Remove Spaghetti Stains From Tupperware – Saving Money Through Simple Solutions And Recycling

Buying new Tupperware or clear plastic containers to store food in these days for any other reason than "pretty" vanity or bragging rights is virtually ridiculous if your broke. For as long as I can remember I've noticed that most foods you can buy come in the most useful and air tight containers possible. Throwing them away after you use them is just wasteful!

These containers aren't cheap, they aren't made so thin you'd mistake them for a zip lock bag formed into a box or round shape. I'm talking about those nice butter tubs, sour cream containers and the many others like them in various sizes. They're just as durable if not more than most purchased (generically called Tupperware) plastic storage containers with a lid.

With a cheap label maker you can turn that old sour cream container into a Tupperware container without spending a dime.

It didn't take the end of the world for me to realize that these Tupperware containers the manufactures of my favorite foods gave me were dishwasher safe, reusable hundreds of times, and conveniently in various sizes needed for storing food nicely.

These containers are far more useful than just for food. You can store nuts and bolts, pens, desk clutter (small objects) and more. You can even turn them into interesting "branded" plant containers :)

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Great Way To Pack Your Lunch For Work!

When I pack my sweethearts lunch, I do it in these containers. It gives me a lot of creative power to give her a powerful lunch (that's like opening several presents as I don't tell her what's inside each one)! I've even recycled Chinese food containers that aren't stained (you really can't de-stain cardboard) for effect.

All she sees is what was in the container originally! She knows it's not what's in there of course. I can fit a bunch of boiled and peeled eggs into a small sour cream container or even a small butter container.

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Creamers Can Become Portable and Throw-Away Salt/Pepper Dispensers

I've even taken those great creamer containers (the single serving ones you get free with your coffee) and taped the thin cover back on after filling it with salt (after drying it), then poking a bunch of pin holes in the bottom to create a portable salt shaker to go with her eggs!

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The best part?

These containers fit into the fridge much easier than most Tupperware due to their complementary shapes like cylinders, round, square, and even rectangles with rounded edges. They fit easier into the door of the fridge as well!

You can store a huge pan of spaghetti with sauce into 5 medium sized sour cream containers or 2 large country crock butter containers.

They make for a great way to store all that food without losing all that space a big pan would take up or a big container. It allows you to compartmentalize your storage instead of taking up a huge space that leaves little room for other big containers or even most standard Tupperware.

You can just grab one of the smaller/medium containers to quickly grab spaghetti to take to work. Who's going to steal your spaghetti in a butter container thinking it's just butter? Brilliant huh?

So you stored your delicious spaghetti sauce in your new Tupperware or plastic storage containers.

(including the free ones we get with food like sour cream and so on)

... and 3 days later served it to your family.

Now you notice that the inside of your once white sour cream container, your see through Tupperware (or equivalent) container, or any other plastic container is STAINED with that orange hue of spaghetti sauce.

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Visually this is actually a cool change, but internally your thinking:

"What if that is food trapped between the pores of the plastic that will just keep coming back to feed the bacteria of any food I put in it?

If your like me you worry about having any kind of food contamination in your containers.

I've thrown away stained containers- some just remark it's tacky- but the real reason is hidden disgust and fear of bacteria feeding frenzies- am I right?

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I know I've been able to remove these stains for the most part by soaking them IMMEDIATELY in soapy water overnight.

But a tiny bit still remains to taunt me even then. The problem is the acidic sauces in tomato sauce that penetrate the pores of the plastic at the molecular levels. There really IS food sitting in there and enough to feed bacteria in any food you store in it. While this will likely not cause any illness or problems, most people would feel better knowing their plastic containers were sterile!

I discovered in my research a simple and HIGHLY effective solution based on the physics of food breakdown- that works miracles- or is it merely physics most people don't think of?

The solution (pun?) is Lemon Juice.

Holy cow right?

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The Same Powerful Agent That Protects Your Cut Up Apples From Oxidation Can Remove That Stain!

You can also use table salt as a scrubber with the sponge and lemon juice to speed up the process!

Now you know- go clean your Tupperware back to that store-room shine!