My vegetable drawers are always stuffed to the max, but as far as staples are concerned, I suppose those would be the ones that I would be really annoyed to realize I was out of and couldn't get to the store for a couple of days...things I use all the time. Hmmm. Onions for sure and garlic. Celery, Carrots, Cabbage & tomatoes (canned/fresh). Other things I could cook without, but I'd miss variety. I almost always have salad stuff on hand, generally a few root veggies like turnips & beets. Zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms are other things I almost always have. Then of course there are the things I buy seasonally like corn or green beans or buy for use within a day or two like greens or bean sprouts. Of course, I almost always have a bag or so each of frozen corn & peas and often some frozen spinach or chard as well. I don't usually buy canned vegetables as I don't really like them, except for tomatoes. But I do keep several cans of potatoes for emergencies & many kinds of canned beans for fast meals and to add to soups when I haven't planned ahead enough to soak & cook dried. As for fruit, It's pretty rare that the basket on my counter doesn't have at least a couple of apples, bananas, oranges and grapefruits for snacks & salads as well as lemons and limes. I almost always have a lot of frozen fruit for use in smoothies or desserts or waiting to be turned into jams or chutneys. I dry fruit as well to have on hand for snacking, like apples, mangoes, strawberries, cherries, pineapple & stone fruits. But, I don't really think of any particular fruit as a staple, unless maybe my lemons and limes would qualify because I use them so much. I do keep certain canned fruits for those times I manage to run out of fresh or in those winter months when we get a bit tired of apples and pears. Canned mandarin oranges, pineapple, lychee. I generally can my own peaches, apple & pear sauces, so I usually have those as well.

Ahhh... wow. Never know what you'll find when you google. There was a thread - many threads no doubt, on this subject but at least one to which I contributed a couple years back. I googled and found this on pinterest, which I've never even visited; it's my kitchen!: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/44543483788641019/ Let me report that a couple years forward I consider my long-standing compost issue a complete non-issue now. All those years buying expensive compost buckets that break, being given wacky devices with filters and odor soakers and the rest .... all nonsense. For me, the solution was simple in the end. I have two sinks. Next to one is built in an open shelf, into which I set a plastic square food-service type bin. They're cheap, about $5 for the container and the same for the cover. They are, therefore, easy to replace for little money, but being plastic and a heavy duty good quality plastic at that, just don't need replacing. I think I have replaced them once in a couple years? Or maybe I just thought about it ... I do find that the opaque and not clear bins are better. Having an open shelf for the bucket makes it easy to just stuff the container in there off the counter when I am overtaken with a rare fit of cleanliness. I usually grab it back out within 5 minutes, but it's easy when the shelf is open like that. I have three bins total, a 4qt one and 2 2qt ones. The 2 qt ones fit, end to end, in the space as pictured on pinterest. It's the top of a totally groovy, very expensive rev-a-shelf double bin trash pullout. The cans are stainless steel and hence worth their weight in gold, evidently. The small sizes work great for me, I think the small container is 10L and the larger is 20L. Here's the piece. On top of that plastic shelf you can make out above the section the bins pull out of, is where I set the two smaller food service bins. Wow, Look at all the products this company has. The bins are called Camsquares, but any food service store will carry them for cheap. My cabinet is taller than the pull out bins need so as to leave space up top on that plastic shelves to set the compost. Those go at the food cleanup sink, the larger bucket at the prep sink. I prefer smaller bins for all of the above and just to take it out more often. Smell is *never* a problem unless I forget that third container back there! Which is just as well, how else would you know there had been an oversight? Do search the archives on GW on this topic. The subject has been explored for years. Some folks have some pretty imaginative solutions, with drawers that have overlids, and inset circles into the counters, etc. For the long haul, I recommend simple=good. Grunge happens and builds up and I think it's better to have cheap, easy, replaceable with time. I scrub my bins every time they come back from a compost dump but still, eventually they get a little grubby. I have nothing invested in plastic tubs, so that's easy to just change out.

Straight sided wooden or bamboo boxes with cork or felt shelf liner stuck to the bottom so they don't scratch. You can get them at craft stores, Williams Sonoma, Bed Bath & Beyond etc. Paint them or leave them plain. I also have some old ones on wheels (casters) that slide under benches and cabinets. Kick 'em, not the dog. I don't have pics, but I have seen them in some catalogs They are sometimes billed as factory cast-offs and have that kind of machine-age modern feel, if that's what you like. Try things like old wooden apple, selzer or milk crates, or build a box from scrap wood and/or metal (easyeasyeasy, don't be frightened!). Again, there are MANY kinds of modern, so it depends on what you like. They can be very cheap too, which is nice. Or the antique ones can be expensive!

mrspete - Thanks for the "going south" reminder! I guess that's why I liked the pullout basket I found but can't figure out how to buy! It was polypropylene so sort of plastic but woven to look like a basket. I thought I could wash it out but I have not really seen it or felt it in person. I did find some lovely ceramic jars with holes around the base and they were stamped with "potatoes", "onions", "garlic" at the CHEFS web site. They were called Fresh Valley Canisters and they had them for flour, sugar etc as well. Something like that would work but I thought it would take up above counter space and I really wanted under counter roll out shelf. I will check out IKEA and see if the have wire rollout sheves I like. I can always line the bottoms with wax paper for quick clean up. I use a whole onion for cooking almost every day. Potatoes maybe 1 time a week but they last a long time so I buy different kinds in small amounts. I do not store them together but in very close proximity, different LeCreuseut lid, haha!