Decluttering your Plastic Containers

Decluttering plastic containers; starting fresh; finding the perfect location; prioritizing practically and accessibility; lowering your inventory gradually.

I went on to declutter some of our kitchen drawers last week and I felt like I was on a roll. When I got to our plastic container cabinet, I was stumped. I thought to myself “we probably don’t need all of that”. We mainly use glass containers to store leftovers and the same goes for cleaned fresh fruits. I started thinking “what do we actually use plastic containers for?”

You are doing yourself a disservice by keeping items you don’t use; they take valuable space in your life.

I decided to go through what we have by decluttering our plastic containers’ cupboard. My goal was to only keeps what we actually use. If you’ve read any of my previous organization blog posts before you will know what I am about to say… Empty it all! It may seem redundant and repetitive but starting with a clean slate is KEY!

Get it all out and sort

Since the new year has begun, I’ve felt the urge to declutter, clean and get rid of anything I don’t need. Not too long ago, I’ve heard Allie Cassaza say something along these lines: By keeping items we don’t use, we are doing ourselves a disservice because we are letting those things take valuable space in our lives. That statement has lit up a light bulb in my head ever since. This makes so much sense!

Start with a clean slate. This step is very important and I can’t stress this enough. This is where you have the opportunity to have a look at what you have as far as “space” and determine what your options are.

This is also the perfect time to compare the space you have with any ideas you may have had or that you may have seen or pinned on Pinterest about decluttering plastic containers. You will have to ask yourself:

• Is it realistic to try to achieve the ideas you have for your space?
• What are the options your space is giving you?
• If you don’t like the options your current space or cupboard is giving you, is there anywhere else these kitchen items could be stored?

Find the perfect location

Think practicality when you are trying to determine where your containers should be stored. For instance, in our house, I chose to store our plastic containers in a lower kitchen cabinet. I chose this so that our little one could easily access them if he needed to. Furthermore, if he ever did go in and reach for them, there would be no chance of them to all fall out on the floor since they are at his height. (fingers crossed!).

Once the perfect location is determined, it’s now time to go through what you have and declutter your plastic containers.

Group Similar items

Start by grouping similar containers together. This will give you a visual idea of how many you have and if you really need them all. This will also give you the opportunity to discard any containers or lids that don’t have a match. Stop keeping them “in case” you find it’s missing part. Throw it out!

This step is also where you take advantage and discard what you can by asking yourself:

• Have you used this container recently?
• Do you plan on using it?
• Do you even like to use it?
• Does it close tightly?
• Can you use it for dry food only or liquids as well?

Asking yourself these questions will help you see how you like (or don’t like) to use your plastic containers and if you need to keep them.

Using baskets to organize

Now that you’ve regrouped similar items and have sorted them, the biggest part of the job is done. All that is left to do is put it back in your cupboard in a way that makes them easily accessible for your family members.

In my case, my main goal was not only to declutter our plastic containers and discard what we weren’t using. I also had the goal of setting things up in a way where what we use most frequently is in front and is easy to grab.

I decided to relocate my cupcake containers because I only use these for occasions. This gave me a lot more space to work with in my cupboard.

I used a couple of baskets in this cupboard before and liked it so now I just had to figure out how to rearrange them with a different inventory. Because of the size of my baskets this is what I came up with. Baskets are great for these types of “loose” items.

I kept what we use the most on the bottom shelf being that it’s easier to see and pull out. The remainder is on the top shelf. I personally decided not to label the baskets because you can see what’s in them and didn’t want to “clutter” that cupboard with unnecessary words.

Don’t get me wrong, labels are great and I love the relationship I have with my labeling maker but labels are not always necessary.

If you can, try to maximize you space vertically as much as possible. I’ve learned this from Marie Kondo and it’s a game changer. It may not be a possibility with all containers but you can use this technique with lids for sure. You can see and access them easily as well.

If you have drawers as bottom cabinets, storing your items vertically is amazing! Even more so for plastic containers.

Alternative to plastic containers

As far as our glass containers, I keep those in a upper cupboard (away from our little one) stored with other glass casseroles. I don’t stack them the same as I do with our plastic containers but I do group them by size so that I can see which ones are available.

I got a few different sets of these glass containers at Costco throughout the years. I did recently see this set below for the pretty good price of $25.99.

It is my goal to eventually no longer use any plastic containers. However, with a little one, they are pretty handy to have so for now I will keep them. Since I am conscious of the goal that I have, I will be better equipped to discard any containers I don’t use and eventually have none left.

I hope this post was helpful. I’d love to see how you’ve decluttered and organized your plastic containers so let me know in the comments below.