How To Organizing Plastic Food Storage Lids
First off I’m going to start out by telling you I hate, I mean despise plastic food storage container and there lids. Okay now that I’ve go that off my chest I can share with you my mess. This first photos is the after I’ve organized it photo and the next one down is the before shot.
I am not a fan of plastic, to me food tastes funny that’s been sorted in it and don’t even get me started with microwaving in it. So if I had my choice we would only have glass container in the house. There is a downfall that comes with glass also; the lids are plastic but I don’t find food takes on a strange flavor.
Hubby is the plastic lover in our home and he chooses to eat from plastic before anything else. I’ve tried to throw it all away but he complains and starts eating from plastic ice cream containers if I don’t keep plastic around so I’ve given up and we have an entire drawer dedicated to the stuff.
I’ve used the tension rod method for several years to keep the lids standing to one side of the drawer. It works great, and the rod only needs to be adjusted once in a while. For some reason I got the hair brained idea to try something new, and by new I mean organize the plastic into more plastic, LOL. I’m cracking up here reading just how stupid this really is. Any who this drawer wasn’t totally out of control but it did need a weeding out of lids that have no bottoms, and vise versa.
I set out to do that task, got rid of anything we didn’t need and put it in the recycle pile. What I ended up with wasn’t much, just enough for the two of us with our weekly leftover storage. It seems like I have a lot of lids compared to bottoms but my entire lid storage is in the drawer and the glass bottoms are in another area.
I had the two plastic bins in the basement that I positioned a few ways in the drawer before I settled on what would work our best. I arranged the lids according to height with the large in the back and the smaller to the front of the bin.
Things stay pretty organized, other than the pantry, in my kitchen because I’m the only one who cooks, runs the dishwasher, and takes care of the dishes. I have no one to blame for messing it up but myself.
I’ve used the tension rods for the last three years with great success but I’m going to give the storage bins a try for a while and see what method works best for me. If nothing else I got a drawer cleaned and organized again and it only took about 15 minutes of my time.
By the way it you ever have the chance I recommend getting drawers as the base cabinets in your kitchen instead of doors. It’s unbelievable how much they hold. I only have two doors and they both have roll out shelves where I store my crock-pots. If given the opportunity I will always pick drawers from now on. Best invention ever!
Dawn, I have a drawer full of plastic too. Most of it is reused containers. I have a single son who comes over for dinner or takes leftovers home with him. If I send something home with him in a good container, it never returns! 🤭 I do need to sort and clean out this drawer. Thanks for the reminder!
Linda, That’s a great way to get rid of that old plastic stuff, lol. I know what you mean about not getting things back, better hide the good stuff.