My folks had a section of the fruit room that had a small sand box. Potatoes were always stored in the sand, not buried, but in burlap sacks on top. My dad said this kept the ones on bottom from spoiling. They would store a couple hundred pounds in the fall and would use them all winter,(4-5 months). Potatoes were never washed, actually still had the dirt stuck to them, and a few of them would sprout during the winter. The room was always between 40-50 degrees.