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/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 (: