It is easy to forget and leave food in a container, and most foods get moldy very quickly--even if refrigerated. If you clean moldy plastic containers as you would a regularly soiled dish, most of the mold should be destroyed. Since mold can be toxic, it’s important to also disinfect these containers before you use them again to remove all traces--visible or not--of mold.

Put on rubber gloves. Remove any food particles in the containers by wiping them with damp paper towels.

Fill your kitchen sink with hot water. Add the plastic containers and a tbsp. of dish detergent. Let the plastic containers soak for 15 minutes.

Wash the containers with a sponge. Let the water drain out of the sink. Rinse the containers.

Refill the sink, this time with a gallon of water to start with. Add one cup of unscented household bleach to the water, as suggested by the CDC, for disinfecting the dishes. Soak the containers in this water. If one gallon is not enough water to cover the containers, add more in increments of a gallon. Remember to add another cup of bleach per gallon.

Let the containers soak for 30 minutes. Let the water drain out of the sink again and rinse the plastic containers well. Place them in the dish drainer to air dry.