Food Storage Organization 101
Everyone’s familiar with the trials and tribulations associated with food storage. From misplacing lids, to losing plastic containers to marinara sauce or soap scum build-up, to never being able to find the right container when you need it, finding good food storage and keeping it organized can feel like a never-ending cycle.
As we head into the holidays, food storage is about to become an even more integral part of our kitchen routine. Cooking vast meals for large groups likely means lots of leftovers. So, what better time to go through your food storage collection, purge, revamp, and get it organized once and for all? Finding an organized system that works for you and your family, that you can maintain and use throughout the holidays and beyond, will help to streamline your kitchen routine. There is more than one way to approach food storage organization, and what’s most important is that it makes sense to you and serves your needs.
There are a few preliminary steps to get started in any space. For food storage specifically, begin by pulling every food storage-related item out of your cabinets and drawers. Once you have them all gathered, match lids with bottoms. If you can’t find matches, you might consider recycling the containers. Once you’ve grouped all your containers, you’ll want to categorize. Keep like-items together. In this case, this will be your similarly shaped and sized food storage containers. Once you have all of your food storage collection out and categorized, you can create your systems! Here are a few ways we typically organize food storage in clients’ homes:
Option 1 Match Lids to Containers
Store your food storage with lids and containers attached to ensure that nothing gets lost or misplaced. This method makes locating food storage sets easier than ever! Couple this with bamboo drawer dividers to separate the shapes and sizes of your food storage containers, and keeping it all maintained is a cinch!
Option 2 Nest Containers and Stack Lids
If you have multiple in the same sizes or shapes, you can opt to nest containers and stack lids separately, which can help maximize the space that you have if you have a larger collection of food storage containers. A great place to keep food storage in this fashion is a pullout shelf or deep pullout drawer!
Option 3 Use Clear Bins in Cabinets
Another way that we love to store and organize food storage containers is with clear bins. Clear bins create containment to help keep lids in one designated space, so you never lose track of them! If you do this, try placing the matching bottoms alongside the lid-filled bins. This gives lids and bases separate but contained homes.
As you sort through your food storage, you may notice that it’s time to replace or revamp your collection. If you’re looking to start fresh, we’ve seen just about every type of food storage under the sun, and we have a few favorites (tip: we almost always recommend glass because they are easiest to clean and sustainable):
Of course, the key to keeping your food storage organized is containment. You can create designated zones for your food storage containers, but the easiest way to ensure you and everyone in your household can keep them in order is with containment. Here are a few solutions we love to use to organize food storage:
With the holidays fast approaching, getting your food storage collection under control is key to a streamlined and simplified kitchen routine. It’s an area of the kitchen that is often neglected, but one of the easiest fixes. We all use food storage containers so frequently, and especially with all the holiday cooking coming up, now’s the perfect time to sort through your collection and get it organized! Happy holiday cooking!