As far as organization goes, I go low-tech. I have a heavy duty letter/legal size cardboard storage box and as I begin buying candy for a season of gingerbread decorating I drop everything in the box. I have about two dozen little plastic bowls that I got from IKEA and on decorating days I take out only enough candy to fill each bowl, refilling as needed. The opened candy goes into ziploc bags and back into the box. Meanwhile on our work table we have out only the candy that we will use for that session. At the end of each session I dump the unused candy back into the appropriate ziplocs and close the box until the next decorating session. Or, if we will be coming back to decorate again shortly, I will just set my IKEA bowls on a shelf and cover them with a dish towel so that they aren't bothered by flies or become dusty.
If you don't like the ziploc & bowl approach for session-to-session storage, perhaps you could buy a fishing tackle box? Or go to the hardware store and look for the little plastic boxes used for storing screws and other small items?
As far as long-term storage goes, I do not save most decorating items from year to year.
Obviously, any opened package of a flour-based product (pretzel sticks, crackers, cookies, etc.) can't be stored longer than a week or two, so the leftovers get eaten by my kids within a couple of weeks following our decorating sessions.
Gel based candies (jelly beans, gum drops, jelly orange slices, etc.) do not keep well for long periods. I don't know if it is the humidity that gets to them, but if the package has been opened, they become sticky and unusable, even if you have re-packaged them into ziplocs. Eventually, this even happens to the candy in unopened packages.
Hard candies, such as peppermints and butterscotch last longer if they are individually wrapped. But even these candies eventually become sticky.
The only candy that seems to keep well for long periods are name brand candies such as M&Ms, Skittles, Starburst, etc. Also any candies that have a hard candy coating (like gumballs) keep well. These candies are specifically designed for long shelf life and as long as you haven't opened the packages, they keep wonderfully. These are the only candies that I would keep as long as a year. (If you have ever purchased a gingerbread kit, you probably noticed that they almost exclusively use gumballs, Red Hots and other "shellacked" candies because they store so well.)
Making gingerbread houses can be as expensive or inexpensive as you want it to be. I've learned to be judicious about my candy purchases. We don't eat our houses, so I don't mind buying inexpensive candy in bulk at a party store or from an online candy retailer. However, I only buy as much candy as I anticipate using in one season, with no aspirations about storing candy year over year.
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