Originally Posted by GailG

This may sound old fashioned, but it was learned from my mom and her mom before her. I use mason jars (wide mouth) to store soups, chili, beans, spaghetti sauce in the fridge. (Before the empty nest, I even used them for the freezer.) First of all it economizes on space. The tall jars take a lot less room than a storage dish or container. Now as the for the stained plastic containers. Sometimes a soak in a mild bleach solution will do the trick, other times not.