I used to think that people who put the food in their pantries and cupboards in storage containers were borderline-OCD neat freaks. Or I figured they must be the type of people who buy their food in bulk and use the storage containers to create more easily stored portions of of their warehouse store buys. Why else would people bother? I mean, most food I buy already comes in containers that I would just have to put in the recycle bin if I transferred everything to other containers (that I would have to buy and clean). It seemed like a waste of time and money. Well, it used to seem that way. Now, I have become one of those people who puts their food in storage containers. Here are three reasons why.
1- To be able to see what I have
When I lived alone I always had a good feel for what food I had because I was the only one who bought and ate it. When I got married I still tended to have a pretty good idea of our food supply, and anything my husband ate a bunch of he would usually just go out and buy more of himself. But adding two kids and various babysitters to the mix means that I will often pull down a box of something that I assumed was unopened (because I certainly hadn’t seen anyone eating that cereal or those crackers) only to find the box is nearly empty! Using clear containers lets me easily see what we have and what is running low.
2- To better organize the cupboard
Yes, the food I bought came in its own containers, but those containers were boxes of varying sizes or worse, bags! The tetris-like engineering required to fit things on the shelves often resulted in minor avalanches when trying to retrieve things. The storage containers stack in much more structurally sound manner.
3- Thwarting ants
The ants came back. Cleaning up included tossing some infested bags of snack food. Yuck. Air-tight seals seemed like a really good idea.
What storage containers I use
This is not a sponsored post, but if you are wondering what storage containers I use they are these Rubbermaid Modular Canisters. I like them because regardless of volume they are all the same shape, which makes stacking easy and means that all the lids are interchangeable. I find the 5-cup size to be most useful for me. It perfectly holds a bag of Goldfish crackers or a box of Teddy Grahams among other things.
Do you put your food in storage containers? Do you think I’m crazy for doing so?
RELATED POST: Organizing tips for parents (and other busy people)
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Kim Z. Dale 