Dry food storage-Cheap but organised-HELP!

Ticklemouse

I found that I always got weevils in my Tesco value flour - I think the value stuff must be older, because sometimes the bags were crawling with them well within their use-by date. For flour I bought some homepride flour in the boxes - and I refill these. Always know which flour I'm using and never had problems with flour since. I've even gone back to value flour - but I ALWAYS inspect it first - which reminds me, I haven't opened the value stuff. I'm baking today - so will do. Will deffo freeze my flour though as I have about 15 bags of bread flour (BOGOF purchases) plus ordinary baking stuff.

However, when I needed storage jars, I found those cheapy kitchen shops were the best. I have quite a few really big glass jars with screw top lids (like giant jam jars) My every day spaghetti is in a plastic jar though - it's currently got lots of sticky tape going round it to hold it together after a 'dropping' incident It's been like that for years, so I'm not going to bother changing it.

wishingonastar_3

i always put my flour in the freezer for a couple of days when i buy it after we had weevils in one, and i was paranoid for ages. apparently this kills them off (and the eggs).
never had any since, i use the value flour.

hth,

woas.

katieowl_2

Just a thought for anyone looking for a cheap storage option.

My neighbour works in one of the local newsagents. One day I saw her coming home with lovely big boxes - oooh I said where did you get those from? as I was looking for big boxes at the time (We had moths in the kitchen! They were getting into everything!) She said the sweet shop threw away a binbag full almost every week. We agreed that was a terrible waste. Especially as they are marked - RE USABLE FOR FOOD USE in big letters on the bottom. So now she brings them ALL home to me and I find new homes for them! Mainly either donated to the local homeschoolers, or fellow allotment holders or even on freecycle in batches when we are overwhelmed.

They are the big Haribo type sweet boxes, (you know sweets sold individually!) they come in three sizes, the biggest is very very useful for storage in the kitchen!!! I use the smaller ones for leftover food in the fridge and freezer.

SO...GO and ASK!!!! Ask in your local newsagent if pretty please you could have some boxes. It's criminal for them to be thrown away!!!!

Regards


Kate

mummysaver

Our local post office puts out the old sweetie jars for people to help themselves to, I keep lots of loose produce in these - flour, pasta, rice, chickpeas, etc. Perhaps you could ask at your local shop (if they still sell sweets weighed out from jars!).

MimiJane

Always best to keep seeds, grains, etc. in the fridge if you can ... they stay fresh for much longer.

skintchick

I use my old coffee jars - Dowue Egberts with the glass stoppers but screw tops would work well too. I labelled them with paper and sellotape (no expensive stickers for me!!) and they work great for everything - flour, pasta, rice, cous cous, etc.

I have some spare if anyone lives in south Oxfordshire!!

squeaky

Large coffee jars for all my pulses, and I cut out the labels from the packets to put on the jars.

doddsy

Have you got any papershops/sweetshops near you that still weigh out sweets? I got a load of emptly jars from our local one for all my dry goods. They look good lined up on the side!
Doddsy

Rebob

I keep my flour in plastic cereal boxes, some of which were donated by mum and a couple of the ones that come free with the large alpen bags. HTH

HOLsale

katieowl wrote:

Just a thought for anyone looking for a cheap storage option.

.

They are the big Haribo type sweet boxes, (you know sweets sold individually!) they come in three sizes, the biggest is very very useful for storage in the kitchen!!! I use the smaller ones for leftover food in the fridge and freezer.



Kate

hey, that reminds me, we've got a sweets shop that sooo reminds me of the sweets shop in harry potter books (hey, JK rowling actually wrote a lot of her book not too far from that shop so it *may* have been the inspiration!) anyway, that would be a brilliant place to ask for them, cheers for that :T