Remove Stubborn Stains From Your Food Storage Containers With This Genius Hack

Storing leftovers in your Tupperware or any other storage container is smart. They keep food fresh and tasty longer, you can use them to transport food anywhere. All is well and good, until that fateful day when you store spaghetti or an Indian curry in one, and then the container suddenly has a stain that you can't seem to wash off. You may have an urge to toss them out, but don't — they're still perfectly good. The secret to removing food stains from your storage containers is to clean them with denture tablets.

There are a zillion brands of denture tablets, and a popular one, Polident, advertises that it accomplishes "overnight whitening," which is exactly the stain lifting we're going for. Most denture tablets have similar ingredients, including two very important ones. The first is sodium bicarbonate, also known as baking soda. You can use it in a myriad of ways around your house, including to remove stains, which makes sense as to why it's also useful here. The second main ingredient is citric acid, which helps to break down build-up of residue.

Who cares if you're in your 20s or 30s and suddenly buying denture tablets; no one has to know what's going on in your refrigerator. Give yourself a gold star for being a responsible Tupperware parent and saving money by not buying new storage containers. The best approach to take once you've purchased the tablets is to fill the stained containers with hot water. Pop in two denture tablets and let them marinate overnight. In case you have cats that like to jump on counters and drink water at all hours, consider covering them securely with their lids or leaving them in a cabinet or the microwave. The next day, discard the water, wash as usual, and then rinse.

If you don't want to get denture tablets or you happen to already have a box of Alka Seltzer sitting in your medicine cabinet, you could use those instead in the exact same manner. The reason? Although not identical to denture tablets, Alka Seltzer also contains sodium bicarbonate and citric acid, and therefore will clean off food stains. Bonus tip: to boost stain removal of your food storage containers even more, let them sit in the sun after you're done. Voila!