Today I opened my cupboard to find a container to put the left-over chicken in, and this is what my "containers basket" looked like. Eeek..
Close-up of the mess-
I keep my "tupperware" or containers for food, in this basket which I LOVE. It has handles so I can easily bring the whole thing out to look for what I need. I also use one of these for my "baking things"-
Anyway- back to the food containers, and the disorder. Aargh!! I hate this! Especially when I'm in a hurry, it's a nightmare. And this isn't even that many containers- I am using quite a few in the fridge at the moment.
I do try to keep on top of keeping my food containers organised, but it's definitely one of those never-ending jobs that needs a little constant attention.
SO- time to organise the containers basket.
One way I do this is to sort out shapes- "like with like". So round ones together, rectangle ones together.
Then stack.
I then put all the lids together into another container (this one is missing a lid so it's not very handy otherwise).
It's pretty obvious that I have more lids than containers- but I can't bear to throw them away in case the containers turn up one day (and Murphy's Law suggests that this would happen should I throw them). The spare lids are also handy for when I'm painting or doing crafty things.
I like this system when I have a lot of containers, because I can still fit them into the basket neatly by stacking matching shapes and "like with like".
Another system I use when I don't have a lot of containers, or I have extra shelf/drawer space, is storing the containers with the lid ON. I really like this system because it cuts out searching for the matching lid! It's not very space-efficient but BOY is it handy.
Here is my basket organised this way, with the lids on the containers.
If I won the lottery and if I didn't care about cutting down on plastics for environmental reasons, I would start afresh with food containers. I would use this wonderful system I heard about from a very organised lady I know. The colour of the lid is specific to the size and shape of the container. BRILLIANT. So for e.g. all small round containers have red lids; all large square containers have blue lids, and so on. Wouldn't that be wonderful- instead of searching through all the lids for the right fit- to be able to quickly pick out the right one by colour?? Love it. But alas, I cannot afford and I doubt our environment can afford, for me to start this system by scratch. I very rarely buy any new containers these days, I just recycle the ones that food comes in or Shane brings a few used ones home from work. And of course from the odd occasion we get an Indian Take-away, I always keep those.
How do you store your food containers? Do you have way more than me and how do you keep on top of it all?
