As a confirmed pickler, I've had to deal with the issue of odors in food-grade plastic containers. For any recyclers here, these are the instructions I use for removing odors from re-purposed plastic containers. They come from USA Emergency Supply. Â Wash the bucket inside and out with warm, soapy water, then rinse. Â Place the bucket outside in a sunny location. Â Pour 1 cup of baking soda into the bucket and fill with warm water all the way to the top. Stir to dissolve, then put on the lid, or cover with aluminum foil. Â Let the bucket sit in the sun for several days, then empty and rinse out. Â Pour 1 cup of bleach into the bucket and fill with warm water all the way to the top. Stir to mix, then put on the lid, or cover with aluminum foil. Â Let the bucket sit in the sun for several days, then empty. Â Wash again inside and out with warm water and dishwashing liquid, then let dry with the lid off. P.S. If you find the soda does the job, you can skip the bleach, but I've found that's a great sanitation strategy when I've marinated turkey, etc. in a plastic bucket. Carol Here is a link that might be useful: USA Emergency Supply Food Storage FAQ's

I like the OXO containers. They are spendy, but I've picked up the ones I need a little at a time, on sale. Here is why I like them: I can open and close them with one hand, thanks to the push top. This is handy when I need one hand to stir, or have one hand in the meatloaf mix :) All the square lids fit the square containers, and all the rectangle lids fit the rectangle containers, no matter the volume of the respective shapes. This may seem trivial, but I have come to appreciate it when I'm downsizing the last of the Splenda into a smaller container. I can use the same (labeled) lid on the smaller container, provided I'm using the same shape. (I don't know if I'm explaining this clearly.) Speaking of labeling, I only have to label things that would get easily confused (sugar, Splenda, kosher salt) because the containers are as clear as glass. Some plastic containers are cloudy or semi-opaque, disgusing the contents somewhat. Their shape makes pouring from them very tidy. There are no ridges or bends in the design for the contents to get hung up on. The square/rectangle shapes line up nicely on my pantry shelves and stack nicely too. They are sturdy plastic. Lightweight, but durable. Drawbacks include the fact that they are not dishwasher safe, and their internally complicated lids take a long time to air dry. And they are pricey, as previously mentioned. I have no connection to the OXO company, but I'm a fan. And if OXO wants to send me a container for the endorsement, I wouldn't say no! :)

>>...didn't have a pantry?>> Well, I wouldn't have any room to store any food, LOL. I cook a lot so I have doubles and even triples of every size cookware I use, plus 25 yrs ago I moved in with six sets of dinnerware and three sets of flatware. I have three separate spice drawers because I cook everything from Indian to Chinese to French and half a dozen other cuisines. It was my first (and so far only, thank goodness) opportunity to design a kitchen, so I crammed in all the storage I could. We were handicapped by only having 1 wall of uppers. One half-wall holds the frig and is open to the LR and DR. The other wall has floor-to-ceiling windows to capture a great hillside view: I worked with graph paper and managed to get everything behind doors. It was about a week before I realized I had FORGOTTEN to put in any food storage! I did have three narrow closets in the DR (a former bedrm) for the upright freezer, the microwave and wine stemware, and the table linens/vacuum/stepladder. But nothing for dried pasta, Asian condiments, dried mushrooms, cans of soup, etc. So.....we had fortunately not placed the order for the kitchen cabs yet. Two 18" wide pantry units were hastily added, and placed in-between the DR and kitchen. The top doors hide fixed shelves, the bottom doors hide rollouts. All are height adjustable, heavy-duty. I'd never had a pantry before. Now I'm spoiled and can't imagine living w/o one! A walk-in would be nice, but there's only two of us so not really needed. Ten years later I had a handyman built us a custom storage unit for our indoor back porch area. It was such a pain carrying the vacuum up and down stairs, I finally broke down and bought a second upright. I don't have any good photos of it, but half is deep enough for the vacuum and BBQ tools, about 12". The other half has shallow, 7" shelves that store dry goods like spray paints (for DH's hobby), DW tablets, Brita filters, vacuum cleaner bags, etc.

I helped a friend clean out her infested pantry some years ago and was pretty amazed to find larvae inside everything, including anything stored inside a Tupperware container! The worst was finding tiny squirming larvae inside a closed jar of peanut butter. My experience with her was the impetus behind big changes in my own storage practices.