My favorite household item has shifted this weekend from big fluffy comforters to clear, stackable storage tubs. This is not because I have less love for comforters all of a sudden, but because the tubs provide so much utility. I love them both, for different reasons and in different ways. *grin*
Sterilite tubs are a marvelous invention. They have given me back much floor space over the years, and provided instant findability for hard-to-find objects in my home. Both features are rather rare in the living quarters of a packrat, by the way!
Most if not all of their products are stackable, durable, see-through so you can tell what’s where, and made in the USA. I use large index cards and a marker to make signs which I tuck inside each tub so I don’t have to figure out what’s inside from whatever’s showing on the short end. I can glance at the short side of a stack and know exactly what’s inside each tub.
I use the 6-quart clear view boxes for general storage, for everything from magazine clippings to sewing notions… they’re great for in-progress small projects or anything that has lots of small bits. I’ve also used them to turn closet shelves into drawer-storage, by leaving the lids off and lining the tubs up side-by-side along the long shelf of my closet above the clothes bar. I use the 66-quart latch boxes for larger items, for everything from quilts-in-progress to afghans-in-progress. I could store durable less-used and/or seasonal items in the tubs, and then use clear packing tape to seal the lids on (to make sure insects and moisture don’t get in) to store them in my attic and/or garage. Note that if you’re sealing anything that well, you might want to put in a packet of dissicant pellets or a pouch of silica gel granules to keep the humidity inside the tub low. The tubs are also the right size for sorting and carrying recyclables.
I buy mine at Target, though most similar stores probably carry the same product lines nowadays. Try Walmart, KMart, Sav-On, Walgreens… and keep an eye out for sales. The tubs aren’t cheap, but if you can catch them on sale, they sometimes are available for as much as 70% off.
The big point is to buy enough of them that you’ll never want more, or to buy a product line that’s going to be available for years so that you can get more of the identical product years later. Because they’re stackable, the utility of having all of them the same is very significant.