storing tupperware.

[tommy]

i've been trying to come up with a reasonable method of storing my various plastic containers for some time now. i've tried putting the little ones in the bigger ones. putting lids under the things. putting lids on the side. no matter what, the area turns into a disaster the first time i go to grab one. couple my lack of organizational skills with the fact that i (until today) stored them on the top shelf of a cabinet, and you can easily see why i generally have plastics lids raining down on my head every time i go to grab one. this, as you might imagine, sucks.

i've just thrown them all in a big drawer (waist height). still, it doesn't seem like a terribly efficient use of space, and it sure ain't neat.

thoughts?

any ideas?

[Vanessa]

Oh yes, I had something like 20 years of lids raining on my head . Until last year when I got the brilliant idea of keeping the lids completely separate in a plastic ziplock bag. It's never difficult to match them up. I do the same with lids to glass jars as well - but separate from the plastic lids.

v

[Andrew Fenton]

I try to always buy the same size of plastic containers. Makes it a lot easier to stack them. Also, quart yogurt/takeout containers stack really, really well.

Storing the lids in a ziplock bag is brilliant, Vanessa! Gonna steal that one.

[NeroW]

Until last year when I got the brilliant idea of keeping the lids completely separate in a plastic ziplock bag.

I also do this with glass jars. I've wanted to do it with my Tupperware, and then mark each container and its corresponding lid with some kind of matching symbol (which would also guard against theft: while rifling through friends' Tupperware drawer, recognizing your long-lost flat blue-lidded thingie, and saying: "hey, that's mine!" and having her say "no, that's mine"). Unfortunately I have done nothing, and it rains Tupperware whenever I open that particular cupboard. Oh well. Maybe if I spent less time on eGullet . . .

[Marlene]

Tupperware does sell something that you can hang on a cupboard door to store your lids in. Also, you could get something similar to a pot lid rack and hang that on a cupboard door to keep everything in.

(rats, I couldn't get the Tupperware link to work). go to www.tupperware.com and look under storage. It's called, The Place for seals

+++

It's here...

Tupperware - The Place For Seals

Edited February 17, 2003 by Matt Seeber (log)

[CooksQuest]

Tommy,

I feel your pain... What a pain in the neck.

Drifting slightly from the thread, but still a "tupperware" pain: today, I had a Ziplock storage container (the square one) "explode" on me when I took it out of the freezer. It had some great red beans with Palacios chorizo. I tried to squeeze it out, and the whole bottom shattered.

Maybe the actual tupperware is more sturdy. Oh well...

[snowangel]

It had some great red beans with Palacios chorizo.  I tried to squeeze it out, and the whole bottom shattered.

Remove from freezer. While lid is still on, run warm/hot water over bottom of container until contents come free. Turn container right side up, remove lid. Turn container over, plot contents out.

[Anna N]

I have had a number of "Gladware" containers shatter when taken from the freezer - the slightest bump can do it. I no longer freeze anything in them but use them for storage of dry goods or for stuff in the 'fridge.

[Mottmott]

For pantry storage, I prefer glass jars; for the freezer, ziplock bags. In the fridge, sometimes glass jars, sometimes ziplocks, sometimes in a covered bowl. No tupper.

[Blue Heron]

I store my tupperwear lids in an open cardboard box (like a white shoe box) in one of my large lower cupboards. At least they are all together there and I can easily see them and grab one. And I store my tupperwear bowls in a separate cupboard up higher, stacked with the smaller ones in the bigger ones. Large & Mediums go together, then the smalls have their own stack. However, I have not perfected my gladware & other misc. plastic storage yet. That cupboard is a mess. I can have it all organized, and it seems the first time I go to take one of those stacked gladware containers out, the whole cupboard becomes in disarray. I should get another small box for the lids or use that great ziplock idea.

[Anna N]

I store my tupperwear lids in an open cardboard box (like a white shoe box) in one of my large lower cupboards.  At least they are all together there and I can easily see them and grab one.

Funny, but that's what I do with my Gladware - open cardboard box, bigger than a shoe box, with lids just shoved down the sides. It works for a while but then someone (usually me!) just drops a Gladware dish in there without properly stacking according to size and the whole system collapses into chaos!

I own very little tupperware and am gradually moving to Pyrex and other glass storage systems as I find they don't stain and they have so many other uses. Some are even nice enough to use as serving dishes.

[elyse]

I call all of my plastic containers including yogurt and soup containers (think band-aids). I put all of the lids in the top bread loaf pan as nothing else will fit in them. I use as little plastic as I can, so ziplocks are out in my house.

[Kim WB]

Yes, like others, I feel the pain.

I've devoted a lower cabinet, with two doors. To the left, I have a basket for the small lids, and a pot rack thingy for the med and large lids. In the middle, I have a long basket with pot holders and dishclothes. Part storage, part seperator. To the right are the containers.

I don't use tupperware to freeze much anymore. I prefer the saran/ziploc method, or the disposable containers ( I am a freezer to fridge kinda gal..never had an explosion)... But regarding tupperware and my habits, ther e are a few things I have always froze in tupperware and continue to do so and they have seperate lids and containers. I have four quart containers labeled "sauce", "sauce w/meat", chix stock, and "lentil soup". These are always filled, or empty on the way to be filled...I always have these things on hand. The lids and containers are clearly marked on t he sides and tops...BUT the tupperware is so stained, it would hardly matter. The orange one is sauce, the bright orange one is sauce with meat, the chicx is brown, the lentil is dark brown.

Use ziplocks, use the throw aways, and pare down t he tupperware..but if you have a lot of lid/container matches, put them in a box in the garage. Keep until baby Tommy appears. Because you need many cheerio boxes for home an d travel. Cheerios are indeed a wonderful invention. I digress.

[Dana]

Every now and then, it pays to go through and toss the most undesireable pieces in the trash. If you've too many yogurt and cottage cheese containers, that is more than 5, you really should ask yourself, "how many do I really need?". Same with the old tupperware. If it's stained with tomato and the lid no longer fits well, if at all, then throw it AWAY. When my stash begins to overflow the cabinet it's in, then I know it's time to reduce the stock.

[oraklet]

"Same with the old tupperware. If it's stained with tomato and the lid no longer fits well, if at all, then throw it AWAY. When my stash begins to overflow the cabinet it's in, then I know it's time to reduce the stock. "

right, and there'll always be 2 lids with no matching container, and 3 containers without lids.

[Anna N]

...Same with the old tupperware. If it's stained with tomato ......

or, and I've tried this and know it works - stick the tomato-stained tupperware out in the sunlight for a few hours - you'll be amazed! I know I was.

[CompassRose]

When I (some day!) finally get the cash and time to start renovating the kitchen (we assure each other it will be any day now) I'm planning a deep drawer for plastic containers, with a wide slot down one side for lids.

These things are such a nightmare! Right now they're in one of the side cupboards of the sideboard, and the cats happen to get fed under the sideboard. Open the door too rashly, and at least two or three of the little plastic pests leap down into a food dish or into the water bowl... then one has to wash it. Blah.

[Marlene]

When I (some day!) finally get the cash and time to start renovating the kitchen (we assure each other it will be any day now) I'm planning a deep drawer for plastic containers, with a wide slot down one side for lids.

These things are such a nightmare! Right now they're in one of the side cupboards of the sideboard, and the cats happen to get fed under the sideboard. Open the door too rashly, and at least two or three of the little plastic pests leap down into a food dish or into the water bowl... then one has to wash it. Blah.

Our kitchen reno is underway, and we are having a lazy suzan cupboard installed in one of the corners. Plastic containers and will go on the top, and on the bottom are slots to fit in the lids etc. I also like the pyrex containers because they stack nicely with the lids inside.