I should have bought shares in the Sterilite company about fifteen years ago. We’ve kept them in business, I’m sure, over the years as we use these clear plastic boxes to store just about everything.
I love them for a number of reasons:
- the clear boxes allow you to see inside of them
- the lids secure well enough to keep baby out, but are easy enough to remove quickly
- the boxes stack easily one upon another
- there is a variety of sizes to choose from
- these boxes are fairly affordable
In fact, these boxes are so much a part of our household that when we move, we buy more instead of moving boxes. Sure we use some cardboard, but at the price of moving boxes, it makes sense to buy something durable like Sterilite.
A box for everything
We use our clear boxes to store a number of household items:
- toys
- school supplies
- toiletry stockpile
- diapers and wipes for a portable changing station
- pantry food that I’m protecting from a possible mouse invasion
- Christmas ornaments
We’ve had to replace some of these over the years, but many have lasted us a very long time. They help containerize our stuff and keep us a little more organized.
About Jessica Fisher
Delegating Household Tasks to Younger Children
Easy Ways to Keep Your Household Supplies Stocked
Zone Defense Check-in: The Laundry and Linen Cupboard
Recovering the Lost Art of Hand Dishwashing (Tips for When Your Dishwasher is Broken)
Living on One Income and Living Well
I just bought 5 more at Target last weekend 🙂 We use these boxes for EVERYTHING, too.
before we moved, 5 yrs ago, I bought Sterilite (or similar) tubs when they were on sale at Kmart, Big Lots (or wherever). They moved a lot of our things and we still have most of them. The others have been sent on ‘permanent loan’ to friends.
I so need to do this! I am trying to get organized….but it is hard!!!
I ditto that! Clear plastic boxes are definitely the way to go for things that I need to SEE what is in the box. For longer term storage, we use banker’s boxes, because they are all nice and uniform, and can be found anywhere.
Dr. Laura
I keep an extra large sterilte bin at the bottom of my kid’s closet. As they outgrow their clothes, I throw it into the bin. When the bin is full, we donate the clothes, save them for a garage sale or hand them down to the younger sibling. Great way to keep the closet organized!
I just love plastic boxes! We have them from closet to garage and it makes me so happy to have everything neatly contained. One tool that saved my life was actually a recycling container I found at Ikea. It was pretty large but had a hinged top so my son could open it without taking the box out. The boxes are stackable too. I filled them with the ever multiplying Legos!
I saw that recycling container at Ikea and almost bought it. Glad to hear you like it, will need to get it next time.
We love plastic containers and we have so many shapes and sizes throughout our house. But I really like the ones that have lids with handles on the end that snap them shut for our toy room. We have six of them that hold blocks, cars, Little People and a couple more specific playsets. It’s easy for my kids to clean up if I hand them one and say, “Go find all the cars.” as opposed to just saying, “Clean up.”
And we live in farm country so we keep everything in our basement in plastic containers because we almost always have mice, ants or crickets stuck down there- we should own stock in the company that makes all those traps!
I use the shoe-box size and next size up size (?) Sterilite boxes to organize toys, craft supplies, office supplies, kitchen gadgets, batteries, toiletries, and anything else I can think of. We just moved from a very small townhome where I needed to store everything like this to save space. I just spent last night organizing our new office/craft space. I am really excited that there are some built-in shelves in the room that I am now using to store all my boxes 🙂
Oh, how I love me some of them clear boxes. I’m with you on this one, Fishmama. I totally should have invested money in some shares a million years ago. I think there is nothing sexier than a pile of clear boxes with crisp labels. Makes me all school-girl giddy.
Glass jars to hold craft supplies, buttons, hair accessories, coins and what-not. Cardboard boxes for papers, photos, and other knick-knacks:-)
We use the 18 gallon Sterilite or Rubbermaid tubs for all our out-of-season or outgrown clothes. My babies are 2 years and 6 months, and there will hopefully be more so we’re not selling or donating anything yet. 5 boxes of kids clothes and counting.
i love them! i use them to store old letters, clothes, journals, etc. 🙂
Yes, they are AWESOME to move with. They stack very nicely. One of our moves we had to put everything in storage til the next house was ready. Let’s just say that when we opened the storage door to get our stuff out…several rats scattered and these plastic tubs saved everything…no rats were able to get in anything…AWESOME! Now we use the plastic tubs for Christmas, etc items we have in the attic or under the house. =)
Glad to see I am not the only one who loves plastic containers. The cheap Sterlite ones work well for my things and for storage but not for the boys toys. They end up getting sat on or otherwise broken. I had done heavier duty ones with the plastic latches, but recently the 3 year old was trying to snap the latch and the 2 year olds hand was in it, so I am now staying away from those. Suggestions for indestructible plastic containers?