dry food storage, store in original packets or decant into other storage

[CheeringBell]

Really boring question, I know but I was thinking (rather than cleaning the kitchen) that decanting my lentils, flour, rice, pasta etc into other containers was a bit of a waste of time and was wondering what other MNers did. Does it waste more space?

The problem I have is my OH loves to bake and cook so we have 5 different types of flour etc all open and on the go at once. I was thinking that it would be still to assign each a nice box for storage. Plus it's hard to know what the expiry dates are if they are not in the original packets.

Watching with interest...

I have boxes for cereal which are brill. Wondering whether to extend idea to rest of cupboards.

Not sure I'd do it with something I couldn't distinguish by sight - so is the flour bread, SR or plain? I tend to go by packet colour!
Cereal etc that you can see your using the right stuff I can see advantages, but don't decant anything!
Agree with expiry dates. Also, would you clean between uses? What if they aren't dry?
Could you put ALL bags of flour in one large Tupperware, and then seal that?

CheeringBell I decant everything dry. I mean everything you could ever possibly imagine. I love tupperware. I mean REALLY love tupperware.

I generally don't give a shit about expiry dates- my philosophy is smell it and try it and if doesn't taste okay then dump it, otherwise use it.

I distinguish between things like flour with sticky labels.

I find decanting so much easier because everything can be stacked neatly.

I tend to decant into plastic containers but now and then I ask myself why I do and whether it would just be easier to leave in original packets!

I am lazy and leave it all in original packets. (however these are stored carefully, with tops clipped using food clips etc)

I have variable numbers of packets open, e.g. if we have been baking a lot might have say 10 packets open, at other times only one or two. So I would hate the clutter of extra tupperware for the times we have more packets, not to mention washing drying and airing it all.

I find it over-fussy to de-cant, and it creates a problem with replacements. Say you have a small amount left on your attractive jar, but not enough for a whole use, you have to store what's left in the jar AND the replacement packet.

I have a metal bin in which all packets of flour go. A plastic basket/ crate thing with all the packets of pasta, rice, cous cous, noodles etc (opened packets sealed with clips), and another with different sugars - caster, soft brown , demerara etc. The basket is big enough to hold the jar with sugar and vanilla pods in it. Another basket has various teas, spare packets of coffee, and a big sealable tupperware has open curry spices, sealed with clips. Though I also have a turntable type rack with jars of herbs and spices for instant access.

Thanks for the replies. Think I may stick to storing in the original packets, but perhaps stick all the flours and alike together in larger containers to make storage a little easier.

Everything in glass jars with silver lids arranged according to content.

The insides of my cupboards look lovely

cereals in plastic containers. Cornflour (the only kind we have) in a metal tin which I have FINALLY managed to get hold of - otherwise the packet spills everywhere. Main store of rice in a giant plastic box, decanted into a smaller tin from which it is measured (one of those tins that is supposed to hold washing powder as I couldn't find anything else that you could get a mug in. One sugar container as we don't use it, just for guests.

pasta in a decorated tin from a charity shop so it is on display.

still looking for solutions for the various types of teabag that we like. Problems, problems.. :-)

We have plain, self raising, whole,meal bread and chapatti flour, tons of different sugars, various dried lentils, rice etc. Oats . . . . We cook and bake a lot!

We've given up with tea and just have all the little boxes on a shelf and hope we'll use them before they lose flavour!

Don't decant anything. Who has time?? And also most of that stuff is better protected from light, I think. I do have all the baking stuff on a tray so I can pull it out in one go and see what I've got on the very rare occasion I do bake.

It is all very anally neatly arranged in the pantry though.

i decant, firstly because we're all clumsy and it helps avoid spills.
secondly, we use cheap, stackable ikea plastic storage thingies, and it probably triples the amount of stuff I can store easily. we've got a tiny kitchen though.

I decant things which don't have flat bottoms (dried fruit, rice etc). Everything else gets a plastic clip and is in the packet.

My flour and sugar are very tidy, ask in a row at the front of the cupboard with the next bag for each type behind (I do a lot of baking)

I decant after finding mites in the flour. Now all in nice glass jars.

Everything is decanted. Lived in a filthy block of flats years ago for a few weeks, that had a bad problem with roaches and mice.
The stuff that needs labeling is, and includes expiry date. All containers get washed between uses. There's usually a gap of empty containers and resupplied that gives plenty of time to be dried. Plus just in case there's usually a spare or two knocking around.

I do both If I can't re-seal the top of the rice/cous cous/pasta properly I will put the whole pack into a glass/plastic tub. This means you can see sell by dates if needed.
Flour is another one - unless you get Homepride in the box with plastic lid, I find it too easy to accidentally knock over and rolling the top down and clipping it doesn't make me feel that nothing could have crawled in...

Liking the idea of a big basket/pot/tin for all of the flours and sugars. Can anyone link to theirs online so I can see what you mean (obv know what a big tin looks like but wondering if I would have space) Thanks :)

I used to keep everything in the original packaging, then I was visited by a plague of flour mites. They were in everything in the cupboards, it was hideously disgusting and it took a couple of weeks of cleaning, hoovering and leaving the cupboards empty to get rid of them.

Now I have everything in labelled Lock'n'Lock containers and have bigger ones to store new unopened packets before the older stuff runs out and the box has been washed and dried.

My cupboards are much tidier and cleaner now, as there are no spillages and no fear of flour mites.

Just like AnneEyhtMeyer, I use lock'n'lock-stylee boxes after being visited by a plague of flour mites. I never want to see my flour moving again.

I have boxes into which a 1.5kg packet of flour fits perfectly, so I dump the whole thing in, packet and all. But I bake a lot. Cereal is also decanted, most into plastic lock and lock boxes, but my more poncy foods go into kilner jars .

I have a massive cake box (LnL) into which I put all my pasta, rice and grain bags. Apart from spaghetti, which lives prettily in a kilner.

I'd forgotten about flour mites. Just read that they are rather fond of the glue that holds packaging together. I guess I could either store all the flours together in one big box with a lid, might contain contamination to just the flours.

Will check out the lock'n'lock boxes. Maybe my cupboards deserve some nice kilner jars with pretty labels!

Our bread flour was just in packs on the side till we got mice - they just loved the bread flour. Now in lock & lock boxes - not as nice as the fancy storage jars you can get but they stack efficiently and take rectangular packs without having to tip it into the boxes every time and remember what's what (don't want to label the boxes as I buy different kinds for variety).

Sugar was in packs in the cupboard till it all started sticking together with the winter damp in our kitchen, so that's in containers now too.

I put my packets of flour in the original packet into clear jars - this way I know what they are and also keeps its air tight.

I decant into metal coffee tubs since getting mites. They got into everything and even drilled into unopened packets. They were a nightmare to get rid of and I ended up chucking almost the entire contents of my dry stores. Now I only have max one packet of anything around at a time - generally whatever's left over if I couldn't decant the whole lot in one go. That gets a clip and then stuck in a Ziploc bag.

I use stickers to label different flours, etc. but I don't bother about expiry dates for that sort of thing. You could always cut off that bit of the bag and stick it inside your container I suppose, if you feel strongly about it.

Not sure if it would work for flour but when I open something like lentils, nuts, rice or paste I fold the top over and place an elastic band on it, from top to bottom (not round and round and round a tight neck). Then I place the relevant packets into larger tupperware containers.