Pack rice and beans for 20+ years

At the bare minimum, one bucket of rice and one of beans is a great start. You don't need a wall of them.

White rice, dry beans, oats and wheat can last 20 to 30 years if you keep out oxygen, moisture, light and bugs. Mylar bags with oxygen absorbers, sealed inside a food-grade bucket, do all four.

This is how you turn a cheap 20 kg sack into food you can forget about for a decade.

YOU'LL NEED

5-gallon (19 L) food-grade buckets with lids
Mylar bags (1 or 5 gallon, 4 or 19 L)
Oxygen absorbers (300–2000 cc)
A clothes iron or impulse sealer
A marker

Instructions

Use only dry foods. Below 10% moisture: white rice, dry beans, rolled oats, wheat berries, sugar, salt. Brown rice and flour don't keep long because of their oils.
Line the bucket. Put an open mylar bag inside the bucket and fill it with food, shaking it down as you go. Leave 10 cm at the top.
Add oxygen absorbers last. Open the absorber pack only when you're ready. Use about 2000 cc for a 5-gallon (19 L) bag of rice. Reseal leftover absorbers in a jar right away.
Seal the bag. Press out as much air as you can and seal across the top with a hot iron on a board, about 2 cm wide. Within a day, the bag should pull tight like a brick.
Lid and label. Hammer the bucket lid on. Write what's inside, the weight and the date on the lid and on the side.
Store cool and off the floor. Keep it below 21°C if you can, on wood or a shelf, not on bare concrete.