I bake 4 loaves at a time and freeze them until the night before I need them. If I forget to take one out in time for lunch, I use the defrost setting in the microwave for just a few minutes, but they thaw pretty quickly on the counter.
I use bread bags from the grocery store loaves I buy, but ever since we had a mouse I won't leave the unfinished loaf out on the counter overnight, so I put it in the fridge. I've read that storing it in the fridge makes it stale faster, but it seems okay (it's almost always gone after the second day).
I'd like to find an old metal bread keeper too.