Bulk food storage

You saw in my last post the components of my bulk food storage set up.  I finally got it back in order this morning.  I still have a few more gamma seal lids I want to purchase.  I tried color coordinating the tops with the food, or name of the food, but I only had so many lids on hand.  For example our Prairie Gold wheat has a yellow (gold) lid.  However when the girls had claimed the blue lid for the cat food bucket, and I wasn't able to use it for my "navy beans".  So I used green instead.  I can always dump out the contents and erase the "navy beans" lettering when I get some new lids.  I plan on buying a pink lid for our pinto beans, a black lid for our black beans...you get the idea.  They only have about 8 colors to choose from, so some of the lids will be the same colors and some won't match with the food or name of the food, but it's a start.

Excuse the graininess of the photos.  Here is my two tiered system.  The bottom level holds the full, or in some cases empty, containers of the grains/food.  These are 5 gallon buckets that you can purchase at Walmart in the paint section.  They have the number 2 triangle on the bottom, which indicates they are food grade.  I purchase the tops that go with them, and they are a bit of a pain to pry off.  The top row are the buckets that are in use, that have easy to access lids.  That means I only have to pry off lids when the top buckets run out, instead of every time I need something from the regular lidded buckets.

You can see parts of our couch cushions in this photo.  Most of the kids were in the bedroom with  me.  They were playing dinosaurs.  The cushions were for their nests...to lay eggs :-)  Jonah jumped in this picture.  You can see I have room in front of the top buckets.  Presently this is where I put my bowl as I scoop out any needed food item from the buckets.  It's also where Aubrey climbs up to help me scoop out said food items, as does Jonah and Jed.  Who knew that grabbing some food could be so much fun!

A close up of a gamma seal.  You just grab the middle of that "X" and give it a spin.  Much, much nicer than having to pry, pry, pry off the snap on lids that come with the buckets from the store.  Trust me on that one!  I really want to purchase a tool that is sold to pry off such lids.  They run cheap, like $5.  It would save time, and fingernails!

Here you can see the gamma lid off.  On the top of the lid you can see the white rubber ring that makes the seal.

 I have two of these black buckets.  I wanted to try them out  to see how I liked them.  I get them locally, so I'm not sure where you would find them online.  These also twist off, but have a 'lock' feature.  You need to press in that red button as you twist the lid off.  This prevents children from getting into the buckets.  So far I have not had a problem with my children trying to get into the gamma sealed buckets, but if I did, I could always put any needed items that needed to be stored from children in one of these.

Here you can see the grooves, or bumps that help to lock the lid in place.  It's sort of like those child locks for cabinets, the ones with the pull 'tabs', the same concept.

We had a late start to the day.  Well, I didn't :-)  We need to get those tests out and I need to run to the walk in ortho clinic for a check up on my foot.  After that we really need to dive into our regular school day.  I have to say it's hard to get mentally into this school stuff in the summer.  During my ER time I brought along one of my Charlotte Mason volumes.  I brought the wrong one.  But God always seems to know what we need, right?  I really would love to share some of my thoughts on what I read that night.  Great stuff!  Until then, have a great day!