Containers colour coded by size?

[defenderdogs]

If anyone else is like me, one kitchen cupboard is packed with plastic containers of various brands, shapes and sizes, most of which fall out onto the floor as soon as the cupboard is opened. Finding a lid to match a container can become a protracted and frustrating experience!

Surely someone has come up with a product whereby the lids are colour coded to the tubs by size? I can find colour coded containers but those are intended for different food types. Maybe my googling skills are having an off day but I can't find anything - does anyone here know of such a set of products?

 

[Aunt Bea]

Welcome to DC!

Most of my hillbilly Tupperware is color coded and states the number of ounces on the lid.

 

[HeyItsSara]

i keep the lids on. Yes, it means less space inthe cabinets but i give up. I cannot excavate every time I want a container.

 

[taxlady]

I keep my plastic food containers in plastic bins that I bought at Ikea. Two bins each have containers that all have the same size lid. The third one has the random leftover containers from previous sets. Since they are in bins, I don't have the problem of stuff hopping off the shelf when I open a cupboard door. I actually have the bins on some Ikea shelving set to the height of the bins. Easy to pull out a bin and have a rummage.

 

[Andy M.]

Throw away ALL your plastic containers and their lids. Then go out and buy all new ones of the same brand so the lids will fit. Easy Peasy.

 

[dcSaute]

we switched to the round glass pyrex with snap on lids.
the even neater part is you can get the various size lids in different colors - so you can 'create' you own color scheme.

for one of the medium sizes, I bought yellow lids - which is our color code for "doggie ground beef" . . . but blue=human stuff . .

 

[taxlady]

we switched to the round glass pyrex with snap on lids.
the even neater part is you can get the various size lids in different colors - so you can 'create' you own color scheme.

for one of the medium sizes, I bought yellow lids - which is our color code for "doggie ground beef" . . . but blue=human stuff . .

Are those stackable?

 

[dragnlaw]

I keep my containers in one bin and lids in a smaller bin, stacked on edge. Yes, I'm thumbing thru them to find a match - but by now I've pretty well memorized who goes with what. So it's pretty fast.

DIL keeps all the lids on. She seems to have a gazillion of the glass ones - all sizes. As she loves the colour red - the lids are red! One whole upper corner cupboard.
Her plastic ones "most" have their lids on, in a bin, smaller lower cuboard.

 

[dcSaute]

Are those stackable?

yes - the don't "tightly" nest but they do stack - with or without lids....

 

[Steve Kroll]

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that companies like ZipLoc seem to occasionally change the shape of their containers so the old lids no longer fit on the new containers?

I'm with Andy. Throw'em all out and start over.

 

[taxlady]

yes - the don't "tightly" nest but they do stack - with or without lids....

Yeah, nest was what I actually wanted to know. Nesting makes a lot more fit in the same space. I like the idea of glass, but there are advantages to not-glass. Glass feels much colder in the freezer. It breaks more easily when it hops out of the freezer. I do use canning jars for storing stuff and I store those mostly with the lids on.

 

[dragnlaw]

Dollar $tore is your friend when it comes to plastic storage containers.

If I had my 'druthers' - I'd druther have the glass ones. I also won't reheat foods in the plastic containers, if I can help it. Not worried about PB's (or whatevers) I just hate the oil getting into the plastic and staining.
I also don't cut with a knife in them. Gal pal and her daughter have some with more cut marks in them and on the inside of the lids as well than a cutting board. Drives me nuts!
Eat out of them if you must but don't cut in them! They're not cutting boards!

I also don't use plastic or glass in the freezer. Both shatter when they hit the floor. I wrap in various plastic wrap, foil, parchment paper, plastic baggies... whatever! Including liquids such as gravy and soups - sandwich bags works for me!

 

[taxlady]

I use plastic in the freezer all the time. It seldom shatters when it hops onto the floor. Maybe it's because I have Rubbermaid containers and not the ones from the dollar store. Well, the giant, plastic Hellmanns mayo jars from Costco are one of the types I use and none of those have ever shattered when it hopped onto the floor.

 

[dragnlaw]

I've had expensive ones break or crack too, maybe not shatter. But especially if they land on a corner - they're gonzo!

But in either case I think the bags take up less space, I can squeeze out the air too.

Don't think I've ever frozen any quantitty big enough to fit in a large jar of mayo! LOL

 

[Jade Emperor]

I have these, although I got mine from a dollar shop, not Temu.

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[dcSaute]

"stackable" may be more accurate than "nesting"
this is the medium size - blue for us food, yellow for doggie food . . .

 

[taxlady]

Don't think I've ever frozen any quantitty big enough to fit in a large jar of mayo! LOL

I use those for coffee beans or ground coffee, stock "pellets*", and some other stuff that I don't want crushed. No, I'm not worried about the coffee getting crushed. They don't only get used in the freezer. I don't put stuff in them that needs to be defrosted to get it out, 'cause I don't put those jars in the microwave.

*stock pellets: Sometimes when I make stock, I freeze it in an silicone muffin tin. Those muffin portions are what I call stock pellets. That way I can easily take out as much as I want without defrosting all of the stock. I don't have space in my freezer to do that at the moment.

 

[Kathleen]

I'm in the same camp as Andy and Steve - I cleaned it all out and started anew. They stack. They match. They nest. I really did not want to buy when I could reuse other items such as butter tubs, but the reduced frustration and saved space were worth the cost.

 

[Jade Emperor]

I found that although it was nice and exciting to get colour coded lids at first, you aren’t really going to commit the colour to mind.
You grab a container, but you simply don’t think “oh, this one needs a pink lid”. You just scramble around until you find the one that fits - so no real benefit to me.

 

[caseydog]

Throw away ALL your plastic containers and their lids. Then go out and buy all new ones of the same brand so the lids will fit. Easy Peasy.

I did that, sort of. I tossed half.

It is amazing how Gladware and Kroger brands look identical, but the lids are not interchangeable . Now I only have Kroger and HEB containers.

The Kroger containers are rectangular and have blue lids, while the HEB containers are round and have red lids. I never have to fuss around getting a matching container and lid. I can do it in a matter of seconds.

But, I just thought of another idea. Take a permanent marker, and on the outside od each container and lid, put a number, by size/brand. On one matched set, but a number "1" and repeat on all the others that match that set. Do the same on all your containers.

It will take 30 minutes, or maybe more, but in the future, you just pull out a container/lid set with matching numbers. Just like color coding, but using numbers.

CD