Mylar Bags, ideal size?

[hagbard]

Was thinking of going with the standard 5gal bucket sized bags, but I'm now thinking for items that don't store that well, might be better off with 11x13" bags. That way, don't have to worry about using everything up before it goes bad...and an extra bonus, can buy 250 of them for $94 from the LDS. Might just toss them into large garbage cans and save on the buckets as well.

Any thoughts?

[Lowdown3]

Your whole grains, legumes, etc. are not going to just go 'POOOF' after you open a mylar. That's the main rationalization for the "smaller packages" concept. The only losses we have had from open mylar occured on "forgotten" buckets that were left for years (opened mylar) and the lids weren't on tight.

The downside to the many smaller packages is the increased packing times, increased costs and more waste later.

For putting up 100 lbs. of grain it wouldn't be that big of a deal, large quantities it would be.

Just some thoughts.

[Bearman202]

I like the smaller bags because there's only one of me. Strolling through the web, I found a site where a guy was mixing up entire meals and putting them into the smaller bags. They're called 365 meals, or backpacker meals. Basically, you mix up some pasta with beans or whatever and seal them up. When you get where you're going, or get hungry enough, you pop open the bag, add water, and eat. Something to think about?

[Matt In Oklahoma]

The smaller bags have merit. The advantage to buckets is the same advantages to smaller bags in that you wont lose everything if you lose one bucket and they are portable if you have to move, lid seal buckets are very useful in secondary site storage (ammo, clothes etc) because who knows what you may encouter with critters post SHTF (think mice bugs etc) and the buckets themselves can be used to make water filters, toliets, furniture, caches, waste disposal etc etc.

I found out this week that horses can open plastic trash cans that have feed stored in them. The neighbors horses managed to eat most of my landlords horses food before I knew they were there. 3 days later they broke out and arrived for another free meal. The landlord went and bought a locking lid type this time. I've also seen racoons defeat many a trash can too.

The lids make good range markers wherever you are going to hole up and defend too. An example would be to take white (easiest to see) and put them at say 300yd range away from your structure and then maybe yellow lids at 200yd then orange at 100yd and so on. You can tack them to a large tree facing you and they wouldn't be visible to someone approaching until they were right on top of them and even then they might not understand what they are or meant.

anyway thats my 1/2 cent