With Diwali just around the corner, preparation for the festival of lights largely begins with a thorough cleaning of the kitchen. When families prepare to cook all the tasty dishes and sweets, it is required that the kitchen be clean and well-organised. One of the essentials of organizing the kitchen, which people often face difficulties with, is to find a solution on how to use empty food storage containers. While they are wonderful for leftover storage and prepped ingredient storage, mismatched lids as well as a whole range of sizes do not always make them the easiest to store.
Finding the ideal empty container storage system can save you precious time, energy, and most importantly, kitchen space. Be it in the process of preparing festive treats or tidying up your kitchen, understanding a few easy ways to effectively manage and store these containers will leave you with a much cleaner, less stressful, and more efficient kitchen. Here are ways in which one can organise the empty storage boxes so that the kitchen is left neat and stress-free.
Sort by Container Size
Stacking food containers can sometimes be a challenge, as they come in so many shapes and sizes. However, if you can think about how you use them, you can sort them by function, e.g., "spices" for the small, grains for the medium, and leftover curry for the large container. For instance, organising them by function such as meal prep, snacks, and grains make the items easily found without having to dig through a hodge-podge of mismatched boxes.
Start by organising your containers: group together similar ones, maybe all of your small boxes stacked together, and the larger ones nested inside each other. This approach does more than simply reduce clutter; it enables you to find the best-suited container in time for the task at hand.
Store Containers to Save Space
Container nesting is one of the simplest methods of saving storage space. If your boxes are roughly similar in form, stack them one inside the other, largest to smallest. This nesting will cut way down on the space they'll probably take up on shelves or in drawers. Containers of the same brand or design tend to nest better; so if you've acquired a collection of mismatched pieces over time, now may be a good time to consolidate.
You should have a stackable set with uniform sizes if the containers are drastically different in size. Stackable sets nest very well together so avoid the frustration that tends to come when you're trying to organize a wide variety of shapes.
Store Lids Separately for Easy Access
Lids can be quite tricky, particularly when it comes to storing them. Sometimes lids get separated from their respective containers, and you have a drawer full of orphaned lids. A good solution is to store lids separately from the containers themselves. Stack them either vertically or in a dedicated bin where they can be easily accessed. If your containers and lids are uniform in size, then stacking them together can work, but for mixed sets, keeping them separate saves much space and headaches.
You can fit adjustable dividers into your drawers or cabinets to make compartments for your lids. This keeps them from sliding around and ensures that every lid has its place. If you have a drawer large enough, consider a vertical rack for lids. This will get you the right top for the base in no time.
Functionality Declutter Regularly to Stay Organised
It can be a tempting practice to hold onto every storage container you've gathered throughout the years, but regular decluttering of your kitchen will prove to help keep it organized. Take this opportunity to clean your kitchen ahead of Diwali to review your collection of food storage boxes: are any lids missing? Are some of the containers stained, cracked, or otherwise no longer useful?
Get rid of any containers that are seeing better days, and don't hang onto pieces that hardly get used. If you have amassed a surplus of them, you might want to take the ones you no longer need and upcycle them for other uses around the home, such as storing craft supplies or small household items. The fewer containers you have on hand, the more manageable they will be to organise.
Label Containers for Easy Identification
Want to take your organization game to the next level? Try labeling your containers. You can label contents and use the same labels to identify a place for an empty container. Labels can be used to categorize containers by function ("Leftovers," "Snacks," "Meal Prep") or even size.
This step might assist you and the rest of the people living in the house to easily find their containers and return them to their position. With Diwali comes a lot of cooking, and during that time, all things appearing in order may make cooking a bit easier, allowing more time to enjoy the celebrations with family and friends.
Conclusion
Use the time spent cleaning up and preparing your kitchen for Diwali as an opportunity to reassess how you are storing empty food storage boxes in your kitchen. Organise them functionally, nest them, store their lids separately, and keep a check on what's in stock; thus, you shall have a better organized and thus efficient cooking space. Adding the labels will keep everything in place, freeing you to delight in the cooking and celebrations without worries. A well-planned kitchen can set the mood of any festive occasion. In such an arrangement, you can focus more on the importance of creating happy memories and less on struggling to get through the piles of clutter.