Typically, you'd make a class representing the "Storage" that your objects go into, with methods allowing you to:

• Store objects
• Pull out objects by primary key
• Check for existance of a key
• Check if an object is already present in persistent storage or not
• Delete objects, etc.

So wrap those around your storage mechanism and you'll find that the loop will be a little simpler. You might want to check out some of the object data persistence libraries out there; Tangram comes with my recommendation, but there's also Class::DBI, Alzabo, and a few others.