I am going to put rice in quart mason jars and store it. Alternatively, you could buy a couple of 5 gallon plastic buckets with gasketed lids, and fit it all into them (probably with room to spare). Won't break if knocked into. If you're worried about the plastic being food-safe (e.g., if the buckets are used and you're not sure what the buckets contained), you could add an inner liner bag. If you're worried about not getting a vacuum in the jars, toss a chunk of dry-ice into the top of each bucket before pressing down on the lids to seal them. It'll sublimate into CO2, which is inert. If you want some easier-to-access storage too, you could mix it up. One bucket for long-term storage, and a bunch of jars for short-term. --Steve

I recently applied Miele's AutoOpen drying system to my dishwasher: I just pop the door open two inches after the cycle is done and walk away. The moisture escapes, dry heat remains and everything dries within 15 or so minutes. As for plastics: Tupperware and other microwaveable containers dry well in my Bosch. Alex

Although I have a good amount of well-organized plastic storage containers (I'm from the Tupperware Party generation ;-), I use canning jars for much of my food storage - 1/2-pints, pints, quarts and 1/2-gallon sizes. I vacuum-seal the lids on canning jars with my FoodSaver using a canning lid or a FoodSaver Universal Lid, which means no pantry pests in dry goods due to the oxygen-free environment, and foods stored this way will stay fresher and last longer. Glass doesn't absorb oils from foods or retain odors like plastic does. I use a wide variety of freeze-dried foods so this method of storage is great each time I open a #10 can. I can repackage the food in user-friendly size jars and just vacuum-seal them shut until I need to move them from the food storage room in the basement to the kitchen for use. Fresh salad greens keep longer vacuum-sealed and stored in the refrigerator. I make salads for a week and vacuum-seal them in jars in the refrigerator. When hubby takes a salad to work for lunch in a pint jar, he inserts a recycled plastic container from an individual tub of applesauce into the top of the jar (fits perfectly in a wide-mouth jar) and puts dressing in the plastic tub, then places a plastic screw-on lid on the jar. There are plastic lids available for canning jars now, so you don't have to use the metal lid and ring, as well as a plastic lid with a flip-top spout for pouring I really like. I recycle the flip-top lids from dry Parmesan &/or Romano cheese (one side for spooning from and the other side for sprinkling). These lids fit on regular-size canning jars (not wide-mouth) and are handy for things like baking soda, which I purchase in bulk and keep a user-friendly amount in a pint jar in the baking cabinet. I also pre-mill flaxseed and chia seeds and keep a pint jar in the freezer covered with one of these lids. It makes it easy to flip the lid for spooning from. I have some decorative jelly jars I keep spices in (also purchased in bulk). If I don't use the spice frequently I can place a vacuum-sealed lid on it for longer storage, or put a recycled flip-top lid from the dry cheese product for quick access of things I use frequently. I spray painted the top of canning lids with chalkboard paint and they are fun to use in the pantry for marking the contents. Use chalk or (liquid) chalk markers to mark the lid. I've maximized some storage space in the pantry by laying quart jars with dry goods like lentils, beans, rice, etc., in them on their side on a narrow shelf, with the chalkboard lids showing the jar contents facing the front of the shelf. I also have a good selection of Pyrex glass containers (in 3 sizes) with plastic lids we use daily for leftovers for the refrigerator or freezer. They stack nicely, can be placed in the freezer, and the food can be heated in the oven/toaster oven or microwave. Hubby takes them to work in his lunch and can reheat leftovers in the microwave. I store portions of leftovers in the freezer in Pyrex containers for his (or my) lunch choices. I do have a tip for anyone who needs to separate food in storage containers....(pancakes, pre-cut quick breads, etc.). I was given two packages of plastic cutting boards that I never really used (each package had 4 cutting boards in different colors in it). With my old-fashioned guillotine paper cutter, I cut the plastic sheets into sizes that fit in my plastic containers. Now those tuna patties, black bean patties, pancakes/waffles, slices of homemade gluten-free bread, etc., never stick together. I was using squares of freezer paper for this, but the plastic cutting board works much better and can be reused. -Grainlady

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really see the difference between glass and plastic containers because the lids are all plastic anyway, including the lids of my glass containers. wintercat: I have always wanted some glass containers, but they are so expensive that I have never gotten any. I believe the difference is only that the container is glass and reheating something in it will not extract plastic residue since it is glass and presumably the lid is removed. I already had a couple of those old Corning Ware mini pans (and just found three more) to use for reheating small portions. Originally I had some plastic lids for them, but they were already long gone. Perhaps some will fall into my hands some day. Until then, I just use Saran Wrap or aluminum foil for storage. "The gaskets are of a hollow core and the OD of them are very them" What does this mean? olychick: my initial assumption (still held) is that a1an is a touch typist and meant to type 'very thin' and made a duel typo into 'very them'. Admittedly, I didn't originally see that it was an 'm' rather than the 'n' that I imagined was there, but I have often found myself typing a character from the same finger but wrong hand, and have done the 'm/n' thing as well.