It’s gone. All of it.
Goodnight grains. Goodnight flour. Goodnight cereal, rice and all that baking powder.
We spent the past weekend throwing out all of our dry good stockpile. ALL. OF. IT. I went through moments of chills, being totally grossed out and generally sick to my stomach having to throw out so much food.
Late Friday night we discovered and realized we had a major moth infestation. Eggs hatched in the flour and a cupboard that we rarely open became home to some unwanted house guests; moths, a lot of them. I get chills still thinking about it.
Since it was impossible to tell which bags had been infested and which ones were safe, we had to throw out everything.
This is just from the pantries we were forced to throw out. Our neighbors probably think we’re moving. It’s a good time to think about it since we have a lot less to pack now!
I don’t want our misfortune to be in vain. I did some digging and here are 5 tips to make sure your stockpile doesn’t end up like mine!
1. FREEZER
The freezer is a stockpiler’s best friend. There is a chance the dry grain you bought at the store might already have eggs in it ready to be hatched. (I know gross) Before you even open or place it in your pantry, store it in your freezer for a couple days. The freezer will kill whatever is possibly inside and prolong the life of your dry good.
2. AIR TIGHT CONTAINER
As soon as you open your flour or other grain, decant it right away in an air tight container. Putting a rubberband or rolling the flour bag over as tight as possible is not enough. It needs as little oxygen as possible to keep bugs from forming.
3. EXPIRATION DATE
Buy the freshest, furthest expiration date you can find in the store. Look behind the products placed in front. The longer it’s been sitting on the shelf, the greater chance something is already forming inside. (I know gross)
4. COOL PLACE
Store your dry goods in the coolest place possible, at least 72 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Keep away from moisture and humidity. Keep away from outside walls. If you’re like us, you don’t have many options on where to store your food. We live in a small city apartment, our kitchen pantry was our only option and probably not a good one because of the next tip.
5. AVOID LIGHT
Our pantry was exposed to quite a bit of light everyday. If you are not using your grains everyday, probably a good idea to keep them in the darkest place possible, especially if you are storing anything in mason jars or clear containers.
Last night we headed to Costco to pick up some snacks and juice for our very bare cabinet.
Throwing away so much food and having to clean and clean and clean some more, I’m unsure if I’ll stockpile grains again. Being Indian, I always have a good amount of rice in the house, which I’m now planning to keep in the freezer.
I’m so emotionally spent after this weekend, I don’t know if I’ll stockpile the way I used to ever again.
It’s not a good deal, if you end up throwing it away!
A special thank you to Frugal Living at About.com and FrugalVillage for your stockpiling tips.
Do you stockpile? How do you keep bugs from forming?
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Hi! I'm Isra, aka The Frugalette. I took my family from fancy to frugal in 3 years, with 3 kids and 1 income, oh and found the meaning of life too! To read more about my fancy life gone frugal, 
I don't stock pile too much these days but I do place things in gallon sized baggies, in airtight Rubbermaid containers, and in the freezer too.
I am sorry that happened. That represented a lot of hard work and money on your part, I am sure. Thanks for these tips though. I appreciate it!
Thanks LaVonne! Yeah, it's just the feeling of throwing away so much food, feels so wasted.
I'm so sorry this happened to you. As a fellow couponer, I know how hard you try to build/keep your stockpile. We had field mice a couple of years ago in our basement where our stockpile is. We quickly learned we had to store most things in giant rubbermaid containers. Good Luck
It's so true Kelly! Building a stockpile is only one part of couponing, maintaining it is a whole other issue, one that I was clearly not prepared for. Out of 4 years of stockpiling this was our first encounter with rodents/bugs, hopefully our last..not sure if I'll stockpile though anymore!
Oh no. That's horrible. So sorry you lost it all. I hope this doesn't happen to you again. I'm lucky. I live right next door to an exterminator and he sprays every 2 months for us free of charge.
Wow, nice living next to an exterminator, those are neighbors I would love to have!
UGH, I am so sorry! But, thank you for sharing all these tips.
Thanks Jessica! Live and learn right?!
I am so sorry that happened! I had one bad experience with those guys, and I have never gotten over it. I will forever be paranoid about the food in my cabinets, and I spend way too much of my life inspecting.
Great tips though. Thanks!
This is exactly what I'm afraid of. This one bad experience might ruin it for me forever, I still haven't put anything back in the cupboards, even though they are totally cleaned out and bare.
OH NO! I think I would have just bawled like a big ole baby!
I store my sugar, rice, and flour in buckets from my local donut shop. They make for a tight seal, cost me only $1 and I am able to buy in bulk.
That's a great idea Kristin. If I ever decide to stockpile again, I might look into this, yeah I would have cried too, but I was in full body shock.
Ugh what a nightmare! We live in an apartment and I keep just about everything in the fridge or freezer…rice, crackers, nuts, cereal, etc. People who come over and go in our fridge think it's weird but I am bug-phobic!
Hi Liz, yeah the freezer is my best option I think living in an apartment. The problem it gets filled up so fast already!
I'm so sorry this happened to you! I had that happen too and it's super gross. Another time it was weevils. My son discovered those halfway through his morning cereal. Ack!
Hi Jeanne! Yikes, I had to look up weevils, poor guy! Yeah, I'm convinced the freezer is the way to go but need to find more room, it's already stocked full.
P.S. Thanks for the freezer tip. Now to figure out how to ditch all that stuff that's buried in the freezer that we never use, and it taking up all the space!
Wow, Good Lord! What a heartbreaking thing to do getting rid of all that food. It brings chills to me just picturing how that could have been. Thanks so much for sharing some great tips to help us avoid this from occurring.
May all your food be bug and rodent free.
I probably would have cried! I've had something similar happen but we didn't have much in the cabinet. It was pretty gross. Thanks for the these tips!
Something to look into is gamma lids. They fit on five and ten gallon buckets, so after you've frozen your dry goods for a few days, you can transfer them into the clean buckets (got ours for free from a local cupcake bakery as that is how their frosting arrives and they just trash them) we put gallon sized zipper bags of flour in those and topped with a gamma lid. We bought ours from Paula's Bread http://www.paulasbread.com/gamma-seal-lid.html. It works great, is easy to use and seals very well.
Thanks for the link! So I can just ask local bakeries for these buckets? I like the idea of filling it with gallon zipper bags, makes it easy to remove and use.
Doesn't hurt to ask. They get their frosting in it and typically just throw them away. My husband was wiring a surveillance system for the one we got ours at. He saw them, just asked for a couple and they said no problem. Deli's, fast food restaurants all get them too. Doesn't hurt to ask. Those buckets do come in handy for a lot of things!
Wow! I so feel for you! We have had a roach infestation crop up (we believe they rode into the house on a sack of potatoes). Quite a bit of our food was in the freezer. Quite a bit was stored in Mason Jars that I had used my Seal-A-Meal attatchment to totally seal. And of course, some of it has hit the trash. It is such a disappointing feeling.
Thanks Heather, at least I'm learning a lot for next time, if there is a next time.
As Crissyanna said, get your buckets free from stores that have Bakeries, Walmart, local grocery stores. You will get all kinds of sizes but they all work. The 4 and 5 gallon sizes have a nice rubber gasket on them.
I bought a 5 gallon 'bucket opener' from Home Depot, located in the paint section. Call first and ask them to put their hands on it before you make a special trip. It makes easy work of opening buckets.
Now I know why I got bugs, there's quite a learning curve with stockpiling!
I'm so sorry! What a nightmare. There are some places online where you can buy rice, beans, flour, etc in #10 cans. That's the least bug-friendly way I've found to stockpile.
When my family lived in Nicaragua (I was in college), there were bugs EVERYWHERE, so my mom bought a huge freezer and stockpiled her rice, flour, etc in there. Not the cheapest option, since you have to pay the electric bill on the freezer, but my parents had six kids at home and were going through a lot of dry goods!
Thanks Maryanne, yep with kids the hard part is not stockpiling! Not just for money but saving time. We own one deep freezer, maybe I need to shift things around and make room in there.
That sucks!! We had to throw a bunch of ours away also because of weebles… I bought a bunch of new airtight containers to keep things in!!
I stockpile, I keep my currently used items in the pantry in sealed containers. Extra flour and sugar go in the freezer, and my extra rice goes in vacuum sealed canning jars!
I honestly did not know moths could infest a pantry like that! Wow! So sorry about your stockpile but grateful for the tips you shared. I guess I better get to making some changes so we do not loose ours.
I know, me neither! Apparently they can form even in sealed flour/rice before you open it, which is why it's good to freeze it first before putting it on the shelf. Hope the tips help!
I don't stockpile because I love to grocery shop three times a week. The only things I ever stock up on are household goods that don't necessarily expire. I remember growing up in Miami, Florida my West Indian mother would stockpile on dry goods and we almost always had an infestation. I think it scarred me for life
Can you shop for me?
And, yes, this may have scarred me for life, I'm really not sure if I'll ever stockpile again.
Oh no! Those pics of your bare cupboards makes me so sad. I don't do a lot of stockpiling these days, but my sil does. I will definitely share this with her.
Thanks Angela. I know bare cupboards are sad looking aren't they?
I had this happen to me except with Weevils! I now am very careful to put everything dry like that in the freezer for awhile. Weevils are awful because they hide in the cracks in your cupboard and are nearly impossible to get rid of!
I don't stockpile either, as I hate to have all of that "stuff" in my house. I wonder, though, what causes the moths? Did they come from the store? Wouldn't all pantries be at risk?
You know, all pantries can be at risk because they can hatch in closed bags, it just takes the right amount of moisture!
Thank you for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research about this. We got a grab a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I am very glad to see such wonderful information being shared freely out there.
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I had a huge problem with this when I first moved to the south. Along with using better airtight containers and freezing flour first, I started using these type traps and never had a problem again. It's a frugal fix that is so worth the $ : http://www.amazon.com/Pantry-Moth-Traps-Set-Two/d…
Thank you so much for this! I've been hearing of sticky tape everywhere, but didn't know what it was exactly, will add it to my arsenal!
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That is so awful! I always stockpile because buying in bulk is so much cheaper – we used to have all our rice, oats, lentils etc. in different airtight bins. We moved last year across Canada and had to get rid of them, and then recently moved back here – haven't been able to afford to replace them yet. We've been buying smaller quantities of dry goods for now, though. Soon, we'll put things in proper containers. This post makes me realise that that should be a priority!
I always knew that my dry goods were maybe not as safe as they should be, but it was the typical, never thought it would happen to me mentality! At the very least keep them in the freezer until you can properly store them.
I feel for you. recently a friend brought over somethings she said she wanted my girls have because she doesn’t eat them. i put them in the cupboard with out thinking and I ended up with little bugs in everything. so sad. we too had to toss the cabinet.
Oh, sorry. We are slowly building it up again, but I don’t think it will be like before. I’m too worried about keeping large amounts of food like that now.
My husband and I stockpile a lot of dry goods (he’s Indian too, so over time my cupboards have become filed with lentils, beans, flours, spices, rice, etc). To avoid infestation I found these great airtight containers in a dollar tree…. them come in different sizes, and different color lids. I’d highly recommend them! I then label them and tape the info from the packet onto the container so I can see the best before date, nutritional info, and brand so I can find it next time
You’re blog is fantastic and so inspirational. My husband and I started a spending detox on New Year’s Day and already we’re seeing the results. It’s actually fun trying to find ways to cut back where you can. We traded the city pad in a trendy area for a leafy suburb apartment and immediately saved $800 per month! I love your ideas on here, I can’t wait to put some of them into practice!
I am going to try mylar bags with oxygen packs and 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids, which are airtight. I have purchased the bags and lids on ebay. Best of luck to you!