Flour Storage

When you acquire large bags of flour, it can be a challenge deciding how to best store it to keep it fresh and bug- and critter-free.  If you are blessed with a large basement or temperature-regulated unused room or garage, you can round up some clean, new garbage cans and plonk your bags in there, and they should keep nicely for a year or so.  If you want to go all fancy and seal things, you can do that too...but if you don't have space for garbage cans for storing stuff in nor do you have the budget for large, bulky sealable storage units, you go low tech and low budget (as I do).

Basically, I started with freezer bags with the zipper seals and filled each gallon size bag with approximately eight cups of flour.

Then, you round up a bunch of those holiday popcorn tins, either free or found at a thrift store (mine cost 50 cents each from the Barn in New Richmond, WI).

Then, simply pack the tins with the plastic bags of flour.  You may need to squeeze out more air from each bag, but several should fit in there.

I found that I could fit three bags in each of the smaller tins, but the larger tins could hold four or five bags.  Then, it's simply a matter of stacking the tins in the cool, dark pantry to store until I need the flour, one bag at a time.  Fifty pounds of flour tucked away in five reused holiday tins.  I call that a bargain.