Food Grade Buckets.....

[Laura]

I have a grocery bakery that is generously holding their icing buckets for me to pick up once a week.
I picked up 2, five gallon buckets and 1 two gallon bucket, all with lids.

How do I clean them? How long do I let them sit and dry before I put my wheat berries in them?
Can I store oats in them?

Thanks so much for your help!
Laura

[sissy]

I get mine from food lion. Sometimes I let mine set outside for a few days. Sometimes I bring in and wash right away. I scrap icing out. & wash with hot water & dawn. If smell remains you could use some baking soda. I let dry, I will test with a paper towel to make sure no wet spots remain. I store flour in mine. ( make sure there is a opened space when sitting upside down to drain) If it sits flat it takes longer to dry.
Sissy

[firegirl969]

My dog usually eats the icing out of one. The rest I turn upside down on ant beds. The ants will clean them for you in a couple of days. Sometimes the sweet even kills the ants in the antbed, so double blessings! Then I bring them in and wash them with dawn and turn them upside down on a spread-out bath towel.

[MIKENSUE]

i work at a grocery store that has a deli, so I'm known as the "garbage Grubber" there. I bring home the 1 gallon cans to put around garden plants and trees, the 1 gal mayonaisse jug , I clean and use to store herbs and dry goods, 16 ounce Cool whip containers to freeze soups and stews in, and half gallon salad containers with lids. When they chop celery, they used to throw the leaves and top stems away. I bring them home and dehydrate them for my soups and stuffing. They also cook up beef and chicken for meat salad and throw the broth down the sink. About once a month I have them save some for me and freeze it for soup stock. Instead of boiling my chicken in water I use the frozen stock and get twice the flavor. Course it helps that I work in the deli 3 mornings a week. I even scored a couple of glass gallon jars this month! Talk about benefits!

Sue

[NCLee]

Laura, I haven't been fortunate enough to score any icing buckets. If I did manage to get my hands on some, this is what I'd do.

Rinse with the water hose, letting soak if need be, to remove the excess icing. Then I wash with hot water and Dawn to remove any grease/oil residue. Rinse well. Fill with water and add unsented chlorine bleach to sanitize. Set set for about 10 minutes. Empty and let air dry.

If there's any residual odor, set out in the sun and continue to air out, until the odor is gone. For really strong odor, activated charcoal (from an aquarium shop) can help remove it. Put paper towels in the bottom of the bucket, put charcoal on the towel, add lid, and let it sit for a few days. You can try the same thing with a box of baking soda, but IMHO, the activated charcoal is better.

Hope this helps. Congrats on getting those buckets.
Lee

[Dawgus]

I've tried every grocery and bakery around, and all said they weren't allowed to give buckets away. After hearing the same answer over and over, I asked a grocery manager why. Turns out that they're afraid of lawsuits, yanno, that little warning label on the side they have now with the baby fallin in a bucket. They don't want the liability of someone saying XXXX store gave me that bucket. How rediculous. I *had* a deli out by my folks saving me pickle buckets, then an employee found out people would pay for them, so she takes them all home. Cooincidently she lives at the end of my folks street, and a few days ago I saw stacks of them sitting in her garage, every bit of 100 of them, just sitting there. Apparantly she's waiting for someone to call about that $200 bucket purchase, lol. We just decided to go ahead and order new ones when we need them from Emergency Essentials. They are around $7 each, but I dont have to think about gas to go get freebies and taking time to scrub out pickle juice...works just fine for me.

[risita]

Some fast food restaurants have pickle buckets. We got a couple. They smell like pickles. If you could find a way to get the smell out, that might be a good source for food grade buckets.

[Anon001]

Risita,

I'm not sure right off hand where the thread is, but not long ago, there was discussion of how to get the pickle odor out of buckets. I think the consensus was to leave them out in the sun, opened, for 2 or 3 days and the odor would dissipate.