Which POP Container Sizes Fit a Small Pantry: 5 Picks by Staple

The slim rectangle short is the size for the awkward shelf: the one above the coffee maker or inside a cabinet door where nothing deep fits. OXO sizes it for about a pound of pasta, two pounds of rice or a 12-ounce bag of coffee, and its narrow footprint lets you line up three or four of them where one round canister would sit. The trade-off is height: at 1.2 quarts it is short, so long spaghetti has to go in something taller. Push the button to seal, push again to open, and use the fill line on the side so you never overfill past the seal.

The small square short is the workhorse of the range and the one to buy first if you are testing whether the system suits you. It is calibrated for a one-pound bag of brown or confectioner's sugar, which also makes it right for a pound of rice, lentils or oats. The square shape means two of them sit flush against each other with no wasted gap, and the 1.1-quart height clears most standard pantry shelves with room to stack a mini on top. What it does not do is hold a family-sized anything: if you buy staples in bulk, skip straight to the medium sizes.

At 2.7 quarts, the rectangle medium is the size that takes a regular 2-pound bag of all-purpose flour with room for a scoop, and it is the one most people mean when they picture a flour canister. The rectangle shape is deeper than it is wide, so it uses shelf depth instead of shelf width, which is exactly what a narrow pantry wants. The curved inside corners let a measuring cup scrape clean without leaving a ridge of flour behind. It is not the right size for a 5-pound bag, and it is tall enough that you should check clearance before buying it for a cabinet with a fixed shelf.

The big square medium is the cereal box replacement: 4.4 quarts swallows a standard family box, and the wide mouth means a cup drops straight in without spilling flakes down the outside. Sealed, it keeps cereal crisp for weeks instead of days, which is the actual money saver in this list. It is also the container that demands the most room: a big square is roughly the footprint of two small squares side by side, so in a small pantry it belongs on the floor-level shelf or on top of the fridge. If cereal is an occasional buy rather than a daily one, the rectangle tall does the job in less space.

The steel coffee POP is the one you leave on the counter. It is sized for a one-pound bag of beans, the stainless band hides fingerprints better than the clear plastic body of the standard range, and the 2-tablespoon scoop clips to the underside of the lid so it is always there at six in the morning. The airtight seal matters more for coffee than for anything else in this list, because beans go stale in the open within days. The price is higher than the plain version of the same 1.7-quart size, and the scoop is the reason: if you already use a scale, buy the plain rectangle short instead.