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,    
I use a slow cooker almost every time I cook dried beans, and I don't recommend cutting down on soaking.  I typically soak overnight (with a little bicarbonate of soda), and start cooking in the morning, so 10-12 hours soaking + 8-12 hours cooking, avoiding adding (much) acid/salt until towards the end. It's possible your beans soften more easily than mine,  but with a much shorter soak (say 4 hours, and 10 hours cooking, because I forgot to soak them overnight) I've found several types to be barely edible - I ended up cooking down my chilli , blending it, and eating it as bean burgers. 