this is not just a winter issue either.  Right now I'm using home-made guitar humidifiers using the instructions that I found here: http://www.thepodium.com/t-makinghumidifier.aspx

If you can afford it, the Oasis humidifier is probably the easiest to deal with.  It's easy to use, small enough to fit in a gig bag and doesn't drip.


For the guitar I play in class I've got a String Swing hanger.  These are really handy, and I use it during the school day.  However, as I said, I don't hang guitars overnight out of the case in the winter months.  I live in Mississippi, and when the heat is off it's actually good to have them out on a stand or hanging.  Do some research on humidity and guitars for your climate.  A couple of years ago, I found out (the hard way) why it's important.