8 tips to keep your plastics cupboards tidy

I don’t even want to think about the hours  I’ve spent trying to find the right-sized plastic  container – not to mention a lid to fit it!

Really, it’s probably more like days that I’ve spent if you added all the time together – weeks, even!

So I’m thinking, there has to be a way to organise this stuff, right? And then I stumbled across a thread in the Bub Hub forum, and I found all these great tips from our clever members!

Tips for organising your plastics cupboard

• Stick to all the same brand when buying plastics – this makes stacking them easier and the lids will be interchangeable too!
• Use drawers instead of a cupboard – easier to keep tidy and they can’t fall out all over the floor when you open them!
• Declutter, declutter, declutter – Every now and then, a couple of times a year maybe, go through all your plasticware and be honest about it – what do you never use? What is so broken you shouldn’t use it anymore? Do you still have the mate for that piece? If you don’t remember the last time you used a piece, if it is broken, or if you don’t have it’s mate, get rid of it. Either chuck it – or better, donate it! Whether to a charity or to someone you know, those plastics are in a better place – and not cluttering up your kitchen.

When you’re done cleaning out your plastics, there are two ways to go about organising them within your cupboard/drawers – all with lids on, or lids and containers separately.

• Stack with lids on – obviously you’ll never have to spend time searching for the right lid, but it can be more space-consuming because you can’t stack the containers inside each other. You would be able to put smaller ones inside bigger ones and still put the lid on, but this may not be possible, depending on the types of plastic-are you have.
• Or keep the lids somewhere totally separate – this takes up a lot less space, and doesn’t have to mean hours spent looking for a lid. It’s a heck of a lot better system than having everything thrown in together (I think I may have anxiety issues from the number of times I’ve been practically inside the plastics cupboard trying to find the smallest lid amongst all the massive containers, and ending up using a plastic bag rather than spend another second surrounded by containers and lids).
  So – lids separate is great! Preferably a separate drawer/cupboard for them, or you can use a divider inside the drawer/cupboard if you don’t have the kitchen space.
• Sort into categories – Separate out the different types of plastic-ware into what you use it for – kid’s stuff, everyday use stuff, occasional use stuff – and assign designated spots for each thing so everything has a place – and it always goes back in the same place after it’s cleaned.
• Separate the singles – If you ever can’t find the mate to something, keep it aside in a basket or box until you find the mate – this way you won’t end up trying to use that container and spending hours looking for the mate before realising it’s the one you lost. If you haven’t found the mate by the time you next clean out the cupboard, ditch it.
• Do tiny tidy-ups –Whenever you unload the dishwasher, or put away the clean dishes, spend a little time just tidying up the plastics cupboard – if you remember to do it every time, there won’t ever be a big mess to sort through.