rusty gas cans

a few years ago a local big box hardware store had Coleman fuel at a give-away price, $8 something.i bought four and filled my Sigg bottles for camping with one.
a couple other cans came along at some point and this all went to storage in the basement.our home is an older one and the basement is damp in the summer.

as you see the cans did not hold up well over about four or five years of being put away.i was buying a can now and then for our camping trips and these were "deep storage"
i have some empty's of those newer buys in the garage where i was saving them just in case i needed to buy and store gas for the car.well i moved the Coleman fuel to the like new cans in the garage and will leave it out there!

I know people putting petroleum jelly on cans to prevent them from rusting.

Personally I wouldn't want that much liquid fuel in storage, unless it;s a external storage. But than again I'm specialist in safety...