# Food Storage Location/Temperature



## Fallen Valkyrie (May 1, 2020)

From everything I've researched long term food storage should be room temp or cooler. Basements sound like they would be the ideal location, but what if you don't have a basement? I have some space in closets, but would rather not have to dedicate a whole room to storage. I do have a heated outbuilding where most of my food is stored. In summer that building can get up to 80-90°. This would be the ideal location but the summer heat is a concern. How much will temperature fluctuations decrease the shelf life of food (dry beans, wheat berries, rice, oats, etc)? I'm not looking at needing to store those items for 20+ years, but it would be nice to have at least a 2 year supply.


----------



## Redneck (Oct 6, 2016)

No basements around here either. I built a very well insulated prepper room, inside my upper barn. On an external wall, I put a built in wall ac unit that keeps the temp 65 all summer. And yes, high heat will greatly reduce the storage life of most long term food storage. Put up properly, and not stored at high temp, those stores you mention should last 30+ years.

Since that room is inside another structure, and with the room very well insulated, the ac doesn't have to work all that hard... even on the hottest days.


----------



## Fallen Valkyrie (May 1, 2020)

How much of a reduction in shelf life are we talking about though? Installing a wall AC isn't a feasible option as the building has no available wall space. We store our home canned foods in this building and haven't run into any issues for short term, but I don't want anything long term to spoil. Would I be able to get away with beans and rice in the outbuilding and save the house closet storage for wheat and oats?


----------



## SOCOM42 (Nov 9, 2012)

Fallen Valkyrie said:


> How much of a reduction in shelf life are we talking about though? Installing a wall AC isn't a feasible option as the building has no available wall space. We store our home canned foods in this building and haven't run into any issues for short term, but I don't want anything long term to spoil. Would I be able to get away with beans and rice in the outbuilding and save the house closet storage for wheat and oats?


Yes you can do the rice and beans outside, I do, but I store them in military comm shelters,

they are water, bug, rat and mice proof, even so most of my stores of them are in within 20MM cans also.

Beans and rice are not that temp sensitive as other foods, depending the storage method 15-20 years.

I have rice stored in sealed 5 gallon buckets that was purged with either CO2 or nitrogen,

the stuff was still good after 15 years.

The difference here is our temps are from the 40's in the fall to 20 below in the winter to 40's in the spring.

Everything almost stays refrigerated or frozen for 6 months out of the year.

I have opened and eaten foodstuffs that were 20+ years old just to test them.

You have to make sure no insects or rodents can gnaw their way into the containers.


----------



## Annie (Dec 5, 2015)

You can store a year's worth of food under a twin sized bed. As Wendy De Witt said, 'Nothing you've got under there is more important than your temporal welfare.'


----------



## Fallen Valkyrie (May 1, 2020)

Thanks everyone. Glad I asked! I think between the random storage space in the house and the outbuilding I should have ample storage for everything I need. Now if only more houses were built with dedicated storage space....


----------

