# Storing sugar



## midwestmom (Jun 24, 2014)

I usually have a 25 pound bag of sugar that I use over 6 months or so. Normally I split it into gallon size zip lock bags and keep them in the pantry. I'd like to store a couple of bags (50 poundd) for longer term. Right now I've got 2 of my gallons of sugar in a plastic ice cream tub with a lid. If I seal the edges of the lids with tape or sealant, is that sufficient? Do I need an oxygen thingy in with them? I'm thinking my main concern is keeping out bugs and rodents. I didn't think sugar went "bad" even if it gets clumpy.


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## SouthCentralUS (Nov 11, 2012)

Don't use an 02. It will make your sugar rock hard. I seal my sugar in 5 lb increments in mylar and put them in buckets.


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## midwestmom (Jun 24, 2014)

Thank you.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

midwestmom said:


> I usually have a 25 pound bag of sugar that I use over 6 months or so. Normally I split it into gallon size zip lock bags and keep them in the pantry. I'd like to store a couple of bags (50 poundd) for longer term. Right now I've got 2 of my gallons of sugar in a plastic ice cream tub with a lid. If I seal the edges of the lids with tape or sealant, is that sufficient? Do I need an oxygen thingy in with them? I'm thinking my main concern is keeping out bugs and rodents. I didn't think sugar went "bad" even if it gets clumpy.


No oxygen absorber or you will have a hard rock of sugar. Sugar is used as a preservative for dried fruit, so if it can be kept dry, it could last for many, many years.

I agree with your concern about bugs and rodents. The only thing that I have really seen that bothered sugar was ants.

I like to store things like sugar in 5 gallon buckets with Gamma seal lids. That way, the sugar can be kept dry and I can open the lid, remove what I want, and put the lid back on fairly easily. Your 1 gallon zip bags could be used and you could remove them one at a time.

A 5 gallon bucket with gamma seal lid can be had at Home Depot for less than $10. I think I used to purchase the set up for around $5, but I haven't purchased any in quite a while and I can only imagine that the price is more now.

You could also use many other kinds of containers, as long as they can be sealed tightly.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

I dump the sugar in mylar bags inside 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids. The mylar bags are not sealed, just twisted and taped closed. I did put a double layer of paper towels on top of the sugar before I twisted and taped the mylar bags as just one more way of keeping it from hardening.

The masking tape on the top of the bucket says "sugar". The masking tape on the side has the name of the product, the purchase date, the purchase amount, and where it was bought. Everything we have in buckets has the same naming convention. It helps when you have a lot of things stored in buckets.

It's sad I micromanage our storage this way; however, I just hate it when I need to get more of something and I have no idea where I bought it or how much it costs. The purchase date is just to keep track of age.


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## DrPrepper (Apr 17, 2016)

My husband calls me the Bucket Queen because I store *everything* in buckets. The orange Home Depot buckets are not food safe, so be careful what gets put in them. I get the white food-safe buckets at Lowes - they run about $4.50, and the gamma seal lids run about $8. They also have the smaller 2 gallon food-safe buckets - about $3, and lids are about $2 (they don't carry the smaller gamma seals)


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

I have my sugar stored in used/cleaned one gallon clear plastic juice bottles.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

I get my (food safe) buckets from Tractor Supply (there's a price break on quantity) and my gamma lids from Sams (mail order because we live out in the boonies). I did buy some regular bucket lids from Tractor Supply just in case I would need some. I do like my gamma lids. Wish they would make them in the smaller size.....

I think I bought my several sizes of mylar bags in a bulk sale from Pleasant Hill Grain. Has anyone used a Food Saver to vacuum and seal mylar bags?


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## readytogo (Apr 6, 2013)

I have a food grade bucket which I store 25lbs of granulated sugar ,the last time I look everything was fine and that was a few years back I imagine in a vacuum pack bag it should be better ,but back at the farm sugar was kept in a simple wooden barrel right in the heavy paper sack/bag it came in.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

DrDianaAnderson said:


> My husband calls me the Bucket Queen because I store *everything* in buckets. The orange Home Depot buckets are not food safe, so be careful what gets put in them. I get the white food-safe buckets at Lowes - they run about $4.50, and the gamma seal lids run about $8. They also have the smaller 2 gallon food-safe buckets - about $3, and lids are about $2 (they don't carry the smaller gamma seals)


This is true and I am glad you mentioned it! I do not use orange buckets for food, but use food grade buckets.

Gamma seal lids are $8 now? I knew they had gone up in price, and I guess it has been a few years since I purchased any.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

The bakery in many large grocery stores gives out buckets for free. Most have a lid with a gasket. Mostly I get the 3.5 gallon but anything from 2 to 4 gallon. You will need to clean them but they are food grade and the price is right.


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## phideaux (Nov 7, 2015)

My wife and I do not(aren't able) grow a monster, huge garden any longer,

So we have 100s of canning jars that we don't use anymore.

So we boiled/cleaned a bunch of them, and we bought the adapter for our Foodsaver Vacuum sealer , to seal the jars.

We only had to buy the lids (not rings) and now we vacuum seal quart jars of pasta, salt, rice, *sugar*, oats, flour, corn meal.

WE been doing this for about 3 years, and we open and check one occasionally , no problems.

Works great, just another way,

Jim


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

Country Living said:


> I dump the sugar in mylar bags inside 5 gallon buckets with gamma lids. The mylar bags are not sealed, just twisted and taped closed. I did put a double layer of paper towels on top of the sugar before I twisted and taped the mylar bags as just one more way of keeping it from hardening.
> 
> The masking tape on the top of the bucket says "sugar". The masking tape on the side has the name of the product, the purchase date, the purchase amount, and where it was bought. Everything we have in buckets has the same naming convention. It helps when you have a lot of things stored in buckets.
> 
> It's sad I micromanage our storage this way; however, I just hate it when I need to get more of something and I have no idea where I bought it or how much it costs. The purchase date is just to keep track of age.


I totally get your dilema about tracking your food storage. I have a half page sized spiral notebook with a hard cover that I use, but I do not track completely like I could or should. There are places online you can keep track your food storage, but I don't trust that! I have a page for each item in my notebook, such as a page each for rice, wheat, beans, corn, potato flakes, oatmeal, pasta, sugar, salt, powdered milk, dried onions, carrots, and more. I keep track of how much I add to each, and am not as good at tracking how much I use.

I track purchase dates, quantities, sources. I also keep a running tally of how much of each I have. I am sure my records are not 100% accurate, but knowing that I have at least x amount of lentils or powdered milk or rice, helps. I had set goals for myself about how much of each to have, and kept reaching those goals, and then resetting them to higher amounts.

Like many of us, I am limited by space. If I had a much larger basement, I would keep setting higher goals. I am really kind of maxed out on space, so I have quit, except for replacing when I consume a certain amount.


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## DrPrepper (Apr 17, 2016)

weedygarden said:


> I totally get your dilema about tracking your food storage. I have a half page sized spiral notebook with a hard cover that I use, but I do not track completely like I could or should. There are places online you can keep track your food storage, but I don't trust that!


I also track, but I use an excel spread sheet. I set goals, do inventory, and then the spreadsheet auto-calculates what I need to get to reach the goal. I don't just do it for food- I track medical supplies, garden supplies, etc that way, too. I have one page for each category (milk products, grains, fats and oils, sugars, canned veggies, meats, etc).

Having the spreadsheet auto-calculate what I need makes printing a grocery list really easy- and I don't wind up buying more than I need of some things and forget others. Every so often, my paranoia kicks in and I up the goals.

After I do my shopping each week, I update the inventory and print out each page that changed. That way, I always have most current on excel, and also on paper.

Yes, I know I am a "wee bit" obsessive compulsive anal-retentive, but the organization is my way of relaxing!

:nuts:


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

When something goes into storage I mark the month and year on the container. Buckets get a strip of tape with month, year, and contents. I use firs in first out (FIFO). This does a couple of things for me. I lets know how fast I am going through each item. If an item goes bad, very rare, it lets know how long is too long, and if I want to increase my time span it gives me some idea of where to go with each item. Often I will find that certain items are already at or near the new time frames.


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## phideaux (Nov 7, 2015)

I didn't mention it, but we do mark every jar with contents , and date.

Salt and sugar look a lot alike..


Jim


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

phideaux said:


> I didn't mention it, but we do mark every jar with contents , and date.
> 
> Salt and sugar look a lot alike..
> 
> Jim


LOL! There is more than one story out there of a young girl making her first pie or cake, and using salt instead of sugar by accident.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Has anyone been watching the price of sugar? It had been flying higher and higher. Up like 40%


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## phideaux (Nov 7, 2015)

Just a fun note here.....

Last year , our favorite restraunt went out of business.
They called me and ask if I wanted some sugar, salt, flour, corn meal.

Well I jumped on that. I had my truck bed full .
��

We jarred all we could the gave the rest to like thinking friends.

I suppose we jarred 40-50 quarts of each.

Cool huh? But we miss the restraunt.��

Jim


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## azrancher (Jan 30, 2014)

hiwall said:


> Has anyone been watching the price of sugar? It had been flying higher and higher. Up like 40%


I buy 100#/year, hummingbird syrup, $18.00/50 last year, $25.00/50 a week ago.

*Rancher*


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

We keep the bags of sugar in a bucket and as we open a bag put it in the 1/2 gallon mason jars, vacuume sealed with a desiccant. We don't use a lot of sugar so it sits in the jars for quite a while and have never had a problem.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

terri9630 said:


> We keep the bags of sugar in a bucket and as we open a bag put it in the 1/2 gallon mason jars, vacuume sealed with a desiccant. We don't use a lot of sugar so it sits in the jars for quite a while and have never had a problem.


Doesn't it get hard as a rock?


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

weedygarden said:


> I track purchase dates, quantities, sources. I also keep a running tally of how much of each I have.





DrDianaAnderson said:


> I also track, but I use an excel spread sheet.





Caribou said:


> When something goes into storage I mark the month and year on the container.





phideaux said:


> I didn't mention it, but we do mark every jar with contents , and date.


I guess all of you realize we're a bunch of nerds....! :beercheer:


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## DrPrepper (Apr 17, 2016)

Country Living said:


> I guess all of you realize we're a bunch of nerds....! :beercheer:


but we are well informed nerds, and when the SHTF, we'll also be well-fed nerds!

:2thumb:


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## midwestmom (Jun 24, 2014)

I noticed the price was creeping up and sometimes the shelves were empty. Same thing other items. I can't store EVERYTHING or grow EVERYTHING. If I try right off the bat I'm afraid I'll get overwhelmed and not do anything. So I've got the sugar done. And I bagged up some rice with chicken bullion cubes and put the bags in empty creamer cans. Picking up extras of things we use a lot like peanut butter and Nutella (I know it only has a year shelf life but the kids LOVE it) Some extra allergy and Tylenol meds. Not perfect, but at least I'm doing SOMETHING. Working on getting a tub for rain water. And picked up some life filters and a home one. It's a start.


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## DrPrepper (Apr 17, 2016)

midwestmom said:


> I noticed the price was creeping up and sometimes the shelves were empty. Same thing other items. I can't store EVERYTHING or grow EVERYTHING. If I try right off the bat I'm afraid I'll get overwhelmed and not do anything. So I've got the sugar done. And I bagged up some rice with chicken bullion cubes and put the bags in empty creamer cans. Picking up extras of things we use a lot like peanut butter and Nutella (I know it only has a year shelf life but the kids LOVE it) Some extra allergy and Tylenol meds. Not perfect, but at least I'm doing SOMETHING. Working on getting a tub for rain water. And picked up some life filters and a home one. It's a start.


And it is a great start! It puts you light years ahead of the sheeple who do nothing and expect to be taken care of. If you only put away $10 of groceries a week, you're 10 bucks ahead of where you were! :2thumb:


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## midwestmom (Jun 24, 2014)

Thanks. That's really nice of you to say that.


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## DFrost (Jan 12, 2014)

Caribou said:


> The bakery in many large grocery stores gives out buckets for free. Most have a lid with a gasket. Mostly I get the 3.5 gallon but anything from 2 to 4 gallon. You will need to clean them but they are food grade and the price is right.


I tried your tip last Thanksgiving to get a bucket to brine my turkey and both the grocers I went to were more than happy to let me take out their trash for them, lol!

I do have a question about the need for food grade buckets though; if you are heat sealing the items in Mylar bags, do you still need to FG buckets? Or is that "Bracers and a Belt" sort of a thing, better safe than sorry?

Thanks one and all, some very useful pointers in this thread! :2thumb:


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

midwestmom said:


> I noticed the price was creeping up and sometimes the shelves were empty. Same thing other items. I can't store EVERYTHING or grow EVERYTHING. If I try right off the bat I'm afraid I'll get overwhelmed and not do anything. So I've got the sugar done. And I bagged up some rice with chicken bullion cubes and put the bags in empty creamer cans. Picking up extras of things we use a lot like peanut butter and Nutella (I know it only has a year shelf life but the kids LOVE it) Some extra allergy and Tylenol meds. Not perfect, but at least I'm doing SOMETHING. Working on getting a tub for rain water. And picked up some life filters and a home one. It's a start.


Yes, you are ahead of many. The other thing is, I remember when I got serious about prepping. I had taken a class decades ago about food storage, but in 2008 when there was such a financial collapse, I started getting serious. I read lots of blogs. I looked for suggestions for what to have for a year. I started ordering from Emergency Essentials and going to the LDS cannery every chance I could. I began setting goals and meeting them. I was really nervous about not being prepared. I reached a big goal and felt so much more relaxed about it. I looked at things besides just food. I set some goals with other things. I set another big food storage goal and reached it.

I think you will be surprised at how setting goals and planning can actually get you and your family in a better place for the future.

I think it is almost impossible to be totally prepared, but anything is better than nothing.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

DFrost said:


> I tried your tip last Thanksgiving to get a bucket to brine my turkey and both the grocers I went to were more than happy to let me take out their trash for them, lol!
> 
> I do have a question about the need for food grade buckets though; if you are heat sealing the items in Mylar bags, do you still need to FG buckets? Or is that "Bracers and a Belt" sort of a thing, better safe than sorry?
> 
> Thanks one and all, some very useful pointers in this thread! :2thumb:


I always use food grade buckets if I have them. If I'm using mylar and I don't have a food grade bucket I use what I have, but don't tell anybody else.


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## Caribou (Aug 18, 2012)

weedygarden said:


> Doesn't it get hard as a rock?


It is the O2 absorbers that make sugar hard. The desiccant should be fine though a good tight seal should do just as well.


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## prepperking22 (May 21, 2016)

Have to agree...Mylar bags and food buckets all the way. Have kept my sugar for quite awhile now without a problem.


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## Country Living (Dec 15, 2009)

DFrost said:


> I tried your tip last Thanksgiving to get a bucket to brine my turkey and both the grocers I went to were more than happy to let me take out their trash for them, lol!
> 
> I do have a question about the need for food grade buckets though; if you are heat sealing the items in Mylar bags, do you still need to FG buckets? Or is that "Bracers and a Belt" sort of a thing, better safe than sorry?
> 
> Thanks one and all, some very useful pointers in this thread! :2thumb:


Staying with food grade buckets gives you a safety net. Today you may use a mylar bag with the bucket, tomorrow you may want to store something in it without the mylar. Right now I have some wheat berries in a bucket without the mylar because those are the berries I'm grinding.

There was a question earlier about sugar getting hard. Yes, oxygen absorbers are not always your friend (tried it with Country Time Lemonade - major failure); neither is air. When you leave a 25 pound bag of sugar on your store room shelf for a couple of years, it will harden because of air seeps in through the paper bag. I just went through that whole pain because I didn't bag the sugar when I got it. Had to drop each bag on the floor a few times just to get it pliable enough to get smaller chunks out, broke up the chunks, dumped the now granulated sugar (versus hard clumps) into the mylar bag, added a paper towel, closed the bag, and put on the gamma lid.

I guess I need to explain the paper towel. I found out years ago if I put a couple of layers of paper towels on top of the sugar, make sure it covers the top of the sugar completely, the sugar doesn't harden even though there is an air gap in the bucket. I also put the paper towel on top of my powdered soap I have in a bucket (with a gamma lid) to keep it from hardening. Not perfect; but, it works for me. Those of you who are lucky enough not to live in humid areas may not need to go through all of this.


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## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

here's something i started doing,by the way of a mistake i made.i failed to get a 4LB bag of sugar during a shopping trip.in the pic,and on the left side.is a sugar container,we've had since i was a kid..the one in the middle,is a peanut butter jar.and the one on the right,is what apple cider,or what ever came in.i took the 10LB bag we had.and filled the sugar container.then the other 2.and yes the peanut butter jar is now empty.i have a bunch of the jars and jugs.in which i figure their not only idea for storing sugar.but beans,rice and other dry food items as well..


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## terri9630 (Jun 2, 2016)

weedygarden said:


> Doesn't it get hard as a rock?


Nope. I've never had that happen. It may help that I'm in the desert where it's not humid very often.


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## azrancher (Jan 30, 2014)

azrancher said:


> I buy 100#/year, hummingbird syrup, $18.00/50 last year, $25.00/50 a week ago.*Rancher*


OBTW I store sugar in 5 gallon pickle buckets, no mylar, only one gama lid for all the sugar.

I store salt in the bags it comes in, usually pool salt which is going to be good enuf in a SHTF situation.

I have sugar beet seed but I have never raised them...

*Rancher*


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## tleeh1 (Mar 13, 2013)

I store my sugar & rice in gallon pickle jars (recycled from various places at various times). They don't get sealed in any way other than their original lids since the lid sizes are incompatible with my canning jars. I've never had anything go bad, no do I get bugs or ant, and mice sure can't get into them. I suspect the only down-size is the glass and possible breakage -- but it's just me and DH, so we're a little more aware of handling. I buy early in the year (not canning season), and then replace what I use after canning season.


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## AmishHeart (Jun 10, 2016)

We live in the desert where there's hardly any humidity and I store sugar by foodsavering it and then put it in bins. We have a farm in a high humidity state and I learned the hard way not to put sugar or salt in the basement storage. I bought a bunch of plastic containers for sugar and salt and store it upstairs in the kitchen, and am trying one of those sugar softener brown stones in each container to see how they work.


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## DFrost (Jan 12, 2014)

*Thanks...*



Country Living said:


> Staying with food grade buckets gives you a safety net. Today you may use a mylar bag with the bucket, tomorrow you may want to store something in it without the mylar. Right now I have some wheat berries in a bucket without the mylar because those are the berries I'm grinding.


Okay, that makes even more sense. Keep your food preps as food worthy as possible as you never know what will be necessary down the road... I appreciate the tip on the paper towel, too! I have a couple of blocks of salt that are shaped roughly like the big boxes of Morton Kosher that I have to deal with!!!


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## jimLE (Feb 25, 2015)

i had a 10LB bag of sugar,in which i planed on hanging onto.then i failed to buy a bag on 1 shopping trip.and im using the 10LB bag now.and here's how im storing it..the white container,we've had since i was a lil kid..the 2 others is a peanut-butter jar and the other had apple juice or tea in it..i have several plastic jars/bottles that i've saved.in which i not only plan on using for sugar.but for dry foods that i can keep in them as well


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