A little history:
Tupperware, I can't imagine a kitchen without it. It's been around well before me. The green and orange colors when I was a child were iconic, the Tupperware "burp" knowing that the top was indeed sealed, and the Popsicle molds are all wonderful childhood memories.
Tupperware was founded in 1946 by chemist Earl Tupper. It was a lightweight, non-breakable plastic container inspired by the seal-tight design of paint cans. The plastics were new and a big deal. They kept food fresh longer, which was crucial when refrigerators were very expensive for most people. When Tupper put his product in main stores, it did not sell well. A single mother started selling them, she sold 57 bowls in 1 week!
Brownie Wise called Mr. Tupper himself because her order was late, again! She suggested that he pull his product out of the stores and sell exclusively to homes, because women know how to sell to women. He hired her on the spot. And the creator of the Tupperware party was born! Brownie Wise became the face of Tupperware and she was the VP of marketing in the 1950's. As other men and women in the same economic bracket demonstrated and told others of their experiences with Tupperware, sales started to skyrocket. Folks needed to be shown how the product worked and they need to be sure they were spending their money wisely.
By the 60's Tupperware was being sold in Europe, Central America, and South America according to tupperwarebrands.com.
Nowadays many people look at home parties in a different light, but in the 50's women were not "allowed" to work outside of the home. Tupperware gave them a way to make money, a way to be independent. In 1951 there were about 200 women selling Tupperware, by 1954 there were over 9,000! This growth lead Brownie Wise to be the first woman ever on the front cover of Business Week.
Unfortunately, Tupper fired Wise in 1958, leaving her with only a 1 year salary, about $30,000. I have read a few different reason why she was let go. Perhaps Tupper was jealous of Brownie's fame, or Brownie made a mistake on the financial records and refused to fly out to Mr. Tupper and show him, or that Brownie had a party on a private island and that made Mr. Tupper angry. I don't know the truth, that died with the 2 of them. He was making millions in sales globally by that time. In my opinion, no one would have bought his burping bowl without Brownie Wise's sales ability. He completely removed her from Tupperware's history.
In the 70's catalogs were introduced! I remember looking through the catalogs with my mom in the 80's. I would sit there and circle everything I would want, I guess I always knew I would be a stay at home mom. Tupperware was actually bought out by Kraft in the 80's, and now it's microwave safe! Now in the 2020's they sell them at Target in beautiful colors! (My personal favorites are pinks and purples). Sadly, Tupperware's hold on this storage market might be slipping. There are so many more options now and many competitors to Tupperware. Containers that you can see through, that are easier to open/close, and easier to store. Even with these alternatives, I still use Tupperware. I have a love/ hate relationship with it. I love the idea of them, how they make me feel. But I hate that they don't always close and the lids seem to shrink in the dishwasher. How about you? What kind of food storage dishes do you have? Do you love them or hate them, and why?
Tupperware organization!!! The entire reason you are here!
As always, we start at Square 1! Organizing our containers can be tricky. How do we lose those lids? I mean, where do they go? There must me a place where the socks and lids meet up and party, I just wish I could be invited sometime before I toss their counterparts out.
Here we go: step
Take out every piece, don't skip anything.
Now it's time to assess how much you have. Do you a big enough area for what you have? Or do you need a second area? Do you have too much? Can you put some of it into storage or donate it? Do you have enough?
Make your game plan. Where do you want to put this? How do you want to put this back? Here are some ideas that I have used in the past:
In photo 1A are clear bins from the container store. I believe you can get similar ones from Target or Walmart too. All I did was separate the lids and the bases, but I made sure everything was together so the family wouldn't have to
go searching. Everything is within hands reach, you know where the top and bottom are, but the trick is to put it back where you got it.
In 2B they have a little bit of everything. This organizer is from the container store. It is the Elfa 5-section pull out easy glider and it is on sale $29.94. This family has many different sizes and styles, and brands. I still kept the lids and bottoms together as best as I could. Luckily, they had plenty of space for everything.
There are so many different storage options available on Amazon. I love the cabinet lid organizer because it is out of the way. I wish I was brave enough to put more stuff on my cabinets, but I just can't do it. The fear of ruining them is just too much for me. Even with my goal of not losing another lid! Please, post photos of how you organize your Tupperware.
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