Facing Financial Hardships
Day 7
by Patsy Norwood
(c) by patsy norwood All rights reserved!
It often seems that when a life changing event occurs in our life, like the loss of income, that everything that can go wrong does. Today's entry picks up with that line of thinking (remember, life changing events are as much emotional as physical) ...
It’s now been
6 weeks since unemployment came to your home and no work has been found to
replace the lost job. You are holding
on, but barely. You’re so thankful for
your well-stocked pantry. In fact, it’s
time to think about planning today’s meals and you confidently go to the area
where your main pantry is located with the intention of gathering the
ingredients for your next meal of the day.
You suddenly stop, you don’t believe your eyes, you blink and look again
…. you see evidence of mice; your pantry is full of mice droppings! You start investigating and notice several of
your boxed and bagged foods have been compromised by the mice. You’re ready to just sit down and have a good
cry but instead you know that you have to get to work so that the problem
doesn’t get worse.
What are you going to do?
How are you going to get rid of the mice and their droppings?
What are you going to do with the food that has been
compromised?
What's your plan?
Patsi
Sharing 42 years' experience of frugal, prudent living and pantry building
My second blog: From This Heart of Mine
She looketh well to the ways of her household … Proverbs 31:27
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That is absolutely the worst! Start by getting a good size trash can and donning gloves. Go through everything in the pantry and throw out anything that has been chewed open. Why do mice think they have to taste every package in the pantry!? Wash down all the shelves with hot, soapy water with some peroxide mixed in. Allow the shelves to dry and then decide if you need to wash down your packages as you return them to the pantry. Now that you have put everything back you know what you are left with and can make a menu for the week based on those remaining foods.
ReplyDeleteWe learned a long time ago that we have to keep certain foods up high and others in plastic bins to protect them. Mice are so fond of anything chocolate and they will chew open every bag of flour and sugar and chocolate chips. We have a large tub on the floor of our pantry closet that has large bags of things like tortilla chips and noodles. If we have a mouse they always leave droppings on top of that bin first. We check it several times a week. If we see one dropping we take it out of the closet because they use it as a ladder to gain the upper shelves. Once we have it out we check the shelves. Then we get the traps set in the bottom of the closet. We put 10 electronic repellers in the house last fall and have not had a single mouse since! This is nothing short of a miracle here since we live in the woods.
Lana, would the electronic repellers work in a barn? Hubby hates using poison with the Amish having barn cats. BUT I hate the damage the mice did over the winter in the barn
DeleteI think so as long as you have enough outlets to put enough in there. We found they work best for mice. We have had a problem with camel back crickets in our garage and that was taken care of too and we only put one in a double garage. But we still have an occasional small spider, an occasional roach and this Spring we found that they do nothing at all for ants. We have these but right now they are showing out of stock. It also looks like we actually have 12 in about 3200 sq ft. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W6JWCR8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
DeleteWell, things like this happen. At our house, we have food storage in multiple places. I'd be shocked it mice got into the kitchen cupboards, as it is frequently occupied by the family, 2 cats and a dog. The 2 freezers are still good, so that foods is fine. The cold storage room, downstairs is the most likely place to get hit, as it has minimal traffic, dark, and lots of places to hide. However, I mostly keep the home-canned preserves, bottled water and extra canned goods in there, so they only require a good wash before using the item. There are a few boxes of items, which I would need to toss if they were chewed on or otherwise compromised. If the food can go in the compost, it will. But the loss would be minimal, which is a relief.
ReplyDeleteThe down side it that we'd have to clean it out, removing everything so it can be washed down, which will take a lot of work. Once cleaned up, we'd move anything that would continue to attract mice to a more secure location (most likely kitchen), leave the items that are secure (canning jars, canned goods, etc.) and set mouse traps. I might do a search on the internet for simple mice repellents that we could implement in the room as well. I'm sure there are lots of ideas, as historically this was a common issue for many household. There is sure to be lots of tips out there!
Rhonda, I make it a priority to store all my pantry items in jars, tin cans or thick plastic containers. Like you, our loss would be minimal but the clean up would be a big job!
DeleteOur loss would be minimal. I keep food is several locations. Lets say the mice got in our cellar. Canned and jarred goods would need to be washed. Most boxed items are kept in containers such as old coolers. It keeps items stacked neatly and if we ever have to leave in a hurry it is already packed. I grab them when I see them with peoples garbage. I always bleach them when I get them. Can mice eat through 5 gallon buckets? I have never had this problem.
ReplyDeleteMaking Cents Of It All, I've done the same thing with lidded tubs and 5 gallon buckets and have never had a problem with mice eating through them.
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