Small containers find plenty of use in the kitchen, since they can serve as air-tight holding vessels for all sorts of food items. The Botto Design ½ Smart Storage System does, pretty much, the same thing as any of air-tight plastic jar, albeit with one neat trick: it can change in size to perfectly accommodate the volume of its contents.
Billed as “the most satisfying storage container ever,” it’s a collapsible plastic jar with a variable volume capacity, allowing it to expand or shrink depending on how much items it contains. Whether you’re using it to hold sugar, cereal, or any other food item that finds frequent use in the kitchen, this thing will store everything in an optimized manner.
The Botto Design ½ Smart Storage System comes in just one size for now: a jar that can collapse to a 16-ounce volume while expanding up to 32 ounces as needed. According to the outfit, this adjustable design allows you to get rid of any excess air, which should help keep whatever it’s holding fresher for longer, all while being more space-efficient, since it only takes up exactly as much space as it needs to hold its contents. To use, simply pull it up to the maximum size, put in whatever food item you want stored, place the lid on, and press down from the lid. The size adjustment will automatically stop when there’s no more room to collapse, getting you a jar that’s sized perfectly to accommodate its contents.
Construction is 100 percent food-safe plastic, so you can use this with everything, from coffee and grains to herbs and sliced vegetables. It’s completely transparent, so you can see immediately what’s inside, all while being stackable, so you can pile up the containers to further maximize space in your kitchen cabinets. Suffice to say, if you want the most space-efficient way to organize food in your fridge and kitchen, there’s probably nothing than this size-adjustable jar.
The Botto Design ½ Smart Storage System’s lid comes with a one-way check valve in the middle. When you push down on the lid to shrink the container, air is forced out through that valve, ensuring all excess air is eliminated, which should help extend the food’s shelf life even further. A sealing gasket on the lid and an extension gasket on the telescoping section ensure air is kept out of the container the whole time it’s closed, so whatever item you place inside can stay fresh for as long as possible.
While it’s only available in one size, the design of the container is simple enough that it can definitely be scaled to container sizes beyond 32 ounces. Suffice to say, if this initial run is successful, it’s very likely we’ll see the same design in containers of various diameters, allowing you to get the same benefits in a variety of storage options.
A Kickstarter campaign is currently running for the Botto Design ½ Smart Storage System. You can reserve a unit for pledges starting at $15.