Five gallon bucket vs. 55 gallon drum

5 gallon buckets, with a rubber seal in the lid, do seal completely air and water tight. Back in the early 80's I did a lot of white water canoeing. I went to McD's and Hardee's and got "pickle" buckets to use as storage containers for everything we used on these trips; cloths, sleeping bag, 35mm camera, tent and food. More than once the creek won the battle of staying above the water line. Even being immersed in water( until we could drag the canoe to shore and bail it out) we never had anything get wet if it was packed in 5 gallon buckets.

 

I'm with UncleJoe. My da used five gallon buckets in his biz to keep his tools in. Rainy days, no problem.

His tools are still stored in them, acutally.

Well, those and Rubbermaid bins!

 

Just picked up a couple of 15 gal blue barrels with lids, snap ring and bung openings. Great in-between size for grain or whatever. They were used for juice concentrate and are very clean, no smell.
I use Gamma lids for sealing the 5gal buckets for long term storage. By the way if anyone interested I have the companies name and phone # for free replacement rubber lid gaskets for the Gamma lids.