Tips for your Tupperware™ You Cannot Do Without!

What does your plastic food storage containers (a.k.a. Tupperware™) cabinet look like? Do you know how to clean your Tupperware™ so it doesn’t stain? How to get rid of the “crusties” in them? Here are a whole bunch of tips to help with all these questions and much more.

Jessica Derksen, intuitive consultant and owner/founder of The Organizers  helps her clients organize their lives both physically and spiritually because many times, our disorganized houses are reflecting something deeper in our minds (think Hoarders…). Derksen gives us a whole bunch of tips for maximum efficiency with your plastic food containers. Check out her website for much more.

Storage

When I asked my friends on Facebook how they organized their Tupperware™ (because mine was out of control), every single one of them said they throw it in the cabinet and hope it doesn’t fall out when they slam the door closed. Sound familiar?

Derksen tells Family First how to organize your Tupperware™ that you may not have thought of – a laundry basket. Ah-ha! She does not keep hers in a cabinet because, typically, it’s too hard to get anything in and out, unless you have sliding baskets to organize things.

She keeps hers in a big laundry bin in a closet (a pantry works too if you can find a place). She stacks them neatly together with the lids separate (I’m imagining mine would be a big mass of plastic but at least it would be contained). Think outside your cabinets – it doesn’t HAVE to be in the kitchen even!

She says the first step in organizing your Tupperware™/plastic storage bins is to thin down to only what you use regularly or unique pieces you might need occasionally.

Throw away or give away anything that is really stained, doesn’t have a lid or simply never gets used because you have other pieces you use instead. “Make it go away,” she tells Family First. She says Good Will or the Salvation Army will take it from you.  If it’s too gross for them to keep, they’ll get rid of it for you. Problem solved.

You can consider recycling but she says check the bottoms of the plastic ware and see if it has a number. Depending on your local recycling regulations, they may or may not take it. If there is no number, most likely they won’t take it and you’ll need to toss it. Keep in mind, however if it’s real Tupperware™, you may be able to get replacement pieces because it does have a lifetime warranty.

If the thought of tackling this project makes you twitch, Derksen says set the time for 45 minutes to pull all of it out and purge. Think about why you don’t want it organized. Think about if there’s any sentimental attachment to any of it, or even the container or cabinet you keep it in. This could be preventing you from getting organized too.

When the timer goes off, take the last 15 minutes to clean up – put everything away. Now, you’ve made the project a manageable time frame and you’re finished in an hour.

Cleaning

In terms of cleaning it, she says she actually hand-washes all of her Tupperware™ because the dishwasher is murder on this stuff. In order to prevent staining from red sauce/pasta sauce, she says first never heat it in the microwave in Tupperware™. Use something that doesn’t stain like a ceramic bowl.

If you do decide to store the red sauce in Tupperware™, rinse with cold water but NO SOAP, wipe the inside with a paper towel. You are trying to break down the oils from the sauce first before washing. Once you’ve done this, then you can hand wash the item.

If it has the weird crusty remnants of meals long gone, think if you really want to keep using it. If you do, she says scrub it out with baking soda. It will not only get rid of that but also stains and smells!

If you have Tupperware™ that smells funny, Derksen suggests putting wet newspaper in it, sealed up, and leave it overnight. If it doesn’t work – throw out the piece. Is it really worth it?

So, hopefully these tips help you get a little more organized and help you clean up your Tupperware™! For more tips, check out Derksen’s website at www.theorganizers.biz for tons more information.