Kaylee's not-a-blog » Human systems » organization » Main Food Tub

It has been frustrating trying to find items (particularly small ones) in the top tub.

I tried several ways of organizing items, including: grocery bags (different colors for ease of finding), gallon sized clear baggies, and carefully wedging related items together.
I also considered using cardboard separators.
All of those were only minor improvements, and were still frustrating.
A fundamental issue is that these tubs are relatively deep, so items tend to migrate underneath others, and I have to dig thru layers.

It finally struck me that since I drink soda, I regularly have empty 2L soda bottles, which are semi rigid, relatively tall, yet relatively small area. With the tops cut off, they had the potential to be great organizers, particularly of small items that make sense to store together. :)
The very first one I tried, worked great. :)

Here's the tub with ten (10) soda bottles, each with a different collection of food items:

There's still some loose items, however they're generally larger items, and are much easier to find.

Here's the contents, row by row (top to bottom), then left to right within each row:

• (loose:) spray cheese, baggies, parchment paper (beneath), small tub (formerly guacamole) with small baggies of esoteric spices (samples from a Friend), pudding cups

• (loose:) cooking oil, ham salad snack kit
• (bottle:) current butane canister, small can of ham chunks (beneath)
• (bottle:) current mayonnaise squeeze bottle (mainly for making grilled cheese)
• (bottle:) fruit cups (mostly applesauce)
• (bottle:) snacks (nuts, cheese & crackers, cheap snack bars)

• (bottle:) napkins
• (loose:) extra sun dried tomatoes (below), with free space where I normally put my large Thermos; old mayo squeeze bottle (I'll be dissecting it soon, to get the last bit of goodness out of it)
• (bottle:) snacks (fancier snack bars, mini cake items)

• (bottle:) lots of single serving meat packets (including: SPAM Singles, bacon bits)
• (loose:) current open sun dried tomatoes, with more meat packets below & around it
• (bottle:) ramen :)
• (loose:) more napkins in a fast food paper bag
• (bottle:) chocolate bars (mini Snickers, full sized dark chocolate)
• (bottle:) mini candy/chocolate bars (including: M&Ms, Turtles)

The left hand side is at my "kitchen" end, so has meal type items.
The right hand side is at my work/bed end, so has snack items.
There's room underneath the bottles to store extras/duplicates, including: a full six-pack of applesauce cups, several meat items (including some cans), sun dried tomatoes (that's the one in the center, and I normally store my Thermos on top of it).

There's a couple of rice packs at the bottom, which I'll probably rearrange so they're easy to see/find.
I'll be fine tuning others, too. This is a work-in-progress. :)

Other Food:

There's a wooden shelving unit immediately beside the tubs (attached to the passenger side wall).
The top shelf is quite short, and I now use it for crackers (currently six boxes of Triscuits).
I keep all my pasta, and extra ramen in a shelf/cubbie at the kitchen end.
Rearward, there's a box with sundry items, including boxes of beverage packets.

I keep "sides" (Knorr's & generic), potatoes (dehydrated), cup-o-noodles, and other lighter staples in a duffle bag that is bungied on top of the shelving unit.

As mentioned elsewhere, I keep all my dehydrated/freeze-dried veggies/etc in individual zip lock baggies in a flat clear tub, immediately beside the main two food tubs.
I keep most of my canned items in cardboard boxes stacked behind the driver's seat.