Food storage and other kitchen issues - Advice/wisdom for a Northerner?
 

Hello!

I'm moving in next week and my thoughts have turned to the storing of pantry items.

Up north, I thought nothing of storing my flour in the original bag, in the pantry....pasta, cornmeal, dried dog food....same.

I'm led to believe that I must re-think my strategy, here.

I am lucky to have purchased a place that has a large upright freezer in the garage.

Would it be wise to store flour, etc, there?

Or is it sufficient to find and use good quality airtight containers, and leave that sort of thing in the pantry?

Any thoughts on this....or any other kitchen-related Florida issues that might blindside a new arrival....will be deeply appreciated.

Thanks, in advance

Assuming you have air conditioning, I don't see any difference between food storage in Florida and other locations.

That was my first thought....just trying to get local wisdom, in case I'm approaching the issue in an "innocently ignorant" way.

In our pantry, we store our flour and sugar in containers that have a great seal. The top has a push button in the top that provides that expands the seal so that nothing gets into the inside. Look up OXO soft works POP container. It also helps to have good bug protection for the house on the outside of the house.

Welcome to The Villages. Hope you have great time here!

I paid Massey for pest treatment for several years and never saw a bug in the house. But, I cancelled the service about 4 years ago, and I still have not seen a bug.

I use my garage fridge for storage of pasta, crackers, flour. We had flour bugs in my pantry and I freaked out. Now, nothing that isnt sealed goes into the fridge. Did they come in from the grocery store? Probably. I paid closer attention while grocery shopping and found bugs in a pasta box at Winn Dixie. At least they wont be multiplying in my house.

I believe the reason people get bugs in flour and pasta is there are already eggs inside. Our food supply is clean but not sterile. The eggs are there from the beginning (During harvesting). They hatch from the warmth, not because some outside critter made their way into the package after it arrives in our homes. I was taught to freeze everything first. Flour goes into the freezer 48 hours and then moved to the pantry. The freezing kills the eggs so they never hatch. Perhaps this is an old wives tale but it is a rule I always follow, even when I lived up north.

We use these "up north" for rice, pasta, and dog treats. They work great. A little bit of effort to really thoroughly clean - lots of nooks that take a couple days on the counter to completely dry out, but they are effective.

We have had good success storing flour and rice in our pantry but did get an infestation once or twice, probably package came with them.

Never thought of freezing packages when we got home. Did the flour clump together?

We have a small upright freezer in our garage for meat, breads etc. We also have a small pantry cupboard inside our house. Early on we found bugs in the pantry (probably came with the dry-goods stored in it). NOW, everything like flour etc. goes in storage containers and we've had NO issues since then. The containers are those with covers....similar to Tupperware. You can find them at Walmart, TJMaxx (back where they have all the kitchen items....and similar stores. We moved here from Wisconsin too.

We are the same way. Found bugs, used containers for a few things. Found that was insufficient. Now use containers for anything that isn't sealed, particularly flour, rice, and pasta. No problem since doing that.

Nice advantage of the containers - they are far more stackable than the random pasta box or half-empty bag of flour or sugar.

I keep our dry goods (flour, sugar,) in airtight sealed containers. No room for them in freezer. Keeps anything inside from the store or from the harvesting away from other products. Keeps anything in the house from contaminating them.

We occasionally get ants in the house. They are those teeny tiny, almost can't see them ants. I think the locals call them ghost ants. Impossible to see on the counter until they move. Don't want them in my food. Don't want my food attracting them.

A northern with southern upbringing, here is our past experience on a preowned home, in TV. Never saw any pests until we did. If one isn’t nocturnal you will never think you have a problem. Cockroach’s love cool and dark, so under sinks, dishwasher, fridge, washer. Drawer with utensils and pans (think cool to the touch).

About a week after moving some items in I got up 2am, I don’t turn on any lights, cockroaches scurrying in the bathroom, kitchen, pantry utility room. Since I have never had the horror of this in the north, or our other 3 New Homes in TV.

Deans was at my front door at 9am after frantic call, Justine our tech for 6 years at our other homes took over. As she inspected, set bait, and traps. Would return in am. Next day Sticky traps held 10 adult/ juveniles. Then proceeded to show me inside drawers and steel mounts where they live, next to water supply.

So in our pantry they went after bagged cat/dog food. Ate cardboard, anything in paper. I have always kept flour and rice in the fridge/freezer so not never a worry.

Took close to 30 days to get house completely pest free. Then had a company come in to do a thorough deep clean. Thankfully we hadn’t moved in much.

Since this is a preowned you have no idea what or if pest was contaminated. Hopefully previous owners were far better at keeping a clean house and pest control.

You will never see pests during the daytime, only in the dark quiet of the night

Well....THAT was nightmare fuel....

But thanks for the insight....just what I was seeking.

So advice from my Deans Expert, especially in any preowned home.
Buy mesh to cover drains ( won’t dry up drain, but they can’t crawl in where they hide) and painters tape, and tape screen on all drains or you can just painter tape on all drains, cover toilets not in use, completely with plastic and tape, so pests can’t get to any water source.

Cockroaches can live for 30 days without Food.

But without Water they won’t survive after 3-4 days. That’s how most of our invasion died. Death by lack of moisture.

MORE of what I was seeking....NO experience with these vermin!

No worries, another tip never bring cardboard boxes in the house to unload, especially if they have been in your garage. Cockroaches love paper, but gecko love to hide. No worries on geckos, with no food source you will eventually find them dead under furniture.

I actually had a UPS package arrive with a German cockroach. Package was from Hobby Lobby. Thankfully I opened in the garage.

Funny, months ago I resolved NOT to have ANY corrugated in my garage...at least not for any extended time....solely poly totes, if storage is needed. This solidifies that strategy.

We had tiny flour mites or some such a couple years ago, and they had infested every box and paper package in the pantry closet. I had to throw out around $200 worth of food and baking ingredients, scour the shelves, and put down new shelf-paper. Here's what I do now:

I have a big tupperware container for my "oatmeal kit." That has oats in a ziplock bag. The original packaging of brown sugar, in a ziplock bag. The plastic bag of raisins, in a ziplock bag. It's all stuffed into the tupperware container with the air-sealed top. I re-use the ziplocks when I have to buy more of those ingredients.

I have another big tupperware container for my baking ingredients, EXCEPT granulated white sugar. Flour, almond meal, confectioner's sugar - all in the bags they came with, and each in its own ziplock bag, stuffed in the tupperware container.

Because we use sugar for our coffee every day, I keep the original bag in a ziplock bag, and store it on the shelf.

I buy very few cardboard boxes of food, such as cake mixes. I don't stock up on them anymore. If I feel like making a cake from a mix, I'll go to Walmart and pick up a box. If it's a B1G1, then sure I'll grab an extra. But no stocking up.

I store bisquick in the fridge.

I keep unsweetened cocoa powder in its own container in the spice cabinet, because (oddly enough) ants don't like unsweetened cocoa powder and it's very unlikely to ever find bugs in it, and it never goes bad.

IMO you will want sealed containers. Even though you don’t see insects they will be drug in in things you buy and will eventually sneak in. You have two options to hold back bugs even it you house is squeaky clean. Pay for service or bug bomb them inside, garage, and attic. As mentioned you won’t see 90% of them cause the come out after dark.

Even rightly sealed sack tiny ants can get in. Some are so tiny most can’ t see them due to eye site failing.

Long or short term
 

For short term, presuming you have AC there is no difference. The bag it comes in is good enough. For long term, freeze the dry goods, beans, rice flower, for at least three days, to kill any unwelcome might's that are in the product then store as normal in a clean dry humidity control space.

Ziplock bags are not good enough. Especially for sugar which ants LOVE. Glass sealed containers is a must. I keep extra sugar in the freezer.

Overthinking can cause anguish over small stuff. No different than up north

Nobody commented about bread products yet. We were putting every bread product immediately the freezer and using the toaster oven brings a slice of bread or hot dog roll, etc, back to original condition. Recently purchased a refrigerator with the middle temp adjustment drawer. Love that! Now all bread goes there, at 40 degrees, so bread is always fresh, not frozen, and lasts many weeks.

I always kept pasta in containers as it suited my “up north” pantry better. Same for flour and sugar and such but has to switch those to air right ones here (even though my ceramic has seals). We moved our cereal to containers which definitely keeps it fresh a lot longer

Great note on the cardboard. We haven’t had issues with small local packages but did get a big big roach of some sort in with a headboard for our bed! So inbox anything that wasn’t packed near here outside just to be safe.

One last weather note. Our laundry is in the garage. Up north I still used powdered detergent as it was a lot cheaper per load. Here it clumped in the summer humidity and was annoying so I switched to the pods. They do not melt in the heat as long as you don’t get them wet!

Good luck! And welcome

LOL. Almost everything I put in the freezer sits there for a few months and then it gets thrown away.

Many thanks, for the welcome.

I looked at a place with laundry in the garage. I'm notorious for forgetting the load is in...

I had visions of tossing in a load, leaving for a round and lunch, and coming back to a rotting, sodden mass of what USED to be my clothes....

<sigh>

When we moved in we expected a lot of Florida bugs but that was not the case, with the exception of ghost ants we had no bugs, occasional mud wasps on the stucco but nothing inside. What I also noted immediately was there were no common flies flying around, we were worried about the dreaded Florida cock roaches, never saw one or any evidence of one. As far as flower, sugar, etc., we always kept those items in sealed containers no matter where we lived and continue to do so. Give having an outside laundry more thought like when it's in the mid 90's and humid outside, not fun.

Bugs are not the only problem you will face when moving in. Some homeowners complain about the lack of storage throughout their new home. We use stackable containers in our pantry, closets, and garage. Plan wisely and you will have more storage than you need.

THIS has been front-of-mind all along. I really cut back on useless belongings, before the move. I'm resolved to being very efficient with my garage storage....Rolling wire shelving units from Uline...standardizing on them and the totes I use (no corrugated in garage). Will be looking at closet upgrades to best utilize vertical space.

Going from a four-bed, three bath, with a full basement and expansive mechanical/storage room...to here...took planning and commitment to efficiency.

And, being a singleton in a 2/3 with a 2-car/golf cart garage does NOT hurt.

Being a cookbook and kitchen gadget hoarder....that hurts.

Consider your cabinet placement. Ours are on an exterior wall that faces the full Florida afternoon sun.

We have installed insulation inside the cabinets to minimize the heat build up.

I love cookbooks too and own every kitchen gadget you can imagine. I now have my recipes stored on CopyMeThat. It is a great app for those who love to cook. I was able to throw away most of my cookbooks after loading my favorite recipes onto the site. I have over 3000 recipes stored. Hubby jokes that I will not live long enough to try them all. To make matters worse, I load an additional 10 or 20 per week. Only a cookbook enthusiast, like yourself, can understand.

I invested in a lifetime subscription....before they got smart and stopped offering them...to EatYourBooks.com.

Input the books and virtually all have been indexed.

They do NOT archive the full recipe, just the non-pantry ingredients, but it's great. If I have X, Y, and Z ingredients laying around...I input them and the site spits back all the recipes, from my books, that have those ingredients.

Does my heart good to have this resource and get use out of what I already own.

Happy cooking!

Retired dietitian here. Good you are thinking ahead!
Definitely get airtight containers for flour, sugar, and anything that can get clumpy or mothy. Any unopened flours go in the fridge or freezer.
Also, just fyi - be sure to leave your clothes washing machine door open after doing a load. The humidity will destroy it if it’s not aired out.
And finally, be sure to get a whole house water filtration system. The water will destroy your appliances if you don’t.
Welcome and best of luck!

Oh, Mama....you are speaking my language.

Long habit of leaving the washer door open to air out!

Thanks for the reminders and thanks for the welcome!

The new place does NOT have a water filtration system, but it's in the budget and on the plans to install. I am NOT a fan of the tap water, here. My folks, in Buttonwood, have a water system....did not skimp....and it's a wonder what it does.

Amazon has lots of plastic storage containers that are air tight. They hold 10 lbs of flour. I have 6 of them on my kitchen counter for various things.

YMMV. In the 12th year of a home with no water filtration system. Water heater is nearing its recommended replacement and dishwasher and refrigerator still not destroyed. (washer was replaced for other reasons)

Did find bugs in some of my products and had to dispose of them. I now keep all my flour, sugar etc in large jars. You can also use purchased containers that seal tightly. I have had no problems since doing so and it makes them easier to handle.

I find it highly unusual their really low amount of insects, even at night in my are no insects flying around out door lights.