how to organize your Tupperware cabinet

Rumor has it that many people are taking advantage of the extra time at home during the COVID-19 pandemic stay at home orders to organize their food container/Tupperware cabinet. It’s such a popular pandemic activity that The Onion published a satirical article about it.

My food container cabinet is always organized and optimized. I took a picture below. The secret to organizing my cabinet is to formulate it as an integer programming model and then solving it to optimality. I have my kids resolve the integer programming model every time they unload the dishwasher and put the dishes away.

I’m kidding.

I organize my cabinet with a heuristic. I nest my food containers in a few stacks that fit in the cabinets. Once I organize the cabinet, there are a few food containers that do not nest with the nicely organized stacks. The most important part of this process is to remove the few food containers that do not nest with the other containers (see the bottom picture). A few problematic food containers can lead to chaos and disorder. I do not throw these out. Instead, I use them to store items throughout my house (e.g., in my toiletries cabinet and tool cabinet). 

I have not purchased food containers in awhile. When I do, I purchase them based on their nestedness properties.

How do you organize your food container cabinet?

The key is to remove the pieces that don’t nest.

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