How do you store all your baking supplies?

[Loopyloo]

I have a tiny kitchen. I feel like I need to be careful what I bring into my home. Its frustrating to bring home a huge bag of cake flour and have it sit out on the counter until I can use it all. I have started buying smaller bags of ingredients but it has a higher cost per oz to it. Any great ideas on how to store supplies in a not cluttering way? I've been thinking about getting large glass jars to line my counters. At least they would look nice.

 

[Shellyann36]

I have a tiny kitchen. I feel like I need to be careful what I bring into my home. Its frustrating to bring home a huge bag of cake flour and have it sit out on the counter until I can use it all. I have started buying smaller bags of ingredients but it has a higher cost per oz to it. Any great ideas on how to store supplies in a not cluttering way? I've been thinking about getting large glass jars to line my counters. At least they would look nice.

I have a fairly large house and I buy in bulk often. If I buy flour I buy in bulk and put it in the freezer for a while to help stun any unpleasant riders and then after I take it out I put the flour into paper bags with a bay leaf. I then use my seal a meal machine and seal the paper bags up in the airtight seal a meal bags and store them this way. This may not be an option for you.

I don't have alot of counter space in my kitchen and I don't like leaving open bags on the shelves in my cabinets so I keep my flour, sugar, brown sugar and confectioners sugar in those gallon plastic ice cream containers with the handles. They store neatly under my sink and I have them easily at my disposal yet they are not cluttering up my main cabinet space.

 

[Soliloquy]

Can you hang anything from the ceiling? Maybe you could put up a rack and hang your pots and pans from it, freeing up more space in your cabinets.

 

[Loopyloo]

We have our pans hanging on a pot rack and it did free up some space. I think that I just need to realize that my kitchen is small and I need to buy accordingly. I am getting rid of some of the things we don't need as much to make room for my baking supplies.

 

[ACSAPA]

I have a Food Saver, so I vacuum seal my flour because I despise grain weevils. As for sugar, I have some big food storage jars that I bought at Walmart, so I take sugar out of the original paper bag and keep it in jars.
I totally understand about a kitchen that's too small.
I downsized my collection of cookbooks to make more room in my cupboard for food.

 

[mommy42]

You could put your flour, sugar, etc in a flat-topped container. Then you could stack them to take up less space.

Do you have a pantry? Or does everything have to be kept on your counter tops? I never thought about freezing my flour. Of course my freezer is always full anyway so probably wouldn't be able to.
Is freezing necessary in warmer climates? I've never heard of anyone recommending it in MT. Maybe because we have longer periods of cold and the little "buggers" don't stand a chance! LOL

I have a food saver too but never thought to use it for storing flour. I love my food saver but isn't it a pain to have to open it up and re-"saver" it? Or do you just do that for a bit to kill the weevils and then store it differently?

ACSAPA - I hear you with cookbooks! Although I try not to buy them anymore because I find that I don't really use them like I used to. Seems like all my recipes are from the internet now.

 

[ACSAPA]

You could put your flour, sugar, etc in a flat-topped container. Then you could stack them to take up less space.

Do you have a pantry? Or does everything have to be kept on your counter tops? I never thought about freezing my flour. Of course my freezer is always full anyway so probably wouldn't be able to.
Is freezing necessary in warmer climates? I've never heard of anyone recommending it in MT. Maybe because we have longer periods of cold and the little "buggers" don't stand a chance! LOL

I have a food saver too but never thought to use it for storing flour. I love my food saver but isn't it a pain to have to open it up and re-"saver" it? Or do you just do that for a bit to kill the weevils and then store it differently?

ACSAPA - I hear you with cookbooks! Although I try not to buy them anymore because I find that I don't really use them like I used to. Seems like all my recipes are from the internet now.

It is definitely a pain to reseal FoodSaver bags but I'd rather be inconvenienced than have my flour infested with weevils. So far the vacuum sealed packets are the only container they can't get into.

I just found out that there's a FoodSaver mason jar attachment. Now THAT sounds like it would really be good for storing dry goods.

 

[mommy42]

Ooh! I had no idea there were mason jar attachments. That makes a lot more sense. I would use those in a heartbeat!!

Do you know where to get them? Grocery? Target?

I got my original food saver at Costco. I wonder if they will start carrying them!!!

Yay!! That is exciting news! Thanks and let me know if you find a place to get them.

 

[ACSAPA]

Ooh! I had no idea there were mason jar attachments. That makes a lot more sense. I would use those in a heartbeat!!

Do you know where to get them? Grocery? Target?

I got my original food saver at Costco. I wonder if they will start carrying them!!!

Yay!! That is exciting news! Thanks and let me know if you find a place to get them.

The Food Saver mason jar attachment fits both Mason and Ball canning jars and is only $10 on the official Food Saver website.

http://www.foodsaver.com/product.aspx?pid=9066

You can also get it on Amazon.com for $10 with free Super Saver shipping.

http://www.amazon.com/FoodSaver-T03-0023-01-Wide-Mouth-Jar-Sealer/dp/B00005TN7H

 

[fibromama]

I think my kitchen can go in the world record of having the smallest amount of storage space possible. To be brutally honest I store all of my baking goods in a tiny cabinet above my oven and everything just gets wedged in there so that the doors can close! I cannot wait to move in a couple of years just for more storage.

 

[Meowmie]

When I was buying my flours, I always bought in bulk, and except for white flour, I kept it in the freezer, in seal a meal bags. I've never had the attachment to seal jars, but I think that is going on my 'wish list' on amazon asap.

When I seal the flours, I seal them in about 5 lb bags and always leave the bag extra long, sealing right at the very edge so I can reseal it many times.

If you have a basement, you can put shelves up in it (or the garage maybe) and create a pantry just make sure that the items are stored in bug proof containers.

I think I'd kill for a professional kitchen and huge walk in pantry.

 

[OhioTom76]

I look at it this way, I'm not really saving money by buying in bulk if the stuff goes bad before I can use it all. I would also worry that ingredients, such as flour, might start to pick up smells and flavors from other things sitting in my pantry, if it is in a loosely folded bag, rather than an airtight container. For example, I often also store bags of onions in my pantry as well. You could go the jar route as you suggested or perhaps you could look for some plastic storage containers that have tight fitting snap on lids - preferably ones that are designed to be stackable as well.

 

[MyPaperBleedsInk]

Ingredients are usually stored in plastic containers/tubs. Those are then placed under the cupboard - flour, sugar, powdered sugar, oil, vinegar, brown sugar, etc etc. Containers are great to have and you can store them on your cupboard if you want - then store flour bags in a cupboard. Just use a bag clip to close if you couldn't fit it all in the container.

 

[Meowmie]

Oh the things that aren't sealed in the freezer are in Tupperware or similar containers. ONE bout with flour bugs and I never put anything in a canister or something that wasn't airtight since!

 

[Sandman]

Everything is usually in kitchen cupboards and some things in the freezer, like flower, we get weevils here so we put most of our foodstuffs in sealable plastic containers with lids.

 

[janineaa]

I have a small place as well because I just live in a small condo. Instead of jars, I use those plastic containers that can be sealed shut. I just transfer the ingredients into the containers and then I stack the containers up against the wall on the bench. I think the ingredients stay fresh and it's a very neat way as well.

 

[Cayla]

I tried glass canisters with lids, but they were hard to use. I ended up keeping the flour in its original packaging, but added a plastic zip bag around it to keep pests out. Sugar can be stored this way, too.

 

[SweetToothOutlaws]

I have a small kitchen as well, I usually keep my flour and sugar in my drawers by the stove.When I'm done using those ingredients I usually tie them up to make sure nothing gets in them.

 

[Trellum]

I have destined a small compartment for my baking supplies. I always get small quantities, because right now I don't want to bake a lot things, specially sweet things. Mostly because I'm trying to lose weight, lol. I'd buy bulk, but when you do that you feel so tempted to bake more often, I don't want that!

 

[Trellum]

We have our pans hanging on a pot rack and it did free up some space. I think that I just need to realize that my kitchen is small and I need to buy accordingly. I am getting rid of some of the things we don't need as much to make room for my baking supplies.

That is an amazing idea, I might actually try it out =D Our kitchen needs more space, we can definitely do the same with our pans. I actually want to get a spice rack that I can easily mount on the wall.