When you think about organizing your home, you probably mostly think about the things you have in your home. What you likely don’t think about is the things underneath your home. In fact, maintaining a healthy crawl space is an incredibly important part of keeping your home safe. If you’re not sure why you should care about your crawl space, just consider these creepy categories of things that might exist in an uninspected crawl space.

1. Living Organisms

There are a number of living organisms that can find their way underneath your home and decide to make their homes there. This includes both flora and fauna — you can end up with anything from some animal skeletons to toxic mold underneath your crawl space if you don’t pay attention to it:

Rodent and Bug Infestations
Snakes
Wild Animal Homes
Animal Bones
Mold
Invasive Plants

These living organisms are all important to find as early as possible. If you discover an invasive plant early, for example, you can weed it out much more easily.

2. Criminal Activity

What about crime? Though it’s not common, it is possible for you to find things under your home that hint at criminal activity. These are some of the scarier possibilities:

Mysterious Locked Cabinet
Mob Cash
Guns and Weapons
Fugitives and Squatters

It’s true that you’re more likely to see criminal items in your crawl space if you’re already involved in criminal business. However, this isn’t the only reason you might see criminal products in your crawl space. If you’re particularly unlucky, you could just be the random person the criminals decided to use.

3. Historical

History is an important thing to pay attention to. It’s an important part of life for many people, and that’s definitely something you should think about. However, these historical things could end up being dangerous:

Unexploded Artillery
Disturbing Journals

These are especially common if you live in a historical area; people in New England, for example, which is where much of the Revolutionary War happened, are more likely to find historical things under their home than people living in Southern California.
4. Paranormal

How much do you believe in the paranormal? This is a hotly debated topic, but there are people who believe that ghosts can and do haunt homes. You might see some of them in your home and crawl space:

Ghosts
Large Monsters

These paranormal creatures can have a serious impact on your home. People have reported unnerving sensations, creaking floors, and doors and windows opening or closing without anyone moving them. Some people have even called in paranormal investigators to exorcise their home.

5. Structural

Of all these potential problems, structural problems may be some of the scariest when it comes to actually dealing with them. Sure, it’s not quite as spooky as a ghost haunting your crawl space, but anyone would be concerned with these types of structural problems:

Sagging Floor Joists
Bulging Basement Walls
Foundation Cracks
Creaky Floors

If you have any of these signs of a structural problem, it’s incredibly important that you get help as soon as possible. Structural problems can quickly spiral out of control, and catching them early is the best way for you to fix them.What Can You Do About Crawl Space Problems?The good news is, there’s a way to combat crawl space problems, whether you know you have problems, you think you have problems, or you’ve just never checked. It’s all about hiring a contractor to go into your crawl space and look at what’s going on. A contractor can let you know about structural issues, tell you if there’s something sketchy happening under your home, and clean out anything that needs to be cleaned out. It’s the best path to a healthy, safe crawl space.

Author Bio: JES Foundation Repair are Experts in Foundations, Crawl Spaces, and Basement Waterproofing.