1. Bleached and unbleached flour has a shelf-life of 6-12-months (depending on how old it was when purchased and the temperature of the storage area). You can double that time by freezing it. 'Room temperature' for food storage is considered 70-degrees F. Optimum storage temperature is between 40-60-degrees F. If storage temperature is above 70-degrees F, the shelf-life is going to be less. I suggest buying no more than what you can realistically use in a year. Old flour makes horrible baked goods and is often the reason for failed bread recipes. 2. Keep it stored in an airtight container such as a plastic storage container (check restaurant supply stores for a good selection in lots of sizes) or food-grade storage buckets, not the paper bag it is purchased in. If you are buying flour in 25-pound bags you can re-package it in zip-lock bags in user-friendly amounts and stack those in a large food-grade, air-tight container. Moisture can penetrate the paper bags and the flour will not keep as long when that happens. Keep it as cool as possible and away from light. Food storage enemies: air, heat, moisture and light. 3. Commercial whole wheat flour definitely requires freezing. Freezing will slow down the wheatgerm oil from going rancid but it won't prevent it completely. Those oils begin to degrade withing 3-hours of milling, as do the nutrients. I don't suggest commercial whole wheat flour for long-term storage at all. 4. Cornmeal has an even shorter shelf-life than bleached/unbleached flour - 4-6-months. You can double that amount if you freeze it. Make sure you purchase degermed cornmeal for storage. SUGGESTION: Because of the short shelf-life for bleached/unbleached flour, in my Food Storage Classes I suggest people purchase it in the fall when it typically goes on sale for holiday baking, which is the time of the year when most people do most of their baking. Use the largest portion of it up by March or April if you don't bake in the hotter months and wait to restock again in the fall. CAUTION: The one storage method NOT to do with flour is to vacuum-seal it in FoodSaver bags for storage. Flour has enough moisture in it when vacuum-sealed can develop a mildewy smell. Save vacuum-sealing for foods (dry goods) that are 10% moisture or lower. You can, however, vacuum-seal flour in canning jars using a FoodSaver and the jar sealer. The flour will remain free-flowing in the jars, instead of packed tight like it gets in the FoodSaver bags, and this will prevent the flour from getting that mildewy smell. These are the recommendations from FoodSaver. If you are interested in having flour and cornmeal for longer than the suggested storage life you can opt for purchasing them in hermetically-sealed #10 cans, which is VERY expensive. The best method for long-term storage is to buy whole grains and mill your own flour and cornmeal. Wheat will keep for decades and corn for many years. ...

Like others here, I use Tupperware. I have these that fit 5 pounds of flour, 5 pounds of sugar, 1 pound of confectioner's sugar, and 1 pound of brown sugar. I have a 5th one that also holds 5 pounds of bread flour (the one w/the white lid). However, I'm trying to organize my pantry better now that I have a large collection of Gluten Free flours so last week I just ordered Modular Mates in the Square, Rectangular, and Oval shapes...no round ones this time around (primarily b/c they don't fit as nicely on pantry shelves.) They even have a PDF file that tells you the capacity of each container in cups as well as pounds for flour, sugar, etc. It was invaluable when I was planning what I needed and what to order! And, b/c there are two colors for tops, I ordered the blue for Gluten-Free products and red for non-Gluten Free. BTW...Modular Mates are 40% off through this week. No, I don't sell Tupperware, but I have found they are the best plastic storage containers around. There was a thread on the "Cooking", "Cleaning", or "Organizing" forum (I don't remember which one) a while ago discussing pantry moths and how to get rid of them. It was mentioned that Tupperware will keep out pantry moths, etc. but that Rubbermaid does not.... Here is a link that might be useful: Tupperware - Modular Mates®

Re--those sifter containers from Kennedy Hdwe--I got to wondering if that disclaimer about not recommending for food products is just some legal CYA. Maybe because they don't have NSF seal of approval or something? Might be worth a call to Kennedy for more info? Anyway, this discussion made me realize something positive about my crummy old kitchen. I have one of those pie-cut lazy susans, the kind where the door is fixed to the susan, like the image on the left... I keep my sugar & flour canisters on the susan...open the susan and use out of the canister w/o ever removing it from the shelf. Really is a handy arrangement except for the fact that the susan is across the kitchen from where I have room for the mixer. :( I only keep all-purpose flour there; the other specialty flours are stored in refrigerator or freezer. So, in a MNO (money no object!) Kitchen, refrig/ freezer drawers would be nice in the baking area. I'm figuring that I'll use the Cambro type containers in a drawer in the new kitchen unless a better solution pops up. (I nixed a susan in favor of a huge blind corner cabinet that we have already built.) The Cambros will be at about the same height as the they would be on the Susan which is a convenient height for me (I'm an average 'almost' 5'5''.)

I got rid of anything without a mate. (in a couple cases I found the lid later, but no regrets!) Recycle bin. Anything that got discolored over the years (which was most of my old Tupperware). Anything that got remotely "sticky". I didn't bother donating any of this stuff. If I don't think it's safe, I don't think I should pass it on to others. I am glad to see there is now BPA-free plastics, but there's still some question on safety, especially if heated or used to store acidic foods. Anything I plan to use to re-heat in - glass. My supermarket carries Pyrex for cheap. These were great for taking stuff to work in, for nuking - yes, the glass gets hot, but I always kept the tray nearby for unloading the MW. Lids could fit tighter, however - not good for soups! Glasslock is good, too. I think mine are at least MW safe -- they're packed for moving so I can't go check. I never had the urge to put them in the oven. They are better for soups. For pantry storage of rice and such, I've been getting the Oxo things, as their lids are reasonably air tight. And they're pretty stackable. Discovered that they cost a LOT less at Home Goods than at Bed, Bath and Beyond.