Alternative Storage Plans

[MoleStomper]

Some might remember near the beginning of the current pandemic I was asking about different places to live.  My wife and I had considered moving to a more rural area and possibly take up homesteading.  God had other plans for us.

We now live in South Carolina and are in a unique situation working with kids.  We do not have the space we previously had where we are now so our various preps are back in Georgia with my son for the time being.  Our option for the foreseeable future will most likely be something like a storage unit.  We have no indoor/climate controlled storage units so it would be the usual outdoor type.

Wondering if anyone has any experience with storing food and such in a typical storage unit?  Is mylar bags and sealed 5 gallon buckets enough to keep out rodents and bugs?  We are looking at being locked down again so I need to get my stuff here as soon as possible but unless we want to sit and sleep on mylar bags and buckets we have no where to put it all.

[nj_m715]

my stuff is in the crawspace. mice haven't chewed into any plastic buckets but they have chewed into mre's and foil packs of coco powder

I also have a few mouse bait stations down there. mice come in every fall. I'll hear them in the walls for a day or two then they're done

someone recently posted an article about food stored in a hot shed for a long time, it was all just fine

[Starlady]

First, we hate to lose you and hope you'll stay in touch!

Mylar with O2 absorbers INSIDE a sealed plastic bucket is good enough for rodents and insects as long as it's a decent bucket.  Rats in particular CAN chew through plastic but the Home Depot ones seem to be pretty heavy duty.  There are others but I will say the 3 gallon icing buckets from bakeries - I wouldn't store those near mice/rats, they are a bit thin.

As far as temperature goes, do a search, just a few months ago there was a post about an article saying that our hotter storage temps don't seem to hurt long term supplies like rice and beans.  It WILL take longer to cook the beans, though.   And a google search will reveal other YouTube vids on guys who stored rice in a metal outdoor shed for Y2K and 16-17 years later, it was fine.

A suggestion:  instead of packing 40lbs of rice, beans  or wheat berries in one bucket, split it up so a bucket has multiple food items in it.  A bag of rice, a bag of beans, spices, some wheat berries or flour, masa flour, some powdered milk or sugar/salt means you won't have to worry about using all those beans at once and with meat you can get several different kinds of meals from one bucket.

[Abigayle]

Star Lady's suggestion is a good one.  Throw in some hard candy, as well.  During Y2K we did full barrows of wheat berries, etc. and we never opened them or used them after the non-event.  We did, however use the containers that we packed in the manner that Star Lady has suggested.  We also had popcorn in ours.
If you have high shelves in your house, the places where you put stuff you rarely use, you might want to consider storing those things and replacing that space with supplies. 
A short term food supply (store what you eat and eat what you store) can take you a long way if you rotate.  Many canned good right now have '22 shelve life dates. 
The Organic Prepper has a lot of good ideas on storage for a year or so.  Good Luck!