Unattended Cold Storage?

[half-pint]

Let's assume that I finally acquire my life-long dream of a (fairly-well insulated) cabin in central Maine...which I would have to commute to & fro during the more temperate months til retirement...
Which items should I schlep back & forth to keep them safe from those "few" cold months/animals of winter (no heat/plumbing)...ie. lanterns/fuel, bedding, clothes, books, tools, cleaning stuff, etc.
Thanks in advance for any advice, suggestions, warnings!
half pint

[kawalekm]

Hi HP
I'll start out discussing what went wrong for me, books. I stored a lot of valuable books in unheated storage. They were in cardboard boxes. They got mildewed, rotted, and I lost about 95% of my library. This was twenty years ago, so I've had the time to rebuild a good library, even cheaply replacing the same books that were out of print years ago. Don't store any books on or near the ground in any kind of box that doesn't allow air circulation.

For things like clothing, I think your biggest problem will be mice/moths. Don't let any of the clothing lie on the ground, or in drawers of a chest that mice can get into. I've had good success with hard plastic tupperware type containers. Mice can't chew through that and if you drop in a few mothballs, they're protected against insects.

Thinks like lantern fuel seems to last forever. Just keep them in their original containers, tightly closed. For any foodstuffs, keep things in cans or glass jars. It's the mice and insects again. For larger storage like beans or rice, use 5 gallon plastic buckets (food grade) with gas tight lids. You can treat staples with CO2 to kill larvae, and drive away oxygen, and mice can't (not yet) chew through the thick plastic.

I wouldn't store any full bottles of any liquid cleaner if temps are going below freezing. However half-full containers, tilted at an angle, can be frozen without bursting the container. I have stored cans of chili and beef stew at below freezing that didn't burst. It may be that the thick stews freeze at temps lower than 32F, or it just hasn't gotten cold enough here. For anything you think might freeze, just store them in a second leakproof container so you'll catch any spills that ooze out.
Good luck,
Michael

[half-pint]

Thanks Michael! (I was beginning to think I'd asked a really dumb question this time, ie. no responses...)
Great tip re. tilting 1/2 full containers! Any luck with dessicant in the storage bins? (I am a storage-bin junkie!)
:) HP

[tufhelp]

We use a lot of storage bins down on our place in Southern New Mexico, and once we had realized that we had an unmanageable nightmare on our hands (many fruitless and maddening searches for stuff we just knew were there “someplace), we assigned and marked a number to each bin and went through each one and listed the entire contents in a spread sheet. Then we sorted it alphabetically and numerically and printed out the lists. Now when we want that left-handed wombat, we know exactly where it is…

[half-pint]

Thanks Tufhelp...great idea! I'm quite the list-maker, myself & am proud to be able to (usually) put my hands on what I'm looking for. I just need to keep my left-handed wombat free from mold, varmints & other storage undesireables!
:) HP

[CarolAnn]

Start collecting non-plastic tins. I get many of mine from Goodwill for very little money, and some of them are even pretty! I store spaghetti & other pasta, dry beans, oatmeal, etc in them. Once you've left a box of oatmeal expecting it to be fine - and find it with a hole in the bottom, cleaned out by mice - you'll get into glass and tin storage quickly!

Mice also love to chew on matches for some reason. Mom had a cabinet drawer actually set on fire by a mouse who set of a spark from chewing on a box of wood matches! After that, she stored matches in a glass jar with a metal lid.

I now have a large collection of cans and large glass jars and almost nothing stored in it's original packaging. They keep not only mice out, but bugs, too. For bugs, I buy bay leaves in bulk at the health food co-op. They're inexpensive that way and seem to work well as a bug repellant in my flour and pasta - at least I've not had buggy flour for years! :P

I think heavy plastic tubs might be OK, but a determined rodent can chew through a shocking amount of hard stuff.

I don't know if you'll need to worry about larger critters in that area, but think about racoons, opossums, and maybe even bears as a possible predator on your stored stuff. It's nice to come home and not have to worry about dragging a whole lot of food back and forth - but as you learn what creatures are hungry in your neck of the woods, you'll get serious about some storng storage units of some kind!

There's one last bad critter to consider: man. Mom had a lazy bum that lived a few houses down - who would sneak in at night and steal canned goods she had put up in her well house. My solution would have been to can him some beans and botulism, but she wouldn't have any part of it! ;D

[half-pint]

Thanks for the great ideas, CA. Your mom sounds too nice! :)