I keep my old PREEN containers. I love the hinged lids and large hole to scoop out what I need. When you live where planting is a very seasonal thing it's very different no doubt, but I throw all last year's soil in a wheelbarrow, add osmocote and water retaining granules, then finally some new soil. I only buy one large bad NEW each season. The leftovers easily fill one maybe two preen containers.

I buy my potting soil by the literal bale -- I need far too much to store it in any container! It stays in its "bag" and I simply cut around the top and then loosen the compaction with a tool & then scoop. Any not used for the season gets stored as is with the excess plastic folded over, in the original bale, tucked in a corner.

If I did buy small bags of potting soil, I think I would line them up inside a large plastic storage container, like books on a shelf.

DH made me a wonderful potting bench with shelf underneath, so I wanted something to hold soil that also looked nice on the shelf.

I got this three gallon ash bucket from Plow & Hearth (and a scoop off Azon), and it works great —

I like the size of the bucket and having a handle, and it doesn’t get too hot in the scorching Texas summers. I still store bags for bigger jobs, but this one is easy to carry around for most projects. For bird seed, I was going to get another one, but raccoons would be able to open it too easily. I got a mini galvanized trash can instead, and painted it brown … it would work nicely for soil, too.

I tend to buy smaller bags of some types (such as for seed starting, succulents and cacti), so i keep those in the original bag in a rubbermaid tote and use a scoop as needed.

I keep a small shallow plastic tote for potting up plants. Any mess is confined to the area within the tote and i can easily dump the extra soil, if any, back in the original bag. It also allows me to mix up batches of any special concoctions or additions to the soil before planting. Very helpful and less mess to deal with.

I also re-use those Preen containers if i have excess mix I need to store.

I mix my own - two kinds - and store the mixed ingredients in large lidded plastic totes (18-20G). Bags of components get left in their bags until used and the whole works are kept in a storage shed with all my other gardening accoutrements..

I also store fertilizers and pesticides in plastic totes. No garage and no basement so the shed is essential.

2 galvanised dustbins in the greenhouse. Each one holds around 120 litres of potting soil - currently a couple of John Innes loam mixes (1 and 3). I buy a pallet of soil at a time (40 x 25litres) which I keep at the allotment in bags...but keep half a dozen or so at home. I used to buy a tonne of topsoil and mix my own potting mix with added perlite, horticultural grit, composted bark and peat (plus base fertiilser) but it is much harder to buy the ingredients (especially peat although I have been looking at composted wool) so the J.I recipe (I mostly use Clover brand) is a good loam based substitute.

I use galvanized garbage cans, too.

I'm a bale buyer too. I can no longer even lift the bags of potting soil from Costco and my tomato planter with the deer screening (OK, it is probably meant for insects and the heavier for cold nights but it does work for deer who will eat both tomato foliage and fruit with gusto) takes 4 50# Costco bags. DH has grit, my potting soil, organic lawn food, Gardner and Bloome soil building compost bales (I have much clay here!) in both the garage and the garden shed. He uses the locking zip ties on the bags making them really hard for me to open which he doesn't understand since he carries a pocket knife. Most of my gardening pants don't even have pockets.

I try to stay mostly organic and use few if any chemicals, but I'm not quite as choosy (or as successful) as I once was. I have tons of deer. A mature rooty landscape with heavy clay soil. Many weeks I can be in the throes of defeat when just a few blocks away things thrived for me. I was attributing it to talent, I think it was better soil 😊 but I do keep trying.....

Back to the question, for scooping, filling pots, I did finally buy a very nice stainless scoop that I think was probably meant to be a barn scoop for grain. The rusty can implement just wasn't pleasing me any longer.

New stuff is kept in the bags in the barn.

I re-use as much as I can each year. I have a few giant nursery containers that large trees/shrubs were purchased in, and at the end of the season I empty the season's used mix into those for use the following year. I keep those huge containers on the back deck out of sight because they're too heavy to haul back to the barn, and the mix gets used up first the following spring when it's time to pot up annual displays.

I have a ’deck box’ where potting soils are stored. Most are kept in the bag with a scoop. Other such items are in a cabinet in the garage.

We used to buy kitty litter in plastic bins with a hinged lid. I kept several to store potting soil, ice melt, sand, etc. Well-labeled of course!

Nothing special here. I have a defunct wheelbarrow with a flat tire that I toss my asst bags into. It's under my leantoo for cover against the elements.

I'm not all that fancy either, mine gets stored in 5 gallon buckets with lids. I bought a bunch of them at Firehouse Subs for $2 each, and because they are food grade I kept one for fermenting sauerkraut, the rest went into my pole barn. I got a bunch, so they hold everything from potting soil to fish food for the pond. They aren't so heavy I can't carry them out to my raised beds or up to the fruit trees with fertilizer and they are easier to haul than a tote or a can. My main garden just gets composted cow manure from the big pile in the barnyard but I have a lot of "things" I need to haul from one place to another and that size is manageable for me.

Seed starting mix I mostly buy in smaller bags because that gets done inside in my entryway/makeshift greenhouse and there isn't enough room for large containers.

Annie

We try to buy only what we need. Sorry I’ve got nothing better to offer.