Friday, February 18, 2011

Food Storage Fix




Here's my frugal food storage tip of the day...

I buy bread flour, all purpose flour and sugar at Costco every nine months or so (or my in-laws or some other nice person does...);

I get the 50 lb. bags.

But, when we used to store it in regular containers with lids, we would get bugs, and there was never a container big enough or just...right.

So, Scott suggested 5 gallon paint containers. And wouldn't you know a 50 lb. sack of flour fits PERFECTLY in one 5 gallon paint container?

These containers can be purchased cheaply at Wal-mart for under $5 and are airtight. We have been using them for a little over two years and have never had a problem with bugs or staleness.

I cannot attest to the food grade quality of the containers, but I have seen a number of sites recommending and endorsing food storage in these containers since we "discovered" them...and we thought we were so original.

I stack the containers three high in the corner of my kitchen next to the fridge. The kids occasionally get them out as "drums" when they get lighter and often use them as stools as well. I love a multi-use container, don't you?
I used to keep rice in them, but I never buy that much rice at a time, so it seemed a bit silly to have like three inches of rice in the bottom of a giant bucket!
Con: The lids are tough to get off until you get used to them...and forget it if you have acrylic nails...

All in all though, a frugal fix for a common bulk storage problem.

2 comments:

  1. I buy 25 lb bags of flour at a local organic flour mill and I LOVE your idea! The best I could come up with was to use quite a few 2 gal. ziploc bags and freeze the flour in my spare upright freezer until I needed it. Then I have a large Snap-Lock type of pantry container I keep it in when thawed.

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  2. We use gamma lids, they are awesome. I got mine at wince but I haven't seen them in a while. You can check them out at beprepared.com. They snap on and twist off for easy access.

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