I remember when we bought flour etc in cloth bags and one of the problems was we couldn't close it well enough. I remember that weavels got into the flour. Also, when you set that bag down a big puff of flour or whatever got into your face. While the bags were nice to get, they weren't as helpful as the packaging that we have now. I don't know why we didn't think to put the flour or whatever in huge covered tubs but we didn't. I know that plastic bins and tubs weren't as readily available then as now.