Storage in non climate controlled building

[DustMusher]

I am quickly running out of space in my home to store preps -- will have to move some items out to the storage building-- no heat/AC but rodent proof. I live in south Texas so heat is an issue, only occasional day or two a year of freezing weather.

What items can I safely put out there?

I am thinking:

Extra clothes
Paper products
Salt
Sugar
Pasta?
Grains?
Cleaning products (soap, fabric softener, chemicals like pump spray glass cleaner)

Help me think outside the box --- or the house, as the case may be.

DM

 

[wasabell]

The clothes will need to be in "space bags" as they will get a musty (mildewy) smell to them (I'm in SE Tx here) because of the humidity.

If you can get 100% sealed from the humidity then I would think that dried beans, rice, pasta may be OK. I don't think heat would hurt them too much, its just extremely hard to deal with moisture.

And ants.

 

[ejagno]

From experience in the deep south I would NOT put salt or sugar in a non climate controlled environment. I lost a case of salt and a 5 gallon pail of granulated sugar to the heat and humidity. Bold print represents the major of the two evils for storage here. I would even recommend storing liquid hand and body soap instead of the bars of soap due to them melting or all of the oils settling on the bottom.

All of the household cleaners did fine as did many non-food bulk items such as toilet paper, paper towels, feminine napkins, tampons, in rubbermaid totes***
lye for making soap,
clothing (properly sealed),
yarn/fabric & sewing items (properly sealed)
as well as bulk cooking utensils such as pressure canners, jars & lids, dehydrators and large cast iron pots (well oiled).

***Not advertising a specific brand but after losing several packages of the listed items to varmits chewing through the thin plastic that they come in I resorted to using these totes for storage and duct taped all around the lid and it resolved the problem.

I also froze all purpose flour in 3 gallon buckets for 72 hours, added a handful of bay leaves to each bucket and they stored just fine. I did the same with dried beans and lentils, pasta and rice with no problems. The most helpful hint I received was to scatter bay leaves throughout all of my storage shelves and along the baseboards in my storeroom. It is a natural repellant for bugs. I also sprinkled boric acid around the baseboards and window seal to keep out those small "sugar" ants as I called them.

I know I'm not thinking of everything so if you have a question feel free to ask someone who definitely lives in the deep south and has years of experience with prep storage, the hard way. LOL
P.S. - I'm on the Gulf Coast of SW Louisiana.

 

[A.T.Hagan]

I've stored all kinds of things in non-climate controlled buildings here in interior Florida over the years.

As the other two point out it's the humidity as much as the heat that you need to take into consideration plus insects. Packaging needs to be fairly heavy duty and it needs to seal air tight so that you can keep humidity out. For foods I'd be sure to use desiccant packs as well. This is the sort of thing where aluminized Mylar bags well sealed and kept inside of five or six gallon plastic buckets will serve you well. Alternatively tightly sealed canning jars and other types of glass jars (make sure the interior lid lining is up to the job).

The vacuum sealable clothing bags that are sold for saving luggage space would work well for the clothing.

Food wise white and brown sugar, salt, white rice, grits, white flour pasta, and instant dry potatoes would all store well enough providing you kept them protected from humidity. Anything with an appreciable fat content and anything that contains sensitive vitamins had best be kept in the house.

I cover desiccants and vacuum sealing in the <i>Prudent Food Storage FAQ</i> that you can access through the URL in my signature below. It's free to read or download.

.....Alan.

 

[DustMusher]

The salt, sugar and other food type stuff is either bagged and vaccumed with a food saver, or vaccum sealed in canning jars both with oxygen absorbers in it. Then put in rubber maid containers.


shelving is going to be put in, I have the vision of a mini HEB in the back yard -- not a bad idea, until I have to defend it from 2 legged varmits.

Right now I am increasing the stock price of Tilia, the makers of the Food Saver, by the amount of the rolls of bagging materials I am buying.

Suffice it to say, the dogs are worried every time I look at them with a bag in my hand.

DM

 

[idelphic]

I would think that if you can,.. lining the walls with some form of insulation (foam) would be helpful. But that is a guess. If it can be vented,.. that will help.

 

[Cardinal]

Suffice it to say, the dogs are worried every time I look at them with a bag in my hand.

DM

Thanks for the laugh. I brought all my stuff in today, and got creative with the dishwasher. Since we never use it anyway, I took the inisdes -the racks-out, and am storing canned goods in there

 

[Tundra Gypsy]

Doesn't silica (for drying flowers) and kitty litter, pull moisture out of the air? I wonder if they would help with sprinkling them on the ground around your storage items? There must be a product to pull moisture out of small storage buildings. Are root cellars too humid for storage? I've had to store things in metal garbage cans to keep the rodents out of my non-perishable items (paper products, etc.)