I buy my sugar in bulk and it is so packed and lumpy I absolutely must sift it. I also absolutely hate standing there and shaking it through my little sifter. Has anyone found any great tricks to speed this process up or any great tools that help make this easier? Pleeeeease?!?

I've read a thread about this before, the outcome...good ol elbow grease. They said that the regular sifters (metal with one long handle type) are the best, get a bigger one to do more at a time. Sorry! I'm sure that's not what you wanted to hear

I have a 5 cup rotary softer and it is FAST. I had the one with the squeeze handle and even if it hadn't broken I would have chucked it.

Child labor. >.< I suckered my youngest in helping this past weekend. :p

Bed Bath and Beyond has a set of three metal collanders. Take the biggest one and match it to the deepest metal mixing bowl they have. The handles on the collander should fit and keep it from falling in the bowl. Get a big metal whisk. I put the whole contraption on my scales and weigh my ps. The whisking will sift it in seconds. I then pour it in another bowl. I keep this set dry and use it for flour too.

I got one of the metal sifters with the squeeze handle from walmart. Complete and total waste of money. It's complete junk. If I put more than like a 1/2 cup of powdered sugar or flour in it the rotating pieced will barely move and I end up having to bang the side of the sifter on my hand to get anything to go through. My grandmother had a really old metal one that had a hand crank thing on the side of it that turned metal loops inside. It worked great. I'm hoping it's still in her house and will be searching for it the next time I go visit my parents.

ahh i got hear hoping somebody invented something to help with this...
sifting is the only thing i absolutly hate about caking
i always made this joke with my cousin about hiering little elves or dobbys "from harry potter" to do my sifting
oohh well the wisk seems like a good idea will try it next time

The team from "Cooks Illustrated" use a large food processor to pulverize their powdered sugar. They also use the processor to shred carrots for their carrot cakes.

Professional pastry chefs use a device called a "Tamis"--it is pronounced like the woman's name Tammy. If you Google in "Tamis" you will find a few suppliers with pictures included so you know what you are getting.

They are expensive and you must have a large sheet of parchment or a very large bowl underneath to catch the sugar, but they are great tools. You will be able to process a huge amount of the powdered sugar in a much shorter time.

very few places carry them anymore, might be easier to find at a thrift store than a "buy it new" store; but i have one of the crank handled 5 cup sifters. that thing works like a charm. there are no gears to get jammed up like in the rotary sifters with the squeeze handle and a lot less banging than the regular sifters. lol. i love the thing! also, i found my mom one since with her arthritis, it's hard for her to squeeze the handle on her old one.

i LOVE my 8 cup hand crank sifter. Got it from amazon and it is used multiple times a day!
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000CFTYV/?tag=cakecentral-20
they have 4 or 5 available, i just linked to the first one that came up.