This Clever Plastic Container Washing Trick Works Like Magic

Sometimes we wonder why food storage containers are clear instead of spaghetti-sauce orange because we all know they're going to end up that color eventually. It's a never-ending fight, it seems, to keep your food storage containers clean and stain-free. That's because plastic containers have a slightly porous surface, so when you store something like spaghetti sauce inside, the oils in the food can penetrate those pores, leaving a stain that's difficult to get rid of.

To help prevent stains, you can spray a light coat of cooking oil in the container before adding the sauce to it to help prevent stains from forming, or you can clean the container as soon as possible to minimize absorption. That doesn't always work, but before you give up and throw the containers out, we have a hack you have to see.

Content creator @serena72lee just shared an amazing trick to help you get those stains out of plastic containers when they inevitably happen. It's so easy we can't believe it works.

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According to Serena, all you have to do is dampen a paper towel with hot water then lightly ball the paper towel up and place it in the stained container. Squeeze a little dish soap on the paper towel, put the lid on the container, then vigorously shake the container for around 30 seconds. That's it!

When you open the lid, the stains will magically be gone! Just rinse out the soap and your container is as good as new. This is absolutely incredible and something we wish we'd known about sooner because this is going to be life-changing.

"You are a wizard Serena!! ?? You made it look so easy!!" someone commented on her video on Instagram.

If you'd like to stretch your paper towels, the commenters have a solve for that too. "You can even rip the paper towel in half and it would still work," added someone else.

"What!!!!! How!!!!!" another person chimed in. We're just as stunned that it actually worked, but we're so happy to have this knowledge.

"Amazing hack….. I use it all the time now," someone added. We have a feeling we'll be using it often, too.

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Related: The Clever Dishwasher Trick We Wish We'd Known About Sooner