If you have enough quart jars, why not? That is, if they're canning type jars with a silicone seal in the rim. You do want air tight. If you have enough freezer space, why not? The only issue is what happens if you drop a glass jar.

Food service bins aren't expensive. Beware the fussy bucket lids. Many are single use.

Mine is stored in 5 gallon buckets I bought from FireHouse Subs. I have several, they are all food grade because they are pickle buckets, the sub place sells them for $2 each and the money goes to local fire departments. I ferment sauerkraut in one, have flour in another and have feed for the baby chicks currently in my garage in a brooder tank in another to keep mice and other rodents out. At the farm I have an old unworkable freezer to keep feed in and keep animals out.

The buckets have a rubber gasket for an airtight seal but I will admit that they are the devil to take off sometimes. Right now it's 35F and it'll get down to 24F tonight, so garage is my "second refrigerator". I'll use it up before it goes "off", of course, and it's a good thing because there is no room in my freezers for it.

I do have smaller containers for usable amounts in the kitchen, some are Lock N Lock, some are stainless steel canisters with silicone seals and some smaller amounts like rye and buckwheat are just in 2 quart canning jars with rings and flats, along with dried beans, lentils, rice, couscous, etc.

Annie

I used to use one of the big tins that popcorn is sold in at Christmas for flour. I also used a Charles Chip container. Photo won't post.

Do you have a FoodSaver? DH came home once with a 5 lb bag of grits, instead of the 1 lb that I usually buy. I vacuum sealed the entire bag and stuck it in the freezer. fwiw, I left a larger amount of freezer bag at the top so when I went it, I just cut off the amount necessary then re-sealed the same bag.

Has anyone used a Foodsaver on flour? I’m wondering if the dusty nature of it presents any problems with the vacuuming.

Baldor! You get Baldor.? My new love. They have saved me. I have a pending cart and keep checking that the are still delivering 'next day'. (thinking Monday I may proceed to check-out)...I just need to free up some space. Excellent produce and just about everything.

Just checked YouTube. First person used a paper towel dam;

second put the flour in a brown paper lunch bag

Yeah Sleeve, someone here turned me on to Baldor. Don’t remember who. 😏

I got KA Special Patent and Caputo 00 Americana. Plus 20 pounds of burgers plus huge lamb shanks plus boneless leg of lamb; unfortunately my cheeses weren’t on the truck. Plus some gloves to get me to my minimum. Didn’t do produce: maybe next time.

bbstx - Thanks, was thinking about a dam, perhaps with parchment somehow.

My new sealer is supposed to do powders. I'm vacuum sealer challenged, however. The dam is a great idea.

So happy you have Baldor. I could not, and still cannot, get FreshDirect. All slots for delivery are booked for the entire month. Baldor was backed up for a week or two so I have checked every morning. Shocking Baldor is back on a daily delivery service. Great service and the delivery workers are so thankful to deliver.

I usually grind my own burger but their grind is most excellent. (had them last night.) ...excellent for Asian meatballs. We are so thankful. The burger thaws rather wet, so I lay them on p-towel on a plate in the fridge to dry out a bit for 6-8 hours. A finer grind that we are used to but definitely learning from this as I like these better than my own grind.

I think Baldor will be with us for some time.

Back to flour.

We refrained from bulk purchasing having 3-4 dozen different grains, beans, seed, nuts. Winter wheat we could grind. But have a pantry pull out on wheels in the kitchen pantry that I think is meant for dog food. Good seal and easy entry for small 1-2 pound bags.

All flours are in the freezer. Zip-locks, saves space. The door freezer lower shelf. All bulk spices fill most of the door upper shelves.

A nightmare freezer purchase a half dozen years ago....order, pay, out of stock, order, pay, out of stock....for a few months. What was delivered was giant. Not at all what we ordered. We took off doors and door casing to fit....now glad the giant freezer is in and to good use.

We are not baking as much as we thought initially. Eating less due to obvious covid stress.

Really depends on your storage capacity and how much flour you have and how fast it will be used. And what your freezer/pantry can accommodate .

I have these and a half dozen tied onto the handles of my bucket. Bird seed, etc.

For most of the flour, we used 5.1 quart containers with lids that have snap locks on all 4 sides. They are 7.2 inches square and 9 inches high. I can get about 7.3 pounds of flour into one with enough head space to make it easy to close the lid and to be able to scoop flour out without spilling so 50 pounds fit into 7 containers.

We have been using these as flour and sugar canisters for over 10 years and they don't show any sign of aging so they hold up well. We did have to buy some more to handle the 50 pound bag.

The totally open tops made them easy to load. I used a 4 cup measuring cup as a scoop and the job went more quickly than I expected with only a tiny amount of spilled flour to clean up.

They fit nicely on our pantry shelves. Being rectangular allows them to pack more efficiently. 4 of them can fit in the drawer we use for flour and sugar in the kitchen so we can have bread, whole wheat and AP flour plus sugar in easy reach with spares and less used flour in the pantry.

I think it would be a pain to load 50 pounds of flour into quart jars. It would take about 35 to 45 jars depending on how much you pack the flour.

I just Foodsavered. First thing - Yes, you do need to block the flour somehow!

You can see that the flour worked its way up the channels. And into my machine. Not too bad, I cleaned it out, hopefully no damage done. I’m sure either of the methods bbstx linked would be good. I’m leery of paper bags so I would have done the paper towel method, but decided to try parchment instead. Folded into a U shape, inserted into the bag with the full/closed side against the textured side of the FS bag. Held it level to the opening. Filled:

Then folded over the parchment

And sealed

Much better. 50 pounds down, 50 to go!

Wow, you must bake a lot of bread!

FOAS, I’m with you on the paper bags in the video. I’m not so sure I would want to put flour into them. But then again, I can be a little germaphobic. Looks like you came up with a good system!

Zinnia - Haha not at all, never! I suppose I should start! But I’ve started making pizza once a week. The bread flour is in case I don’t like the pizza flour. Plus I’ve got a Zoji in the basement that I’ve used once, and should try again. Plus I can pawn some off on others. The pizza flour, well I would have liked to try that with lesser quantity. But my choices were 6.6 pounds for $25 on Amazon, or 55 pounds for $38 through the distributor. Kind of a no brainer.

Flour is still scarce in my local grocery, and yeast is not to be found. Dry yeast can be stored for up to 2 years according to survivalist websites. The key to long term storage is keeping food away from air, moisture and light, and storing it between 50° and 60°F. Ideally, a pantry should be an interior closet, or at least have no window. It should not be near a water heater, washer and dryer, or furnace. The best containers for longevity of store-bought items are 1) metal, 2) glass, 3) plastic. Personally, in keeping my pantry rotated, I find it easiest to write the date I purchased something on the container. I do the same for frozen items.

I saw yeast today at my local grocery, but I have 3 pounds in the freezer from my last trip to Sam's Club so I didn't need any.

And now that you've reminded me, I'm going to go start a loaf of bread!

Annie

Why are you vacuum sealing flour? and freezing it....unless it's whole grain?
Still buying flour by the 5 pound bag...it's back in the supermarkets here. When it was hard to get, I was considering a 50 pound bag....but frankly I would be afraid I would do something to my back if I tried to lift 50 pounds from the ground or front steps.
I mixed 3 pounds into dough today.....baked 2 pounds into bread and gave it away, made me a cute little pizza and the rest is in the fridge.....maybe it'll be another pizza tomorrow.

Perhaps overkill, Linda, but as someone who normally goes through less than ten pounds of flour a year, I’m not sure how fast I’ll go through the ≈150 I have on hand. I figure this is a safe way to store it longer term.

Lots of people do freeze flour. As was said--I think in this topic--it kills freeloaders. Also, some people don't use their freezers for a lot else and don't have storage rooms. And some people have lots of sealer bags rather than canisters and bins. Anything that gets it handled and stored is a good method!

FOAS, I normally use more flour than you, but doing all the baking--bread, quickbreads, pizza, sweets--runs through a lot of flour.

I've used more flour than usual because during the first of the panic shopping, even bread or hamburger buns were not available in the stores. I used to bake all my own bread, buns, donuts, sweet rolls, etc before I got involved with that cursed Weight Watchers, so I went through a lot of flour. Now I'm still going through a lot of flour, I've already used 10 pounds of the 50 pounds of bread flour I bought, so mine is just in ziplock bags, 5 pounds per bag, and the bags are stored in plastic buckets with secure lids. Right now it's about 30 degrees and tonight it'll get back down to the low 20s, I ought to sit that bucket in the garage and let it freeze in case of any "invaders"...

Tomorrow, though, I'm making the gluten free lemon bars, Amanda will be here for her Mother's Day visit and she loves them. So do I, they are better than the regular ones I used to make, so thanks to Nancyofnc, for that recipe!

Annie

I use 5 gallon food safe buckets, like mentioned above, from wherever DH got them from free. I have an awful time opening them, so we stopped at United States Plastic in Lima, OH and got the special twist off lids for them. We keep them in the fruit cellar. I just keep a scoop in the bucket, and take my container down to refill it. I have no affiliation with US Plastics, just happy with the product. We usually stop anytime we are in the Lima area.

Every time I see the title of this thread, I think of Dave's quart jars tumbling in a 7-10 split. :)

I don't think foodsaver is overkill since the bags can be recycled having only housed dry goods. Same with seeds and nuts.

All my grains spend some time cycled through the freezer having battled pantry pests inherited from the previous owners.

Sleeve, what are those plastic things?

A bucket wrench. Usually just a few dollars.

I may eat my words....but....
about 30 years ago a good friend came in and saw me frantically emptying cupboards and emptying stuff and wiping etc....I had pantry moths. She said don't you know if you put a bay leaf in with your flour you won't ever have those moths ot weavels? And, she said scatter them on your shelves where you have cereal.
So I did.....and I haven't had any moths or weavels since.
Most of my flour, cornstarch, masa, rices etc are in a deep drawer with bay leaves scattered.....the whole grain flours and stuff like rye flakes and flax meal are in the freezer.

So, what you are saying can be remembered with a bad pun ... [I love this game]

Adding a bay leaf to packages/containers of flour/cereal/rice/corn meal or on the shelf with spices keeps pantry moths at bay.

*buys stock in bay leaves*

I’ve been under a lot of stress, and my wife is upstairs hearing the foodsaver sucking away at my bags of flour: