Everyone involved in food storage has wondered at one time or another, “How many pounds are in a 5 gallon bucket?” How many pounds of wheat? Of oats? Of sugar? Beans?
If you haven’t asked yourself how many pounds are in a 5 gallon bucket–or a #10 can for that matter–you will.
As you start getting into food storage, you will hear things like #10 can, gallon can, and 5 gallon bucket. These are the most common containers that people store food in.
But the problem we all run into is that many food storage calculators tell to store X number of pounds wheat, beans, sugar, or any other variety of things. And each item weighs a different amount per gallon. But they don’t tell you how many 5 gallon buckets or number 10 cans that is. This can make it hard to know how much to buy.
- If you have three 5 gallon buckets, how many pounds of wheat can you fit in that bucket?
- Or maybe you get 50 pounds of sugar–how many 5 gallon buckets do you need? How many #10 cans?
- And beyond that, how many–and what size–oxygen absorbers do you need?
Aaak! Oxygen absorbers!?! As if figuring out how many pounds are in a 5 gallon bucket isn’t hard enough.
I have a solution! A quick printable.
But before I get to the printable that helps you with the How many pounds? problem, you will also need to know how to use oxygen absorbers. You can find an article that will teach you all about how to use oxygen absorbers the right way here.
Alrighty, on to the printable. Click HERE or on the image below to print a chart that will answer the “How many pounds are in a 5 gallon bucket?” question for the most common long term food storage items, as well as how many oxygen absorbers you need.
What do you want to know more about when it comes food storage? Do you find anything confusing or unclear? Let me know in the comments, and maybe I can help you out!
How much weight is in a five gallon for potatoes thanks
I have a sheet like this too, but has a lot more food types. I gathered the info from several places, including my own calculations. I’ll see if I can’t send it to you somehow since I can’t attach it to a comment and you can do some math to generalize the #10 and 6 gal bucket weights by volume. I buy the 5 gallon buckets (they also have 3 gal) from Wal Mart bakery since their buckets are square instead of round and only a dollar. I line them with a cheap trash bag and then the mylar bag with oxygen absorbers since they used to hold frosting and those are really greasy and no amount of washing got them completely feeling like the outside of the bucket.
Thanks Zeffy! My email is misty@simplefamilypreparedness.com
Thank you so much Misty for this print out. It will be so helpful. Thank you for all you do.
You are very welcome Deborah!
Thank you!
Thank you so much! Quick question: do you store your food items inside a mylar bag and THEN inside a bucket or just the bucket with oxygen absorbers? Do the calculations above reflect totally full buckets, within an inch…? Thank you!
HI Jennifer. Great questions. Always put your food in a mylar bag and then a bucket. And the calculations can’t be 100% exact b/c weight will vary slightly depending on who you buy what from, but they should be within a few inches.
I wondered the same thing as i️ read the article… Thank you for asking! And thank you Misty for another great resource!!!