Bulk Food Storage!

So when I posted my haul from Beachy's, two people asked how I store it.  I have tried many (many!) different things but this is what works now.  I keep my supplies for using in my cabinets....in lock and lock containers.  I won't buy unless that's what I find.  I have other tupperware for lunches and leftovers and sometimes those sneak into my baking cabinet and it is just not pretty.  Things fall out and its a mess.  Well, its always a mess....its just a bigger one when the containers don't all stack and match.

For the rest of it...I do a couple different things.  For the 50 lb bags of flour I have 2 big 5 gallon buckets.  My mom subs for the school district and is often in the kitchen and was able to snag a couple for me.  I would love to have more (4 or even 6 of them).  I fill these full (one with white flour and one with whole wheat).  They slide behind a curtain the the hole where my dishwasher used to be.  I just slide them back out when I need flour.  This is my "in house" supply rather than in the cabinet.

Everything else goes in the freezer.  Large quantities are bagged two gallon ziplock bags.  I have only ever found these at Martins IGA.  They are not cheap.  But since I store only dry good in them when I empty one I stick it back in the freezer and use it more than once.  After dumping as much flour into the buckets as I can, it takes 3 of these bags to store the rest of the flour.  Not too shabby.  I also use these for the oats.  For smaller things I bag them in 1 gallon freezer bags and get em in the freezer.  This is the best way I've found to keep it all fresh and bug free.  (if you don't rebag it all in freezer bags though it will smell like freezer if it's left in there too long....so take the extra step and rebag or double bag it)

The popcorn comes in a gallon "milk jug" so it just goes into the cabinet that way.  The coconut oil is also just in the cabinet.  I have a section of a lower cabinet that I use for only bulk supplies.  Some of them, like the popcorn, I pour some into a more handy sized container for in "usable" cabinet.  Like a mason jar.  So although I LOVE the lock n lock containers....I think mason jars work well for some things (mostly snacks).  And they look nice in the cabinet that the stupid door fell off of....again. (I hate my kitchen cabinets-but that is an entirely different post).

Spices come in the little "deli" tubs, you know, like the ones a single person gets potato salad in.  Those go directly into the freezer as is.  Do NOT put them in the door where they will slide out when you open it....those suckers explode when they hit the floor.  Again, I have a spice drawer where I keep baby food sized jars of each individual spice and some of my own mixes for handy access.

Bags of flour ready for the freezer

Other grains ready for the freezer.  You can't tell but the big bags are the two gallon freezer bags.  I don't even dump the grain from the bag it came in.  I just drop the whole thing in there.  

Half of my baking cabinet/pantry.  My house actually has a closet style pantry....it, however, is full of craft supplies so thankfully I have LOTS of cabinet space.  Anyway,  I tried to label what was what but apparently don't know how to do that on the computer.  :(  (and I totally cleaned this cabinet up before I took a pic....it never looks like this-HA)

Big buckets of flour.  

My basket of spices in the freezer.  They are clearly all thrown in...just keepin it real.  :)

My spice drawer...no idea why the pic is sideways.  This drawer is a mess but it is still easier than pulling the mess outta the freezer every time I need a spice.  :)

Snack cabinet.  Mason jars on the top hold snacks that come in bulk.  depending on what it is the rest may be in the lower "bulk" cabinet or the freezer.  Right now I've got a trail mix, popcorn kernels, and pretzel balls.  The big silver things is a vintage cake safe that I store bread in.  (The door totally fell off this cabinet onto my head-so I have made due with what it is now.  Someday I'll remodel the kitchen....someday)

So there ya have it.  That's how I store all my bulk goods.  For the record, I have 3 freezers.  The fridge freezer (that's where the spices are).  I also have a small upright freezer in my laundry room  and a BIG deep freeze in the garage.  We hunt venison and that is our meat for the year so I need the freezer space.  Often at this time of year I am only running one of the big freezers because we are out of meat.  This year A has already gotten 2 deer (one of them was tiny) but we still have to get it in a freezer so I have them all running.