Sources for free (or very cheap) food storage bins?

**momof2boys2005** · 01-29-2011, 09:29 PM

THANK YOU FOR THESE IDEAS! I never thought to do this...I’m going to ask at work (hospital) what our Food Services dept does with all the food buckets!!!!!!!! I mean holy cow between the cafeteria area and the in-pt. food area there must be ++++ food grade buckets being thrown out! I'm also going to ask my sons daycare centre if I can have a few of their food containers.

**krbshappy71** · 01-29-2011, 10:56 PM

It takes time but I store my large amounts of rice and pasta in washed out jars from spaghetti sauces, salsas, you name it. If its a glass jar, it gets washed and filled with something. I don't know how much space you have, I have one of those cupboards where the space goes way back into the corner of the kitchen, I have a pantry, lots of room to store numerous filled and empty jars.

I just sit down at the table, listen to music, and fill jars. Its peaceful. When I make pasta or rice I like being able to grab a small jar which is usually all the amount of pasta I was going to use anyhow. (rather than having to dig out a large container to get to my rice)

**mauimagic** · 01-30-2011, 04:03 PM

So far, the only thing I buy in bulk is rice (20#bags) - everyone here does it - local style - when the bags were 25#, plastic bins were easily available for purchase. Ours is at least 26 years old. We use it for daily use and always have an unopened bag for backup.

**NewLeaf** · 01-30-2011, 05:13 PM

I got all of my 5 gallon food grade buckets from my Ingle's bakery. They just throw them out. Most I got for 75cents ea. Even though they are food grade, I separated my flour into giant ziploc bags before putting them into the buckets.

I get alot of Folgers plastic coffee cans too, I have often thought what good cannisters they would make.

**dudeatlarge** · 02-22-2011, 11:42 AM

I use 5 gallon food grade buckets from Lowe's. They cost $2.34 each. I store all my flour , sugar , pasta and other items in them with lids. I also put my dehydrated vacuum packed food items in there also . These buckets are grey in color and they keep the light out. To make sure that the bucket is food grade just look on the bottom to see if the is a number 2 with arrows going around it in a triangle shape.

**marlas1too** · 02-25-2011, 06:58 AM

i vacuum pack all my dri products and then store in totes i even take all the ingreadents out of the mac and cheese,jiffy corn bread mix, and all of my pasta i also use the big rools of vacuum bags to seal 5 lb. bags whole in vacuum and store them in totes too i have the attachment to vacuum lg. and sml. ball jars so i vacuum my homemade soup starter in quarts too got lots of things to vacuum next -my herbs for one ---so many things you can vacuum seal---hugs to all fv