Smart Storage Ideas for Organizing Food Containers
Given the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations regarding social distancing and working from home, you might find yourself eating more meals at home and storing more leftovers. In turn, you might also be reconsidering how you organize your food storage. The following kitchens offer smart solutions for corralling all those lids and containers.
This view of the same rollout unit with different items shows how metal U-bars can be arranged in holes at the bottom of the drawer to create custom spaces for storage containers. You can slide the U-bars for the lid slots in either direction to accommodate various sizes and amounts of lids. Talk to your kitchen designer or cabinetmaker about integrating a unit like this.
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Here’s a similar rollout. This unit features small angled shelves for organizing lids and a shallow cubby below for containers.
If you don’t have deep kitchen drawers, a rollout system might be for you. These systems can replace shelves behind cabinet doors, allowing you to store containers and lids deep inside a cabinet box but still conveniently pull them out.
Typically these systems are configured with two rollouts: one near the bottom of the cabinet for storing larger containers and one near the top for storing lids and smaller containers.
Typically these systems are configured with two rollouts: one near the bottom of the cabinet for storing larger containers and one near the top for storing lids and smaller containers.
But you can also specify a deep rollout that functions like the divided-drawer systems shown above in this article.
Again, talk with your kitchen designer or cabinetmaker about which system is the right fit for you and your space.
Again, talk with your kitchen designer or cabinetmaker about which system is the right fit for you and your space.
You’ll want to give some thought to the location of your food storage as well. Here, rollouts near the fridge are convenient for when someone is putting food away.
Next to the sink is another good option, offering handy access for someone who cleans and dries containers there.
Or maybe you prefer storing your containers near your range so you can easily grab them to put away food left on the stove.
In the island might be a good option if you tend to stage your cleanup on the island countertop.
Here’s an interesting option that puts to use the storage at the back of an island that might otherwise go to waste.
Drawers With Dividers
If you’ve got a rather large collection of food storage containers, then a better and more flexible option is a drawer with adjustable dividers. This allows you to create customized slots for organizing containers and lids, and gives you the freedom to store other vessels, tops, trays and other random pieces that tend to accumulate in a kitchen.
Drawers are by far the best solution for storing food containers. Lightweight plastic food containers and lids get knocked around if stored on a shelf in a regular cabinet, and tend to eventually end up in a jumbled mess at the back of a cabinet. So all the solutions in this article involve drawers or rollouts.
If you’ve got a rather large collection of food storage containers, then a better and more flexible option is a drawer with adjustable dividers. This allows you to create customized slots for organizing containers and lids, and gives you the freedom to store other vessels, tops, trays and other random pieces that tend to accumulate in a kitchen.
Drawers are by far the best solution for storing food containers. Lightweight plastic food containers and lids get knocked around if stored on a shelf in a regular cabinet, and tend to eventually end up in a jumbled mess at the back of a cabinet. So all the solutions in this article involve drawers or rollouts.
This wide, deep drawer shows how adjustable inserts can organize dozens of pieces.
But you don’t have to get too fancy. Try playing with the number of dividers before committing to a solution to see what works for you. Here, one divider at the back of a drawer holds lids, while the larger front area provides space for stacking containers.
Here, two wooden dividers separate lids from containers, creating an incredibly simple but effective organized system in a standard-size drawer.
Three dividers can create two slim slots for lids and two wider areas for containers to maximize organization in a small drawer.
Keep in mind the depth of your drawer in relation to your storage containers. Tall soup containers take up more vertical space than other container types, so you’ll want to work with your kitchen designer or cabinetmaker to create a drawer that can fit them.
Custom adjustable stainless steel inserts like these, manufactured by Blum, are a smart option. You can pop out these inserts and put them in the dishwasher for easy cleaning.
A good kitchen designer will take an inventory of all your utensils, pots, pans, appliances, storage containers and the like, and develop dedicated storage right down to the inch for each item.
A good kitchen designer will take an inventory of all your utensils, pots, pans, appliances, storage containers and the like, and develop dedicated storage right down to the inch for each item.
Here, a custom drawer with custom dividers snugly stores containers of various sizes. A slim pullout shelf above holds flat lids.
Similarly, this slim pullout shelf stores lids above a container storage drawer.
Wooden dowels are another good way to go. These allow you to quickly and easily adjust the space inside your drawer to accommodate storage containers as you replace your containers with ones in different sizes or shapes.
Here, a wooden box within a drawer stores lids and small containers above larger containers. The box can be slid back and forth or taken out entirely.
Corner Shelf Systems
Corner systems like those made by Rev-A-Shelf, one of which is shown here, are good options for blind corners. These sturdy metal systems feature wire racks on rollers that you can slide and pull out of a tight, deep corner cabinet.
Corner systems like those made by Rev-A-Shelf, one of which is shown here, are good options for blind corners. These sturdy metal systems feature wire racks on rollers that you can slide and pull out of a tight, deep corner cabinet.
If you food storage inventory is relatively small yet still unwieldy, consider a dedicated rollout system like the one shown here. This unit organizes lids on a top shelf and containers in a bottom drawer.
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