Storing blinking storage containers........ Any ideas?

One of my kitchen base cupboards has roll-out drawers. In the bottom one I have baking trays and tins, in the top one all my plastic storage containers. It helps that most of them are Lakeland's cheapest so they nest inside each other. They are stacked in piles of the same size, and all the lids are on their sides in a container beside them as in a filing drawer. At the back are all those awkward sizes that get in the way. When I need a container I roll out the drawer and choose the right one and its lid. If it is one of the back ones I can get it without disturbing the rest.

The other problem is labelling them for the freezer. I write directly on them with a chinagraph pencil, which stays on when frozen and thawed out. To get it off takes a wipe with white spirit, so many of them have the previous contents crossed out and the new ones written in as well, until there are enough to warrant getting out the white spirit and the kitchen towels.

I chucked some of them out/gave some of them away. I realised that my storage containers were becoming a problem in themselves.

it's ironic isn't it?!

I have been keeping them in a small cuboard, no drawer deep enough sadly.

Don't have that many so they get bunged in the most awkward-to-reach cupboard in the kitchen. Do have several Chinese takeaway pots though but they stack nicely. If you have loads could you say number the tops and bottoms, bung 'em in a carrier bag and hang them somewhere.
Are you bored this afternoon?

My ingenious idea of 'how to hide ugly, mis-matched plastic containers' couldn't be more complicated simple. I chuck them all in a basket type thingy that sits on top of a kitchen cupboard. It's far too high for anyone to reach so when I need one I use a long handled serving spoon to hook the basket over the edge then hopefully catch it before it lands on my head scattering plastic containers all over the kitchen.

It's then very easy to find the one I want to use because it always ends up in the dog's bed.

That's a good idea Alima! No, not bored just on a Kondoing spurge the urge will wear off pretty soon because I've been up since 5am.

I couldn't find a decent container and lid for scones so yanked the whole lot out, binned quite a few and then thought I'd ask GNs!

x post but same to loopylou!

Brilliant merlot! I do that with my baking tins and am getting pretty good at catching it! Your poor dog though......

No room on top of cupboards, they're almost up to the ceiling.

I know, once you have numbered the tops and bottoms you could note down what is in number one, cross that out in your handy notebook once it has been eaten, (not the notebook) then the next time you use container number one you just write down the new contents and so on. Oh dear, I need a lie down, I can see my past life as a civil servant flashing in front of me.

I have a swing out corner cupboard and stack pots as far as is possible. The larges container, which I hardly use, contains all the lids.

I would counsel against throwing away lids that appear not to have a corresponding bottom. I did it once and discovered that the box that I store my 'in stock' herbs in now has no lid, the same applies to the one that I keep small boxes of bribery smarties for the DGC - I could go on but you get the drift.

I use Lakeland Freezer labels. There are loads on a roll and they stick really well but also soak off easily!

If my old English teacher is reading this, I apologise for starting every paragraph with I !

Yes, it's all about YOU isn't it kitty?

I like merlot's idea for storing them , we don't have a handy dogbed though! why do we all end up with so many mis-matched boxes and lids, it's a mystery.

In an ungracious pile on the floor of the pantry! I also have mismatched tops and bottoms! Where do they go? What are the Borrowers using them for?

x

I have always stored mine in a certain way, so they all fall out when I open the cupboard door. Have long given up trying to keep control of my storage containers.

That's the same as me chloe, hence my valiant attempts to get them sorted out...... Dog's long since departed so can't use her bed sadly!

Mine are on the bottom shelf in a cupboard in the kitchen, because I do so much freezing. The whole half-cupboard was a dreadful mess of mismatched tops and bottoms until a month ago, when I hauled them all out and sorted them.

I was just about to recyle all the oddities, having found that most that I wanted to keep would fit into two neat piles, when unfortunately DBH came past, saw them in the recycling basket and said 'You can't throw those out! Some of those are my favourite raspberry and fruit-collecting containers!' Dammit, caught red-handed, he is such a hoarder.

They have gone down to the shed in the veg garden now, but of course he brought them back up to the house every time he picked fruit. As he is away, today I seized the opportunity to get rid of half of them. From now on, no 'useful' little container will be allowed anywhere near my nice neat tidy cupboard.

I read on an organising web site that you should store the lids in zip topped wallets, one for rectangular, one for round. Ha! I've tried but they still end up in a donkey's breakfast of plastic

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Mine stored in a wire drawer and a close-up of the lids in their ice-cream container.

Wow that is impressive Elegran! I hope to achieve that when I am a grown up Trouble is at 66, I still have a long list of such ambitions!

The thing is, Elegran, your lids are all one size - mine are all different sizes and shapes!

If the lids are flat they will still stand on their sides in an box and at least they will be all together, round or square, and not loose. If you look at the back of that drawer you see all the silly shapes that come in the typical set of containers and don't stack at all.

They used all to be higgledy piggledy on a shelf ready to fall out but I got fed up. I did some weeding of ones that were never used and just got in the way, and invested in some basic square ones of the same base but various heights from Lakeland. Square ones are better in the freezer too as they fit beside each other.

There are still some larger ones on the shelf for bigger quantities.

That's truly impressive Elegran!
Perhaps the answer is to start from scratch and use a bit of common sense instead of buying ad hoc, not that I've bought any for ages.
I'm ashamed at how many I actually have so perhaps one answer is to radically prune them

We threw out all our odd boxes and bought a set of 20 with just three sizes. These all stack inside peach other in the cupboard and for the first time in years it is tidy and we can get a box easily when we want one