We Found All The Clever Ways to Use Deli Containers

Absolutely loved the lid slicing tomatoes tip!!!

Not a kitchen use, but as a teacher, I these are great for storing the millions of things we need to have at the ready in my classroom. Pencils, markers, crayons, legos, erasers... go look in the cups. When I moved to a new building this year with none of my supplies from the room I left, I actually bought new deli containers on Amazon!

I reuse these containers all the time, for decades now. They are essential to freeze broth (early Fall preparedness for “cold” season—have soup basically ready when you’re too sick to cook), same with sauce. Italian so I always have sauce ready for meals frozen & canned, all from my garden tomatoes. Also great for holiday baking. I pre-crush my crackers for cheesecake crusts, pre-measure, & place in the pint containers so I can put together quickly for impromptu gatherings & gifting. Same for multiple cookie ingredients pre measured. So many uses other than kitchen too—crafting, planting, etc. Only use flatter black Chinese containers now for dry goods & storing food in fridge. Will not hear anything in them. They make good drain trays for small planters though, or for mini greenhouse for seedlings.

Wait— I am a bit confused— Actually a huge fan of no single-use plastics, my fridge is full of deli /carryout/doggie bag containers of various sizes and shapes. I wash and use them on repeat, in the kitchen, with plants, and along with plastic bags, shampoo & lotion bottles, for other household deployments. When they inevitably take up more space than food in my fridge, I donate to our local Creative Reuse Center — a great organization that supplies schools and other creatives with supples for art making.

I am admonished by the anti-microplastics mafia that my use of plastics in the kitchen is poisoning my food. (I am a healthy septuagenarian who also drinks tap water, hot and cold.) I do, however, hand-wash, and never use plastics in the microwave or for food hot off the stove. It’s tempting for a lazy single person. Supposedly some of the black containers can be microwaved but the codes are too hard to read to be certain.

Please clarify how to safely gauge selective use of some plastics in the fridge, freezer, or microwave. And thanks for your article!