Filling Small Spaces In Storage Buckets
A few weeks ago I’d visited a store that we don’t have in my state that has great bulk foods at great prices (Winco) and stocked up quite a bit on some things.
Over the weekend, hubs and I packaged it into smaller food saver bags based on recipe quantities (how much of that item would be used for a recipe, x 2-3 uses) plus just some smaller quantities of stuff like dehydrated onion and garlic, and then I decided on putting a variety of them into a couple 5 gal buckets with gamma lids (the thought being that you don’t have to unseal a dozen buckets to get to a variety of foods, if you’ve got a variety in each bucket) with O2 absorbers both in the foodsaver bags and in the sealed buckets to prolong the shelf life.
But then I was looking into the buckets and thinking…it seemed silly that there was still nooks and crannies open in each bucket and was thinking about what to put in there to fill it up…and I had an idea.
Fill It Up!
I portioned out 1/2-1 cup each of salt, baking soda, baking powder and sugar, put them in snack size ziplock bags, sealed the ziplocks most of the way, leaving about 1/2 inch unzipped. Put that into another foodsaver bag with an o2 absorbed behind the ziplock and the zipper portion folded over so the contents wouldn’t spill out the unzipped portion and sealed.
Those smaller bags fit into the smaller spaces of the storage buckets nicely and will provide essential ingredients for making meals, especially the salt. I also put two packets of powdered milk mix in each bucket.
I realize the storage shelf life for some of those things do not have as long of a shelf life, the milk, baking powder and baking soda specifically won’t last as long as the other items (I’m hoping to get 5-10 years out of the rest) but even if i need to open up the buckets every year or two and replace just those items, that’s not too bad.
I just wanted to share, since things like that are often overlooked. We can make do without a lot but things like salt would become invaluable in many situations. It’s not just for flavoring, it’s for electrolytes, food preservation, would care and more.
Sounds good Becca however when I use food saver bags and have a lot of spare space in my 5-6 gallon buckets I simply layer a layer of food saver bags then “Backfill” with Salt. Next layer, “Backfill” with salt. Repeat until full.
As I enjoy fermenting kimchee and such as well as processing meats with salt and air drying Biltong (think South African Jerky but better for cooking afterwards) a lot of Salt is important. I can grow food, trap meat make sourdough and vinegar BUT I Cannot make salt where I live.
Also I wipe down my closed buckets with diluted bleach water to eliminate FOOD Smells as to discourage rodents curiosity. Seems after several years they do not yet try to chew into my plastic buckets, Unlike some non-wiped buckets I’ve done before.
The plastic will not bother the salt, the salt will not bother the plastic AND I get a LOT of extra salt storage.
As I prefer not to open and redo my long term storage I keep items in the same bucket of the same storage timeframe. Also I find Gamma Seal lids really nice for pails I do open often as part of rotation-use of food storage. Easier on my older fingers than prying off standard lids even with a lid opener.
I ALMOST started “Backfilling” with Sugar but my sweet lady mentioned how HARD Sugar can get and digging out those plastic bags…..
Thanks for a useful article. Prep on!
Been doing this exact thing for years! Works great! An aside: In my storage containers, 3-5 gallon buckets, I used to store Top Ramen, for use in barter or real emergencies. I actually hate the stuff, but…….On one occasion, I was checking/rotating stocks, and I opened a bucket containing a few packets of Top. I almost puked! The stuff had gone rancid. It was stored in a sealed and disinfected bucket with O2 packets and had been CO2 purged. I couldn’t get the smell out of the bucket, it had to be tossed. Checking other buckets, all that had Top were useless, along with whatever had been in them! Storage life was 3-5 years which I’m sure contributed, but no more of that trash for me!
anyone ever advise you about off-gassing? – all that plastic, starched paper and adhesives all admit chems as they breakdown >>> it’s why mylar bagging is only used for packing by the professional food packers ..
if you have any voids in & around your individually filled small mylar bags – use loose grains or popcorn >>> make sure to shake-rattle-and roll to settle everything well …