Regular sandwich bread in kept in the fridge. Sometimes we keep leftover italian bread in a bag on the counter. Bagels are on the counter or in the freezer. We find things get eaten quicker if they are seen on the counter but do go bad quicker.

I keep mine in the freezer. I have four kids and they all have different preferences i.e. one likes pane bread from Trader Joes and another likes sub rolls vs. sliced bread. If I left them on the counter, they wouldn't finish up a package b/f it started to go bad. Not to mention I'd have way too much stuff on my counters if I left all their choices out. Fridge dries bread out, so freezer is the best option for me personally.

Edited to add: I plan on having a bread drawer in my new kitchen for anything that will get eaten in a day or two, like freshly made muffins or bagels from the local bagel shop. I currently store things like that in a basket in my microwave...I have a 100lb counter surfing lab who routinely eats anything like that accidentally left out!

With just two of us, we could never eat bread before it spoils (unless it is homemade). We keep bread in the freezer, as the fridge seems to dry it out.

I hate to say it but I very rarely cook so I store mine in my oven! I do keep english muffins in the fridge for a day or two then I freeze.

All bread products always in the refrigerator. Keeps it fresh longer.

Where do you keep your bread? A drawer, counter, pantry?

All of the above.

In a drawer to reduce counter clutter.

I bake most of my bread. Slice, put in ziplock bag, freeze. The slices go directly in the toaster. Same thing with bagels; preslice and freeze. I live alone and would waste too much bread if I didn't freeze it. Bread dries out in the refrigerator.

ditto ck_squared. Just don't like what the fridge and freezer do to fresh bread.

The bread for my kids is in the pantry. My bread, because it's bakery baked and hasn't any preservatives is kept in the fridge. I only have toast and no sandwiches. I wouldn't like it if I made sandwiches out of it. I buy dinner rolls (and currently Hot Cross Buns) from the same bakery and those are kept on the counter. They get eaten quite quickly.

My dog has a bread fetish. Not to eat but loves to throw the loaf in the air to play with it. Being a large dog, prior to reno we had to keep all bread above counterheight which meant on top of fridge. Post reno, we now keep breads and snacks in a drawer. I did post here at the time about the cabinet bread covers; a designer said its one of those useless extras. Surprising, we've never had any bread mold or spoil in the drawer.

Pantry

Freezer or fridge in sealed ziploc bags. I buy bakery bread, usually in baguettes or round artisan loaves, and living alone would never finish a loaf before it went stale. If it dries out, I just put it in the microwave for a few seconds.

Gluten-free, freezer (I don't eat that much and most have no preservatives - that I buy anyway). Regular - in a drawer (along with rolls, etc.) We buy small loaves since it's just my DH and me during the fall & spring semesters, so it gets eaten fairly quickly.

Drawer storage is great! We didn't get a cover or other "bread drawer" accessory - our KD also told us it was useless and was ridiculously expensive from the cabinetmaker. (She was great about that - she told us what was/was not worth the money.)

(Bread doesn't stay fresh in the refrigerator - it goes stale very quickly - both GF & regular.)

OT: As I wrote that about the spring and fall semesters - when I started on this site my kids were 10 & 12 - now they're 18 & 20! Yikes, how time flies!!

We don't have much useful storage and a teeny tiny pantry, so our bread lives on the peninsula in a lines Longaberger-style basket, atop a wood cutting board for slicing bagels, buns, baguettes, etc. Do I wish it were elsewhere? Oh, yeah. But at least it's a moderately attractive way to keep it corralled. (We used to use a Brabantia bread box, but it took up too much real estate! At at least the basket can sit in the middle, whereas the box had to go against the wall)

Buehl, I'm in similar ages with the kids...as I think about changes I'd like to make I realize I'm not going to need a school-lunch-packing-station by the time any renovation is done! But I don't know what the NEXT stage for our kitchen will be.

buehl, time does fly doesnt it - when I joined my son was a junior or senior in college, we were still living in our big suburban house and doing the kitchen there. Since then we've sold that house, moved to the city, done another kitchen, and son has graduated from law school, married and I"m a grandmother!

We also keep ours in the refrigerator. It lasts forever that way.

I have a deep bread and snack drawer. It's really nice to keep bread, muffins, tortillas, chips, crackers, nuts, cookies, and candy in a drawer rather than on a shelf. I used my smallest drawer stack at 18" wide, which also left me a perfect top drawer for spices.

Same as may flowers, a dedicated deep drawer for all the same stuff...

We have a bread drawer (Shiloh cabs). It's a regular drawer with a clear plastic sliding cover. It was a suggestion by our KD, and it works well for us. We have 3 kids, the breads we buy are eaten quickly, so long-term freshness isn't a concern.

Pantry or counter...I also hate how the fridge dries it out in about 2.5 seconds.

I bake 6 loaves in one go, so most goes in the freezer. The loaf we're using goes in a drawer (no special insert) in my prep area in a bread keeper:

Freezer for most breads except for home-baked which gets eaten in a day or two and just sits in a gallon zip-lock, in a basket, on the counter.

Family of 6 here, I really should start baking my own bread because we go through a loaf of bread in 2-3 days. I buy 2 loaves at a time, one goes in the freezer for keeping, the other goes in my bread box on the counter.

When we have bagels or buns, my bread box is large enough to fit them as well. Tortillas sit on top of the bread box but when we finish the shelving and counters in our pantry I plan on having a dedicated space for all my different bread types.

Would never even think of refrigerating it.

Pantry

Freezer, not eaten within a day.

I have this Williams Sonoma bread box. I swear, my bread lasts longer in this bread box.

Do you wrap it first? How long does it keep? Always looking for new solutions.

Bread cabinet. Right above the toaster. Loaves of bread on the lowest shelf, then next shelf up, peanut butter, jellies, honey, etc. on a turntable.

Before the renovation we kept our bread on the counter and I hated that because that section of counter was always full of bread bags or pastry boxes. Now we keep it in a regular drawer (18" cabinet of 4 drawers, one of which is our bread drawer, I didn't know there was an actual thing as a bread drawer so I'm not sure if that would keep things any fresher than my regular drawer. I love the new solution. The drawer is big enough for all our breads -- a loaf, bagels a few buns, and even a pastry box! And they seem to keep reasonably well too . . . But they are usually store bought, not home made.

Right now -- in my huge but poorly designed kitchen -- I keep my bread in a "nook" created between the microwave and the wall. It's not bad because it's handy, yet out of sight.

In our new house, I'm planning something similar to what OldBat2Be shows above: We'll have a cabinet similar to hers next to the refrigerator ... and -- behind a closed door -- it'll hide bread and the toaster on the bottom shelf, spices on the shelf above, and dishware higher up. My husband constantly makes sandwiches, so the refrigerator and silverware will be right there handy.

Mine is in a dedicated 18" inch bread drawer that's SS with a SS sliding lid. All bread pastries & crackers are in there also.

On the lowest shelf above the toaster. Any extra in freezer. We have toast every weekday, sandwiches or other bread erratically. I don't want it on the counter, but a regular drawer would work fine for us, too.

Would love to have a dedicated drawer as so many do -- not enough drawers for that (someday...). I keep it in a Lock & Lock bread box on a roll out shelf. Bread lasts about 2x as long when kept in the bread box, until I bought one I never knew they worked like that or would have bought one a long time ago. Stumbled on it for nearly nothing at Marshall's.

On the counter. Sometimes in the freezer, but never in the fridge.

Since GW taught me I needed a bread maker and then taught me how to use it, I never buy bread. Fresh bread is so much better. I store our everyday loaf in a bread keeper similar to the one fouramblues posted. Mine is from the local Goodwill, not KAF ;-) ) It sits on the counter or in a drawer or in the pantry--where ever I have room. We don't eat a lot of bread, so a single loaf lasts us several days.

Homemade bread has no preservatives, of course, and it does not go stale in the time I keep it, but very occasionally it will mold and I grieve as I toss whatever is left--usually only a slice or two.

Occasionally I make a dark rye bread that I love. (The one Lars posted ages ago.) Because DH doesn't care for it and I eat only one or two slices a day toasted for breakfast, I either give away half the loaf or slice it and freeze the slices individually in cheap nonziploc baggies that I reuse. The baggies then go in a freezer ziploc bag that I can press most of the air out of. Not ideal, but more acceptable than tossing half the loaf when it gets moldy or sacrificing flavor in the fridge.

We keep ours in the bottom deep drawer of an 18" four-drawer cabinet. It is just a basic drawer, but holds a few loaves of bread, buns, and a jar of peanut butter.

Until I read this thread, I was not aware so many refrigerated bread, let alone freeze it?

If bread is still around after several days (which is rare, as we eat a lot of bread) and starts to get hard, I make croutons! :)

We freeze it simply because eating bread is kinda sporadic around here. We might have a time where we go through a loaf in just a few days. But most of the time, it might take us 2-3 weeks to use up the loaf. If we didn't freeze it, I would be adding it to the food for the birds on a regular basis. And we spend enough on bird food already, imho. :)

On the counter, in a basket. And we freeze bread too, all the time. Never thought about putting it in the refrigerator. If I had drawers in my lower cabs, that is where it would go, but now I'm thinking about something like oldbat2be's bread cabinet. It would be nice to have it off the counter.

I eat dinner leftovers fairly often for lunch. When I do make a sandwich, I use a single piece of rye bread cut in half. Store-bought bread hangs around quite a while here, yet the huge 4-1/2 lb loaf of country French bread I make from time to time is always gone in a couple days!

Not much bread in my diet, so it stays in the freezer and gets pulled out and toasted when I want a piece. It might take me a month to eat a loaf. I can't afford the empty calories. If I'm doing a breakfast meeting out, it might be a bagel, but a normal breakfast is just coffee and yogurt.

For lunch, it's usually a cheap frozen meal, or carrots and hummus, or yogurt and a salad. If I'm eating out for lunch, it's usually a salad with a client. Or for a treat, something Middle Eastern or Greek for which I will pay for over a couple of days in the gym. No bread at dinner, ever, unless it's garlic naan from the Indian restaurant. That has to be paid for too dearly as well.

I eat soup and/or salads for lunch or yogurt and occasionally dinner leftovers. Very rarely do I eat sandwiches. Never have bread with dinner, but almost always have toast for breakfast,. Just had a toasted bagel taken directly from the freezer (presliced) into the toaster.

I eat a locally baked GF bread that I store in the freezer and toast as needed.

My family bread is in a regular drawer, and I have extras in the freezer. With husband and 3 school age kids, we go through a lot of bread.

Never had any issues with mold, or flavor of bread from freezer. Hate the bags on the counter.

I like the bread boxes as a solution if there's no drawer space.

Very interesting responses!

Mags438 I was totally laughing about your dog, that is a new one to me, a bread loving dog haha.

Cindy Noll, does the SS drawer help your breads stay fresher?

These comments have given me some good ideas. I find we will have tortillas, hoagie rolls, sandwich bread, take and bake breads, etc. and it looks so cluttered on the counter.

Texas Gem my daughter has stopped eating sandwiches which creates the problem of what to give her for lunch. Hummus and pita, cheese and crackers, lunchmeat rolls, leftovers (if at home) or school hot lunch! I probably could give her mac and cheese, chili or spaghetti in a thermos, but most of my stuff is packed up still from out move (awaiting renovation). Sometimes she'll still take a peanut butter and honey sandwich. :)

I live alone and don't eat bread with meals except at restaurants. I'll have a couple of warmed thin baguette slices with cheese as a late afternoon snack. Home lunches are usually something like chicken or fish with vegetables and rice, or pasta with a small salad. Breakfast is turkey slices rolled in lettuce, a bit of trail mix with dried fruit and nuts, and half a fruit pastry.

When the kids were growing up, we went through more bread for their lunches and such. We're empty-nesters now and we really don't need the empty calories. Lunch is sometimes soup, or soup and salad, or yogurt and fruit. I can't eat first thing in the morning. The idea of food before about 10-11am nauseates me. So I quite often do an omelet late morning and that is my combined breakfast and lunch. The benefit of working from home means I don't have to eat on someone else's schedule.

I didn’t even know you can freeze bread! Lol. Does it taste any different? I personally don’t eat bread but now buying bagels, pastries more for the fam. That little corner is growing so fast and I like simple not cluttered counters. Thanks for asking this question!!! Now to find a cupboard!!