Do bread bins really keep homemade breads fresh?

Question

I usually keep my homemade breads for a day or two in a ziplock bag. I recently felt like buying a good-looking bread box/tin to not use plastic bags that often (I keep the bags for as long as possible unless used for something like cinnamon rolls) and a bread box looks good on the breakfast table. I was reading some reviews that people complained about their bread going moldy in the box although it was a pretty fancy/expensive one. Since I wouldn't spend money on something useless which takes some space in my small kitchen, I'd like to make sure it is a good buy.

I also read this question on plastic bags keeping the bread fresh for a few days and ask myself whether I should keep using ziplock bags.

Also, there different types of them,

Answer 1

I would avoid anything that can't have a good wash. I've had wooden bread bins in the past and crumbs in crevices can go mouldy and spread the mould to bread until you give up and throw the bread bin away

These days I either use the enamelled cast iron pot I bake in (and which therefore fits my boules perfectly) or a plastic box that originally held a lot of biscuits (if I bake in a loaf tin or use the bread machine). Both can go through the dishwasher; the cast iron additionally gets sterilised at 240°C before baking. The plastic box is presumably more airtight, but both keep home made bread fine for a few days, which is as long as I need. It's important to make sure the bread is completely cool before putting it in, to avoid condensation, but not to leave it too long.

Answer 2

They stop it drying out quite so fast, not much else as far as I can tell.
There may be some small benefit from the interior being dark, but not really one I could categorically state would be helpful.

I would never re-use plastic bags for bread, though, unless you wash & dry between uses, otherwise any beginnings of mould will just proliferate & spread to whatever you next put in the bag.

It's always a balance, though - crusty bread will go tough before it goes off, things like baguette will either dry to a rock, or become really chewy, depending on if you let them breathe slightly or not.
Supermarket baguette tends to be supplied in a perforated bag. Left out, it's a truncheon, in a ziplok it's tough as boot-leather… but in the perforated bag in a bread bin, it just about survives.