Another drawback to the single life is food. Yes, food. This might be a bit of a shock but there is more to life than cholesterol-packed hot dogs from Costco or microwaved burritos from 7-11 or gas station convenience stores. Every once in awhile  you probably feel the urge to pamper yourself with some of the good old home cooked goodness of mom’s cooking. The problem is mom isn’t around. If you find yourself having to cook, follow these quick and simple meal ideas for the single guy to keep kitchen spills and clean up drama down while saving money.

Start with pasta

Pasta is probably one of the easiest dishes to cook. After all, we are talking about cooking sauce and boiling pasta. A simple two-step process. You can swing that, right? If fact, this is one of the most common meal ideas for single guys that dudes discover as early as college. You just zip down to Costco and pick yourself up some boxes of pasta and gallons of pasta sauce. You then swing by another aisle to pick up a big tube of parmesan, and you’re gastronomically ready for the next Ice Age.

Chicken breasts with sauce

If you want to take your newfound single dude culinary expertise another notch, you might want to venture into the yummy culinary territory of pan-grilled meat or pan-fried meat with sauce on top. Again, just like cooking pasta, this is pretty much a two-step process. Just saute some onions and garlic or tomatoes, add the rest of the sauce ingredients. Pan-grill or pan-fry the meat and add the sauce on top. No muss. No fuss. And definitely no drama. These types of simple meat and sauce recipes are some of the most popular meal ideas for single guys.

Spice up some ramen

You’ve heard of ramen, right? Anyone who ever attended college in the US has at least tried these instant noodle dishes once in their student career. What’s not to love? Ramen is easy to prepare. Just boil some water, plop the noodles into the boiling water, and pour in the spice package into the bowl. Alternatively, if dry ramen is your thing, drain the noodles and sprinkle the flavor powder on top and enjoy. This is the most basic example of meal ideas for single guys. You can spice things up a bit by adding coconut milk to your noodles for a little Thai or Vietnamese touch. You can sprinkle some garama masala powder for a touch of India. You can even chop up some basil to give your ramen an Italian flare. The possibilities are endless.

Once you use it, clean it and put it away AKA the 5-Minute Rule

One of the most powerful and simplest ‘house rules’ you can put into place in your household is the rule that once people use dishes or any other kitchenware, they have up to five minutes to make sure it is in the sink. Some homeowners even go one step further-the five minutes include dish washing time. Either way you cut it, you can’t help but agree that this is the best way to go. The sad truth is that for every minute that ticks by when there is an unwashed dish or dirty container on the table, the lower the chance that it will find its way to the sink much less get cleaned, dried, and put in the cupboard. Imposing the 5-Minute Rule is one key lesson many people need to learn in how to declutter.

Buy and use only small and medium sized stackable containers

Small is beautiful. When it comes to cutting clutter in your kitchen and nearby areas, this saying can’t be truer. Small is beautiful-especially if you can stack it as well. The sad truth is that many cupboards get filled up easily by food containers that come in different sizes. Instead of taking up space efficiently and holding the most amount of food, if you buy different shapes of differently sized food containers, you end up taking too much space and not storing enough food. Instead, you should get containers that are all the same small size. They should also be stackable. You will quickly realize that you will end up taking less space and you can store more food items. This is one of the best answers to the perennial question of how to declutter?

Agree to get universal sized container lids

Make it easier on yourself by talking to your spouse or roommate and getting an agreement on universally sized container lids. Container lids that are the same size and shape are easier to clean; especially in the dishwasher, and easier to put away. Let’s face it, one of the biggest reasons many people ‘get lazy’ when trying to store lid container pieces is when the containers and lids are differently shaped and unevenly sized. By keeping lids universal in size and form, you are psychologically conditioning yourself to clean and store away container units with little effort and quickly.

Get stackable containers

Nothing gets roommates’ blood boiling than seeing clutter everywhere especially if that roommate is the one that is neat and tidy. Don’t get on each other’s nerves by buying bulky and odd-shaped food containers. Instead, agree to get stackable containers. These are not only easy to clean, they are also easy to put away. With stackable containers, you can store container pieces easily and more quickly thereby lessening potential conflict and drama. Another great advantage with using easy to stack small containers is the fact that you can actually hold more food with them. While each unit can only store a smaller amount of food, since they are stackable, you can store more food for the same amount of space as you would using non-stackable containers.

Store older leftovers near the front of the fridge

The moment you decide to store leftover food instead of segregating it into the biodegradable section of your home’s trash, the clock starts ticking. You are in a race to either eat that leftover item or throw it away. Sadly, too many people forget this. They look at their fridge as some sort of cold footlocker where they hoard leftover food. Indeed, most people don’t care where they store leftovers in food containers. Many get pushed behind other containers. You lose the race against food decay and food expiration dates if you can’t even see or find your leftovers. One of the most basic food storage ideas you can learn and implement in your household is the simple rule of first in first out (FIFO). FIFO doesn’t just work for manufacturing plants and industrial settings, it also works for your very own fridge. FIFO makes sure that hairs don’t grow on your food and prevents your fridge from developing a gym sock odor. FIFO simply means that food that was put in earlier must either be eaten earlier or thrown out. Simple as that. To implement FIFO, you only need to store food containers with older food at the front of your fridge so you don’t lose sight of them.

Put dates on your containers

Another simple way to implement FIFO for your fridge is to put dates on your containers. These markings will let you, and your housemates, know which leftover needs to be thrown away or eaten first. Of course, you have to make sure your fridge doesn’t look tacky with all the containers with dates on them. Don’t just write on masking tape. Use specially made food tags or some other labeling method that is easier on the eyes. Labeling must always be part of the food storage ideas you choose to implement.

Buy stackable containers

The most efficient way to deal with leftovers is to stack all your leftovers. This is not only one of the most efficient food storage ideas out there but it also makes for maximum date visibility. You need stackable containers for this. Arrange them in classic FIFO manner with the older items up front with a label. Using stackable containers, you can see quickly which leftover items need to be disposed first and you can get a general impression of how much leftovers you’ve been storing. You might need to eat only leftovers for the next few days to clear space in your fridge.

Standardize container sizes

The first step to effective pantry cupboard management is to standardize your container sizes. You might hem and haw at this point because you want to store your leftover pizza slices in, well, pizza-looking storage containers. This is a serious mistake. Your food must follow your storage needs-not the other way around. You should decide how big you want your food containers to be. This will be the default size of all your food containers. Make sure you pick a size you will be happy with.

Go small

After understanding that you need to standardize your containers, you should strongly consider going small. When you use small containers, you will be able to pack more containers in a fixed amount of space. Moreover, smaller containers can hold lots of food-you just need to divide up the leftovers or ingredients in small enough sizes so you can store them. By going small, you are able to maximize the space efficiency of your pantry cupboard. In most cases, you don’t need to preserve the original size and shape of your food items. You can always portion them into single servings using small containers for individual portions or mix them together when you need multiple servings.

Consolidate leftover items

Finally, once you have an efficient use of standardized food containers, you need to learn how to consolidate leftover items. It is very easy, actually. You just need to label your food containers in a standardized way. Put all the same leftover items in a collection of containers that are labeled and dated. This way, you can clearly see how much stuff you have stored, which stuff, and when stuff needs to be eaten or thrown out.

By using the tips above, you save both time and space. You also will end up saving money on wasted food. Make your home more efficient today by getting standardized food containers for your pantry cupboard.

Lost parts

One of the biggest hassles with all containers is that they might lose their lids. When a container loses its lid, regardless of whether it is a trash container, a recycling bin, a food container, or the container you store your papers in, it is pretty much useless. Talking about a waste of money. Obviously, a food container with a missing lid will do a pretty bad job of keeping leftovers or ingredients. When out looking for containers, make sure you look for those that are designed to retain their lids in all sorts of situations. While most trash or recycling containers already have joint or connected lids, food containers are a different matter entirely. Thankfully, there are food container lids that are connected or designed in such a way that they are easy to find.

Space efficiency

The worst thing you can do to any storage area in your home, specially your food storage areas, is to use different shaped containers. You will quickly find out that this will take up all your available space. Always keep space efficiency in mind when shopping for all containers for your home. Look for stackable containers or other features which aid the container’s ability to fit into a tight space together efficiently. Space is a very limited resource. Use it wisely for all containers in your home.

Ease of cleaning

Last but not least, you need to consider ease of cleaning for all containers in your home. Not only should your containers store materials well and efficiently, they should also be easy to clean. This is very crucial-especially for food containers-since your family’s health may depend on it. Make it easy for yourself by using containers that are easy to clean. This simply means that the internal and external parts of the container are easy to reach, wash, wipe, and dry.

Functional approach

The functional approach in how to organize kitchen items focuses on practicality. ‘Get it done,’ is the main concern of people who use this approach. Looks are secondary. Convenience is also on the back burner. The key concern is how to pack as much stuff as possible in as tight a space as possible. If you live in a tiny apartment or if you are student living in a shared apartment or in a dorm, you should pay a lot of attention to a functional approach to the question of how to organize kitchen space. This approach focuses on stackable, standardized, and similarly shaped containers. When you use containers with these qualities, you can store quite a bit of stuff in a small amount of space. You might need to spend some time dividing stuff up so you can store it but you are rewarded with space efficiency.

Time management approach

Some people don’t care if their cupboards look inefficient, or they don’t care to pack as much stuff into a small a space as possible. What matters most for these people is their time. In particular, they don’t want their kitchen storage to take up much of their time. Cutting up food for more efficient storage is out. For this group, larger food containers that can accommodate different foods or items are crucial. You just open up a container, put food in it, put in the fridge and you’re done. The downside to this approach is you must label your food items carefully or else you might find that slice of ham you stored a few months back now sports a shiny new hairdo.

Maintenance approach

For people who prefer the maintenance approach, bulky kitchen space is okay. Spending some time in the kitchen is okay too. What this group can’t tolerate is mess. That’s right, stains, streaks, and nasty food bits that can gross anyone out. This group prefers their food containers and kitchen surfaces to be clean and shining. For this group, the best answer to the question of how to organize kitchen storage space is the use of easy to clean storage receptacles. Since these items can be taken apart easily, they don’t have any hard to reach or hidden parts and they are very easy to clean.

This is why you should start thinking about storage ideas now, before you come up to a point when you run out of room to place your food items and end up throwing stuff away. One storage idea is to use a cellar. A few hundred years ago, everyone had a cellar and pretty much all of them used that location for food storage. Back then, going out to buy everything you needed every few days was not even an option, so food storage was mandatory. Learn from these pastimes and recreate what they used to employ in order to store your food efficiently.

Another common idea of course is to use containers that will keep your food fresh for a longer period of time, like the Stackerware products. These not only take less room to store when you are not using them, but then your food products will last longer as well. There is no magic way to store more food for longer, and have them stay fresher, but with a few basic ideas you can help yourself conserve more and save money. These ideas will help you design a better kitchen and allow for healthier eating habits.

Even if you have a large cupboard and have a lot of kitchen drawers, you will quickly find out that the huge amount of space you thought you had can be quickly eaten up by your food containers, kitchenware, and other food and kitchen accessories. The huge space you always assumed you have can quickly fill up if you aren’t particularly methodical or systematic in how you store your kitchen items. A key part of your food storage space problems is the design of the containers you buy. If you don’t really care about container size, shape, and design qualities, your remaining kitchen storage space can fill up very quickly. Keep the following space-saving design elements in mind when picking out food storage containers at the department store.

Small size

It is too tempting to get food containers that are the same size and shape of the food we are trying to store. Indeed, it would be very convenient to just put leftovers or ingredients in containers that match their size and shape. The problem with this, of course, is the fact these containers won’t stack up neatly, and they will end up eating up a lot of space. You can easily solve the problem of non-standardized container sizes by buying one container design that comes in a small size. If you have a lot to store, you only need to split up the item among different small containers. The main advantage you’ll get with using only standard small containers is that they don’t take up much space and won’t take up a lot of space unnecessarily since they fit together in a compact and tight way.

Stackable

In addition to small food containers, the containers must have a standardized shape which allows for easy stacking. This design helps save space since the container’s shape doesn’t cause other containers stacked on top of it to eat up space unnecessarily. Stacking helps reduce the total space footprint of a container so you can pack more containers in the same space.

Separate lids

Even if you create a container design that is very stackable, if it doesn’t have a separate lid, it might use up a lot of space and, if stacked, might turn out to be very bulky. Also, if you laid the container flat, it might take up space which you can’t put other items in. In other words, it might take up space in a very inefficient way. Containers with separate lids can be designed and streamlined so they take up space very efficiently while their lids also stack up efficiently. Due to their separate but efficient designs, separate parts don’t take up as much space compared to if they were designed to stay connected.

Lids, lids, lids everywhere

Regardless of which everyday food storage container option you plan to use, it will require a lid. While there are some food storage containers that use a fixed lid, these tend to be quite bulky, and they don’t stack up well with other lids and containers you have. They also have an awkward shape that might cause storage issues if you already have a packed cupboard. More likely than not, you will use everyday food storage options that use detached lids. The problem with parts that come apart is that one part might be easy to find but the other part (in most instances, the lid) gets misplaced easily and you run the risk of having a cupboard full of lids with misplaced of missing counterpart bottom pieces.

Badly stacked containers

You may have bought a lot of containers for everyday food storage based on the size and shape of the food items you’ll be storing. While food shape-specific storage options mean you can store leftovers or ingredients in the best possible way to retain their shape, this can cause headaches. Your cupboard will be filled with badly stacked containers. Instead of neatly and efficiently stacked containers, you will have a mad jumble of containers and this can lead to misplaced lids or container bowls down the road.

Missing container parts

The two factors above often combine to create the biggest everyday food storage hassle-misplaced container parts. This is especially frustrating if you are hurrying out the door on your way to the office and try to pack lunch. You soon find yourself pawing through your cupboard trying to find parts that will fit with other parts.