A couple of years ago I was struggling with weevils in my dry foods.  Food that I bought from the store would be infested with weevils within as little as a few weeks.  Frustrated, I began buying plastic storage containers and putting dry foods in them as soon as I brought them home.  I was really happy that my food was no longer being ruined by little pests and I could store things longer without having to can them.  This led me to the idea that if I bought enough of these containers, I could easily rotate a three month’s supply of rice, beans, cereal, flour, sugar, etc.  Additionally, they kept humidity out better than the original packaging, were much easier to scoop from, and I could see at a glance how much I had left of any given item!

Here is how I started:

I made a list of all the dry foods we use and how much we tend to normally use within a 3 month time period.  For our family of four it looked like this:

2 of each 1 gallon containers:

·         Brown rice (yes we eat a lot of brown rice!)

·         White rice

·         Oatmeal

·         Sugar

·         White flour

·         Pancake mix

·         Pasta

1 gallon container each of:

·         Corn Meal

·         Wheat flour

·         Pinto Beans

I would buy a couple of containers from Wal Mart each time I went so we wouldn’t have budget shock and each time one of these items went on sale, I would fill the necessary containers.  It took about a year, but I now have nearly 40 of these containers.

I have a cabinet where I keep all of the containers we are actively using and as soon as I empty a container I grab the spare from the cabinet so that when I buy more, I just fill the one that was recently emptied.  That way, I am always rotating our food supply.  Also, I was really happy about how neatly the square-shaped containers fit into my cabinets, no more bag stacking or digging!

I enjoy my new system so well that I have greatly expanded it to include an entire year supply of items that we use often and store well such as white rice, white flour, and sugar.  I have also added extra containers for things like cereal, cream of wheat, chocolate chips, and other shapes of pasta.  One of the best things about the system is once you empty a container; you know that you have to buy something to fill it. This ensures that your three month supply doesn’t diminish as you use it.