Using Gamma Lids for Easier Food Storage Rotation

If bucket wrenches are the best thing since sliced bread (and they are), then gamma lids are the second-best thing.  And if I had to choose between the two, I would sadly have to go with the bucket wrenches.  Bucket wrenches are cheaper and they work on all the buckets.  Gamma lids are more expensive, and you can only use them with one bucket at a time.  

But they are so worthwhile.  They are food-grade, and they make using your food storage every day so much easier.  It's just a twist to open them, not a WWF wrestling match.  At around eight dollars each, they're a little pricey, so we obviously don't get them for all the buckets.  There's one for each of the primary working food buckets--wheat, rice, quick oats, rolled oats, pinto beans, pasta, and chocolate chips.  When the bucket with the gamma lid is empty, it simply gets refilled with food from the next bucket in the rotation.  

Some people like to color-code their lids to make finding the contents easier, and if I could afford to have more lids I would surely do this.  As it is, we limit ourselves to gamma lids only for the working food buckets.  But as finances permit, we are slowly putting gamma lids on all the medical buckets.  We simply get into them too often to mess with the bucket wrenches, and I can imagine someday we'll need to get into one quite quickly.  All those lids are red.  Every little bit to make finding them easier.  (We've got over 200 buckets, and sometimes the kids like to mess with me and move them around.)

As far as color-coding goes, if you have a reason to color-code more items, you can mix and match the lids and rims to provide several more options.  I haven't come up with a reason to have that many options, but I'm not as creative as some folks.  

Gamma lids are designed to provide an airtight fit on four-, five-, or six-gallon buckets.  As such, they can be difficult to snap in place.  Honestly, I've never been able to do it myself, so I always ask my husband or son to help, and they have no problem.  I suspect if I found a rubber mallet, I'd be able to do it myself.  Some people recommend using a 2x4 and towels to cushion the lid.  For me, however, it's always easier to find my husband or son, so I've never tried the other methods.  

The gamma lids can be a little brittle.  While they are designed to be able to be stacked, they are not designed to hold a lot of weight, so anything that you place on top of them should be rather light.  You definitely don't want to let a heavy bucket land on the middle of the lid, like I have done twice now in the last ten years.  That's a sure recipe for an instant crack, and then your contents are no longer bug-proof or waterproof.  At least the lids weren't totally shattered and they still work for storing other items.  

Links to related posts:  

Bucket Wrenches  

Buckets 

Oxygen Absorbers   

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26 november 2021
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