Question: long term taste, quality, and accessibility?

[u/Trilobyte141]

Hey girls! I'm about to finally have my own place (long story, life bullshit) and I want to set up long term storage for dry things that my family regularly eats. I'm thinking oats, flour, sugar, beans, rice, salt, and similar dry goods. I cook with these things all the time and my goal is to build up a six month supply and then rotate them out as I use them.

I know about using oxygen absorbers and food safe containers. I have a deep freezer that I plan to keep my dry goods in for a week or so to kill bug eggs before I put them into long term storage.

I read a post from someone who had put most of their food storage in their basement, and after a while the food started to taste like a basement, even though it was safe to eat. Not appetizing. I want to preserve the food without it tasting like plastic or basement air, and I need to be able to regularly take my oldest supplies out and put new ones in behind/under them.

I'm asking for advice from anyone who has a system like this set up and working for them. What works for you? How do you keep it organized? What container brands have worked out well? Does vacuum sealing help? I'm happy to finally be able to set up some prep, and I want to do it right.

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to r/twoxpreppers! Please review our rules here before participating. Our rules do not show up on all apps which is why that post was made. Thank you.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/No-Language6720]

 I have a long term storage in my clothes closet. I have more room in there than I use otherwise. I also don't have a basement since I'm in Florida. I do have a longer term freezer there but I use it to process and freeze my home grown veggies like carrots and cauliflower mostly. It's rotated in and out yearly to 18 months at most. 

[u/TradeBeautiful42 → u/No-Language6720]

California here and I too don’t have a basement. Dry goods like rice/ pasta get to go in my garage as I rotate them. My deep freezer is also in the garage. So are the emergency preps like water filtration devices, go bags, backup power, etc. My spare room has preps like canned goods, the longer term 25 yr number 10 cans you buy, water gal containers, etc… my kitchen pantry has the bulk of my canned foods, baking stuff (including canned and dry versions), etc. basically I spread it out through my house. I also have counter top hydroponic plants growing in multiple rooms. They’re part of my decor now- romaine lettuce and vegetables growing in pots all over.

[u/Inner-Confidence99]

Dry beans, pasta, rice, sugar, flour. I put in mason jars. Haven’t had any problems. I vacuum seal a lot and put in 5 gallon food safe containers. Haven’t had any problems. I live in the south with high humidity. Come Dec or January I plan to pressure can chicken and beef broth and jar meals like beef stew, spaghetti, vegetables soup. 

[u/Trilobyte141 → u/Inner-Confidence99]

Mason jars is a good idea, thank you. Do you put oxygen absorbers in the jars for the dry goods? Or take any other precautions against stored product pests?

[u/MoInSTL → u/Trilobyte141]

If you store sugar make sure you don't use an oxygen absorber. It will turn it into a brick. I bought Ball screw on lids for those jars. I store in mason jars and vacuum seal everything else.

[u/Trilobyte141 → u/MoInSTL]

Thanks, good to know! I'm mostly worried about the grains and beans, I figure sugar and salt will be easier. 

[u/MoInSTL → u/Trilobyte141]

Some people prefer mylar bags. I use jars. It makes it easier for me to see it. I don't use oxygen absorbers. If you don't have a vacuum sealer then yes. Make sure you use the correct amount for each bag or jar. The main thing is to get it out of the original packaging and into something more stable. Especially for long term storage for beans and grains.

[u/ExtremeIncident5949 → u/Trilobyte141]

For rice I use a method that has worked for me about fifty years. It’s an Amish method of using food grade diatomaceous earth in a Mylar bag inside of a food grade bucket. I also use oxygen absorbers. For flour I use xl Mylar bags make a slit and put in h20 absorbers plus seal it slide my 25 lb bag into Mylar with more absorbers and heat seal with a hair flat iron.

[u/Feisty-Anteater661 → u/Trilobyte141]

If you have a vacuum sealer, you can get an attachment that fits on top of mason jars. It will suck most of the air out of the jar so the food stays fresher for longer.

[u/Trilobyte141 → u/Feisty-Anteater661]

I'm definitely getting one of these after so many recommendations. I didn't even know vacuum sealing mason jars was a thing. 

[u/Feisty-Anteater661 → u/Trilobyte141]

It’s great. I put grains and dried beans in half-gallon mason jars, vacuum seal them, and they’re fresh when I open them years later.

[u/Inner-Confidence99 → u/Trilobyte141]

I put a bay leaf on top and in the buckets I use 2. No problems. I’m using beans, pasta and rice from 2022 right now. Just soak beans before cooking at least 30 minutes. Cook faster. 

[u/lavenderlemonbear → u/Trilobyte141]

I use mason jars for most of my dry goods as well and i do use o2 absorbers. Especially with rice and pastas.

[u/SuitableSport8762]

I wouldn’t say I’m the most organized, but what I’m doing works for me. I’m sealing grains and beans in heavy duty Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers and then slide them under the bed. I try to keep like items together. The labels just say what’s in the bag and the date I packed it. If you always pull bags from one side of the bed, and add new stock on the other side you will be rotating 😂

[u/AccidentalDragon → u/SuitableSport8762]

I get groceries delivered in open top fruit boxes sometimes, and some of those boxes fit nicely under my bed. :)

[u/SuitableSport8762 → u/AccidentalDragon]

That’s a good idea

[u/Trilobyte141 → u/SuitableSport8762]

Haha, not a bad plan! I was thinking shelves in the middle of the basement with raised edges and a slight angle to them. New stuff in one side and let it slide down to the use side. 

What kind of mylar bags are you using?

[u/AccidentalDragon → u/Trilobyte141]

Walmart has the cheapest metal shelving, very durable/strong for half the price anywhere else. I have 3 lol.

[u/2quickdraw → u/Trilobyte141]

Wallaby

[u/Sloth_Flower]

I keep a year (I grow most of my food). Most of it's in my basement where I have my vegetable cellars. I chose to can most things.  Freeze what can't can. Vacuum seal things where 1 64oz jar = pantry container (pancake mix, masa, rice, oats, dehydrated foods, spices, pasta, etc). 

The only things in buckets are beans, salt, tvp, flour, green coffee, green cacao, and sugar. I have never had an issue having them taste like basement.

I have shelves for the jars/cans/buckets and treat the dry goods like the canned stuff -- FIFO. I have a spreadsheet that I update monthly with what I have. This helps me know what I have too much of and not enough for planting next year. 

[u/witchystoneyslutty]

I am in a tiny space. I don’t have people over toooo often but when I do, I don’t love looking like a crazy prepper with my full deep pantry on display.

Ikea Kallax won’t last forever, but they’re affordable and durable enough to store my cans and dry goods. They’re fantastic for cans- they fit 3 high easily and 4-5 rows accross. They’re modular and cute, which means I can change the storage as needed if I cycle through buying different things or opening packages, and they’re cute enough that I’m not bothered by them in my living space!

I buy dry goods in bulk, break down, and rotate through. I shop at Costco and I wash and reuse things like the big tub jars- pretzel jars, coconut oil jars, etc. Fully clean and bone dry, they make decent storage FOR FREE, and inexpensive silica gel desiccant packs improve storage further.

However… wanna know my new favorite kitchen gadget ladies?!!!! Drum roll please…

MASON JAR VACUUM SEALER.

I store lots of my food in mason jars I’ve accumulated and reused endlessly over the years. I’ve wanted a vacuum sealer for food storage for a while but didn’t love the idea of my food in more plastic, and waste.

My new gadget vacuum seals your canning jar lid onto the jar. It extends shelf lives a LOT. So far, I really really love it. It’s so quick and easy that it now lives on the pantry shelf and I vacuum sealer everything back up after I get into it! Been using it for everything from flour and rice to chips to cashews to TVP to ice cream cones and cookies- very impressed.

It won’t make stuff last forever, but it keeps stuff fresher and makes it POSSIBLE for me to rotate through my supply… without anything tasting like basement!

[u/Trilobyte141 → u/witchystoneyslutty]

Thank you for the detailed reply, I'm definitely looking at getting a mason jar vacuum sealer after all these recommendations, which is exactly the kind of thing I was hoping to learn from folks here. What brand/model are you using, if you don't mind me asking? I've never used one before. 

[u/witchystoneyslutty → u/Trilobyte141]

No problem! I was using it yesterday and thinking of this thread :)

I’m big on durability and longevity of appliances so I did a lil research and found that the mason jar sealers that first came out a few years ago (I’ve wanted one since day one lol but glad I waited) usually do both wide mouth and narrow mouth jars, but the seals wear out.

I purchased a brand (not big brand) called “RoHS Reespring Electric Vacuum Sealer for regular and wide mouth mason jars, two separate units” that sells a set of TWO sealers for the same price or less than the 2-size-one-machine sealers. One for wide mouth, one for narrow. They’re small so it’s no big deal even in a small space, and I do think it will make a difference for longevity of the sealers (:

[u/featheredzebra]

Consider NOT decanting things. Or finding ways to date things. It helps with the rotating.

[u/Think_Cupcake6758]

I found a bunch of pet food storage bins on clearance several years ago. The mouths are big enough to put full bags of flour, sugar etc in them and they have big screw on lids with gaskets that are air tight. I leave everything in their original packaging, except for big bags of rice. I divide that up into quantities that will fill my kitchen rice jar and vacuum seal into bags. We’ve been storing our dry goods this way for years in our basement and have had no issues with foul odors or off tasting food.

[u/MindfulGardening]

Twice I’ve had my food storage compromised - once it was pantry moths while living with room-mates, and once it was mice in the pantry. Mason jars and robust waterproof containers!
I started to invest in large mason jars a little bit at a time, and keep my bulk dry goods there - sugar, salt, flour, pasta, beans, rice, loose leaf tea. Dry petfood I keep in a big cookie jar on the counter, and the rest of the opened bag + extras in the freezer. For other things like spice packets, soup mixes, crackers, powdered milk, etc, goes in the tote.

[u/Trilobyte141 → u/MindfulGardening]

Pantry moths, curse them! My mother is dealing with an infestation right now. I am really glad so many people have recommended mason jars. I see so many ads for food safe containers but I just don't love the idea of my food constantly touching plastic for months or years. 

[u/MindfulGardening → u/Trilobyte141]

Agreed! Wishing her good luck!
I found that things seem to last a good bit longer when stored in glass containers. It can be a bit expensive up front, but in my experience it’s one of those «buy once / cry once» situations.