We've lived in a variety of small towns with less than ideal grocery shopping availability, so a long time back we invested in a vacuum sealer and made trips out of town to stock up. For rice we buy the bigger bags as well, and then divide it up into three or four meals worth and vacuum seal these amounts into individual packets. When we open one of the packages it goes into a rubbermaid container that gets stored in the pantry.
We tried a big bucket for awhile, but found that our current location just gets too humid at times and we'd end up wasting some of the rice, even with a sealed lid. The vacuum sealer also works beautifully for meats, which has extended the freezer life of a lot of our farm bought meat. Very seldom that we see freezer burn anymore.
Don't try it with bread, unless you like really flat bread.... (it seemed like a good idea at the time....LOL)
Downside is that we have to keep buying the plastic rolls that go with the sealer. We're trying to figure out an alternative.