I have a variety of glass jars. I have a cracker jar. But I use it as a cookie jar. I have a few jars from Ikea. I keep raw sugar in the small one and white whole wheat in a larger one.
Then I have a square bail and wire type jar I keep my brownsugar in. For white sugar and AP flour I have huge plastic pickle barrel looking things (I'm sure I got them at Walmart.) And then a few plastic square's that hold bread flour and Wheat flour.

If you have an Ikea close enough to you, I'd recommend them..They've got alot of glass options and the prices are great! (My Ikea is almost 3 hours one way!)

I've not looked online at IKEA. There isn't (yet) one here in NC.

Thanks for these leads.

I saw some white ones with rubber seals recently at Gottschalks, but none big enough to hold 5# of flour.

My first thought would be a restaurant supply store. They won't have something like that in stock, but they might be able to order them for you. If you go in mid-week, they are usually more willing to help look through cataloges than if you go on a Monday or Friday.

For flour and sugar I just use gallon freezer bags... Completely air tight and no clean up, when the bag is empty toss it out...

Rita

I use large plastic containers with a snap lid for my AP flour and sugar and I keep these in a deep drawer in my baking center.

For my specialty flours, and I have MANY, I use large glass jars with a screw top and I label each jar. I bought all my containers at The Container Store and various garage sales and flea markets.

Michelle

Here is a link that might be useful: The Container Store

Michelle!
I LOVE your cabinets and hardware!! and your jar rack!!! Wow! I have an undershelf spice rack I love. Not big enough, but for the use all the time spices. I don't what I'd do without it. I had it in the last kitchen remodel and insisted on it for this one.

I was so frustrated, also, at not being able to find a canister that would hold the WHOLE bag of flour or sugar. Well, we were at World Market one day and they had these HUGE glass canisters with a really (and I mean REALLY) tight seal. They are very simple, but they have a little chalk-board square where you can write on the jar! I got some colored pastels at Hobby Lobby and I have fun writing on the jars....they look clean, too (at least most of the time). I looked on their website, but no longer see them. Wonder if they are still in the store? They were not expensive, either.

Don't rule out the dollar stores either. I'm not a regular shopper, but my mother came home with a huge plastic container with a lid. It's kind of cute, with a chef character on the front, but it holds a 5lb bag of flour! I used to use ziplock's for flour too, but after my experience with the pantry moths I seal everything in a container.
Michelle, great kitchen!!! I use the snaplock type containers now too!

Ballard Designs has a nice selection of Canisters with gaskets . On the Kitchens Forum, Reno Fan recommended the Ballard Designs' French Canisters cause the mouths are wide so that you can dip into them with a measuring cup--but they're not white or glass. Also, the Lock&Lock are supposed to be really great.

My favorite photo of canisters/storage is Imrainey's on the Kitchens Forum. It's the eighth message down. It's oh-so-organized drawer storage.

I just use a couple of big Tupperware square containers, they just hold 5 pounds of sugar and flour. My whole wheat flour is in a ziplock bag in the freezer or refrigerator, ditto rye. Things like beans, peas, lentils, barley, chocolate chips, anything in a bag that I open and use part of a bag, go into old blue glass Ball canning jars with the old Porcelain lined lids, just because I have a couple cases of them I can't use for canning any more and I like the way they look.

Annie

I aprpeciate all the responses and I'm looking at these options. I had seen imrainey's, but I don't think I can retrofit that in my kitchen.

Here are the Luminarc jars that I saw. I just don't think flour fits, but I really like the wire and bail closures. I've seen acrylic with that, but I find plastics/acrylics just don't wash and dry as well as glass for me.

Thanks
Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: French jars

Cameron, I double checked at my walmart when I was there picking up a few things.
They have the square glass bail jars, like the French jars..and the prices are reasonable..but..I don't know that they had ones that would hold 5lbs of flour or sugar..but they did have the oldfashioned candy jars..Big ol dudes..Crock style. Have the pull off lid with a big ball on the top.

~If you are interested in any Anchor Hocking Jars (the link below) I can put you in touch with a friend who could probably help you get them from the company.

Here is a link that might be useful: The ones I'm thinking of are Heritage Hill

My experience with Luminarc glassware has been great, with the Luminarc plastic/poly ware, not so great. They seem to "craze" really fast.

Compumum, those moths are such a nuisance! And I didn't realize they are in chiles, too, until a forgotten box of dried pasillas was opened at a restaurant i worked at and it was like a scene from The Birds except with moths! Now every bit of grain or dried peppers that comes into the house goes into the freezer for at least 3 days. I never want to deal with THAT problem again.

Bean, I hear you!! My current problem is a cricket that's under the kitchen sink. I think its chirping is going to drive me CRAZY!!

Compumon and others--after going over to read the kitchen forum thread on canisters, I realized where my moths came from (and what prompted this post).

We have two pet cockatiels. We had moths come in with some food that I bought them. It took several months for the moths to make it from the bird room to our pantry, but they did -- and I had to throw out everything -- including my dry goods stored in Click-Clack! I guess they worked their way through the tops. Granted, my CC is probably 10 years old. That's why I want glass with a good seal! This was the first time that I've ever had a problem with my bird food being infested. I didn't buy that particular bag at our usual source.

Thanks for all the info -- everyone!
Cameron

Oh yeah, mine most likely came in the birdseed that DH uses outside. It was stored in a bathroom off of the kitchen in an unused shower stall. What a pain!

But hey, I was just browsing Chefs Catalogue for a gift and look what I stumbled upon! These are super for flour and sugar, but not decorative.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pouring Cannisters

I ended up buying some glass Italian canning jars with gaskets, wire and bail.Very similar to Luminarc, but wider mouth. They come in all sizes and are pretty inexpensive. I think the largest was $6.99 for my flour. Got these locally at World Market.

I also bought some airtight glass pasta canisters with bamboo/gasket tops. Our local World Market sold these individually, but on the web, they are sold in a set. The tallest one is actually tall enough for spaghetti storage.

In my search at Crate and Barrel, I found stacking glass bowls with plastic lids in graduated sizes. They are so perfect for prepping foods and storing them. They are nice enough to use for serving casual meals. $19.95 for 4 bowls.

I wanted to come back and provide an update since you all were so helpful.

Here is a link that might be useful: Italian storage bowls

Ever since I had a bad experience with critters hatching in the bird seed, I always put new seed purchases in the freezer, which kills anything in there & helps keep the seed fresh. When we're ready to use the package, it gets emptied into something with a really tight seal, like tupperware. We have not had any seed problems since.

Here's another way - I have a set of nice canisters with good gaskets, and they go with my Corelle collection. But you have a point, they aren't big enough to hold a whole 5# bag of flour or sugar. For the flour, I fill the canister and then put the rest in a gallon sized Ziploc and store it in the freezer. We fill the sugar canister, the sugar bowl, and then put the rest of the bag in a gallon sized Ziploc and store it in the pantry.

The freezer keeps bugs out. I don't have a canister at all for my bread flour or other flours, so I store those in Ziploc bags in the freezer. Before I bake a loaf of bread, I take out enough bread flour to let it come to room temperature.

I also freeze my yeast - a tip I learned on FidoNet's Cooking forum, years ago. I buy the big jar, dump it in a Ziploc bag, and stick it in one of the shelves in the freezer.

DonnaR/CA

Well, it isn't glass but I've had good luck with Modular Mates from Tuppereware. Some I've picked up over the years or at garage sales and one huge one I've had for almost 20 yrs and it still works great. No, I'm not a dealer. There is another "mates" one that they make that I'd like to get, that has a slanted top that are even bigger,,Oh, I remember, Access mates. I've bought some modular mates through Ebay for a better price than you'd get thru a dealer since they aren't cheap.

I was wondering if anyone has found a good source for square or rectangular canisters? I am sick of the wasted space with round container and now have the big glass Ikea containers with glass lids on the counter to hold 3 kinds of flours...AP, Bread, and WhWhWhite. I'd really like to get them into a drawer but I'm not sure it'll happen soon. Too many of the plastic ones I've tried do not hold 5lb. I may have to look over the Rubbermaid again.

I have some square canning jars similar to the ones in the link, although I don't think they are quite identical. I got them years ago, and they've done very well.

I prefer square ones to round ones simply because they are slightly more efficient at using shelf space.

Here is a link that might be useful: example of square canning jar

Hello everyone. I am a recent visitor and love this forum and have already tried some of Ann T's recipes.

I ran across this recently. They are not decorative, but would be great for pantry storage and the price is reasonable.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flour Storage Containers 5lbs