Home Improvement

Thoughts & Stuff I Like When We Redid Our House

Gallon Bucket

4 Gallon Buckets Are My New Best Friend

Have you discovered 4 gallon square buckets yet for your home organization, preparedness efforts, and clutter control? Truly, 4 gallon square buckets have revolutionized the way I store my food and household supplies, and organize my closets and pantries! In fact, 4 gallon buckets are my new best friend.

 

For starters, due to the shape of the 4 gallon square buckets wasted space is eliminated that you have by using round buckets.  The square buckets line up flush with the wall, including corners, and they are easier to fill without wasted space. Since the 4 gallon buckets are a bit shorter as well as square, they make for better storage bins in the trunk of your car as well. Additionally, due to the flat lid surface of square buckets, it’s easier to make use of the height of your available storage space by being able to stack as many as 6 to 8 high.

 

The 4 gallon square bucket size is also much easier to handle by all (petite females, kids, elderly and out-of-shape computer geeks.)  Unlike some of the five gallon round buckets I’ve hefted, my back does not yell and scream at me when I load up the 4 gallon buckets with wheat, rice, beans, or toothpaste.

 

Instead of spending tons of money on plastic organizers for your home, purchase some 4 gallon square buckets. You can store first aid supplies, bulk foods, nails, spare wires/cables, and so many other goods inside.  When I fill the buckets, I like to print out a full color label with large font and then tape it to the side with clear packing tape. I deliberately try to keep track of the colors of my labels as well so that just at a glance I can tell what category of goods i.e.: food, carpentry supplies, medical supplies, etc., the bucket contains. (Thank goodness for the color technology printers nowadays that makes this method so easy.) As such, 4 gallon buckets make for a very organized tool shed, pantry, garage, and closets for a very small fraction of the cost of what you normally spend on plastic organizers. I personally have been shocked by how much more space I have once I organize items into these buckets. I suppose it’s just simple physics. When it comes to food storage, square is definitely better than round.

 

Be sure that the storage buckets you purchase with the intent to preserve food storage don’t allow light penetration. When you’re trying to store food long-term, such as wheat, beans, and rice, light will quickly zap the nutrients from your food, making it virtually worthless.  So be sure that your food storage buckets are opaque in color, and are not made of a clear or flimsy plastic.  Additionally with a rugged, snug lid that typically accompanies your square bucket you can rest assured that items inside your buckets will be better preserved in the event of an earthquake or flood. 

 

4 gallon square buckets also protect their contents better than the traditional round buckets. Pure and simple, a square shape provides a better foundation than a round one does. In fact, it’s for this very reason that I like to wrap my small jarred goods and put them inside these buckets.  For instance, when we get bottles of salad dressing on sale, I wrap them up thickly in newspaper and then put them inside a square bucket. This way if any of the square buckets were to get toppled due to an earthquake the contents inside would be more likely to survive as opposed to simply having the bottles sitting on a shelf.  Since they are only 4 gallons in size, it’s also more likely that I’ll have a sufficient amount of one type of item to fill it with. The difference in weight between a 5 gallon bucket and a 4 gallon bucket seems to be significant to my back as well.

 

I love how the square buckets neatly lay on their sides on my shelves. That way I can fill them up with the various types of pasta we get and have it all stay organized and neatly stacked—something I’m not able to accomplish simply with shelves or with round food storage buckets.  Let’s hear it for 4 gallon square buckets!

 

While I am convinced that the 4 gallon square bucket is the size that fits most scenarios, I also recommend you take a look at 8 gallon and 2 gallon square buckets as well. An 8 gallon bucket could hold more of light bulky items whereas a 2 gallon square bucket may be better suited for something heavy such as nails.

 

One last thing—whether you purchase 2, 4, or 8 gallon square buckets, be sure to check out the availability of rubber sealed flip-top gasket lids to use with them. The flip-top lid makes it so that you can easily get in and out of your buckets conveniently without breaking a nail or cussing and swearing while you’re wrestling with the typical snap-on lids. (Yes, I’ve had this very problem.)  The small rubber gasket going around the lid will give you a better seal so that you can store food in your square buckets with peace of mind.

 

Copyright 2010 Five Star Preparedness and Eliza Vaile.  All rights reserved.  You are welcome to repost this information so long as it is credited to http://fivestarpreparedness.com/ and Eliza Vaile.

 

About the Author

Eliza Vaile, Orem, UT is the owner of Five Star Preparedness, which is the largest supplier of used square food storage buckets in the United States. Five Star Preparedness purchases used, food-grade buckets from several suppliers then meticulously hand-cleans each one of them using a proprietary method—ensuring that your buckets are ideal for food storage and anything else you’d like to use them for. You can contact Five Star Preparedness by going to http://fivestarpreparedness.com/

I am growing my zucchini plants in a large 32 gallon bucket. I have flowers but no fruit.?

There are three plants in the bucket. All zucchini plants with no visible fruit just flowers. What could my problem be?

Be patient. Your plants will produce some male blossoms first and the female blossoms will appear a few days later. If the plants are outside where the pollinators can get at them, you should have tiny fruits showing up soon.

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