diff --git a/debian/scrapyd-files/000-default b/debian/scrapyd-files/000-default
index d4b8ee4fa..e3afc8f54 100644
--- a/debian/scrapyd-files/000-default
+++ b/debian/scrapyd-files/000-default
@@ -4,4 +4,5 @@ debug      = off
 #max_proc  = 1
 eggs_dir   = /var/lib/scrapyd/eggs
 dbs_dir    = /var/lib/scrapyd/dbs
+items_dir  = /var/lib/scrapyd/items
 logs_dir   = /var/log/scrapyd
diff --git a/debian/scrapyd.dirs b/debian/scrapyd.dirs
index ef91f28ed..31ae26fdb 100644
--- a/debian/scrapyd.dirs
+++ b/debian/scrapyd.dirs
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 var/lib/scrapyd
 var/lib/scrapyd/eggs
 var/lib/scrapyd/dbs
+var/lib/scrapyd/items
 var/log/scrapyd
diff --git a/debian/scrapyd.postinst b/debian/scrapyd.postinst
index 98e6dab1d..db0ba9589 100644
--- a/debian/scrapyd.postinst
+++ b/debian/scrapyd.postinst
@@ -12,7 +12,8 @@ case "$1" in
         fi
 
         chown scrapy:nogroup /var/log/scrapyd \
-            /var/lib/scrapyd /var/lib/scrapyd/eggs /var/lib/scrapyd/dbs
+            /var/lib/scrapyd /var/lib/scrapyd/eggs /var/lib/scrapyd/dbs \
+            /var/lib/scrapyd/items
 
         update-python-modules -p # so upstart restart uses the new code
     ;;