No such thing as TMI, Mary. Someone always benefits from the information we share.
If there was only one "perfect" way to store dahlias, it would be on every site. Each of us probably stores them differently. I'm happy if I have 75 or 80% of them survive and last year I lost half of them because the winter was too cold and though I had them on top of a carpet and covered with tarps, it ended up being disaster...but let me buy new ones.