organizing food storage containers

Premier Collection by Rubbermaid

It's a catastrophic mess, like mine, I'm willing to bet. If only because we both have kids.

I keep my collection of Tupperware, Rubbermaid, Glad, and other assorted plastic food containers in a lower cabinet from back when my kids were babies and they were mostly used as stacking toys. I rarely put food in them because with two kids under two I was very much a "seat of my pants" person in the kitchen. It's a miracle any of us ate at all.

But today that shelf still looks like a bomb went off in there and I don't have any excuses. My kids have outgrown the stacking phase and my husband has always refused to put the dishes away, so that leaves just me to blame.

As a gift a couple of years ago, a friend gave me a few pieces from the Rubbermaid Premier Collection -- there's one above. I thought, whoo-wee, problem solved. These containers stack neatly inside one another and the bottoms snap to the lids so you can never lose one as long as you stick to the system.

That's my problem, sticking to the system. For some reason, I still find it easier to frantically shove, balance and squeeze in than to calmly stack and snap.

Maybe I should go back to doing it the way my mom did when I was growing up. Tupperware was the only game in town back then, but it was pricey and my mom did not partake. She'd put leftovers on a plate in the fridge covered with plastic wrap, or leave the soup right in the pot.

Have you found a way to keep your plastic storage containers under control or is that drawer an organizing nightmare? Do your kids still play with them?