If you’re a client, friend or follower of Tidy Nest, you know we swear by IRIS weathertight totes for all our long-term storage needs.
Here’s why:
protection
Spaces like garages, attics and basements can be susceptible to the elements (or critters). The air and watertight seals on these totes keeps the content protected. They have 6 (!!) latches and while it makes them slightly more time consuming to open, it guarantees nothing is getting in there! We’ve even sprayed the latched bins with a hose and the contents remained dry!
visibility
Anything that is not accessed regularly should be contained in clear bins so the contents are visible. Opaque bins invite and hide clutter and usually become repositories for miscellaneous items. Plus, your labeling system has to be spot on - if your opaque bins are not labeled clearly or the labels fall off, you’ll find yourself unstacking and opening up bins over and over to figure out what they actually contain.
durability
These totes are more expensive than the basic totes (like Sterilite) but they last much longer. We’ve been using the same totes for close to a decade and you’d never know they were so old!
Versatility
While retailers such as Home Depot and Amazon carry weathertight totes, we prefer the IRIS brand from The Container Store because they have a wide variety of sizes to choose from and even their largest size is still manageable. (don't get us started on those ridiculously large plastic totes).
You can shop these totes (and all our favorite products) on our LTK site.
disclaimers:
photos from The Container Store
If you purchase from one of our LTK links, we may earn a small commission.