Turn every lid over and read the model number molded into the plastic, then match it to the base carrying the same number. One pass. Recycle whatever is still unpaired at the end of it. Pyrex prints the numbers where you can see them: 7210 is the 3-cup rectangle, 7201 the 4-cup round, 7203 the 6- and 7-cup round. Buy the rack afterward, sized to the lids you kept. A 24-lid organizer is 13.2 x 10.8 x 3.3 in (34 x 27 x 8 cm) and holds lids up to 9 in (23 cm) across, and that last figure decides whether your collection fits.

The number is molded into the lid, not printed on a sticker

Color tells you nothing. Pyrex has sold the same shape in blue, red, black, and purple across product lines, so two lids that look identical can belong to different bases. The molded number is the identity. Prices below are pyrexhome.com list prices checked September 16, 2026.

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ModelShape and sizeLid dimensionsReplacement price
72103-cup rectangular7.25 x 5.5 in (18.4 x 14 cm)$9.99
72014-cup round6.0 in (15.2 cm) across$9.99
72036- and 7-cup round7.5 in (19.1 cm) across$12.49

Note how close 7201 and 7203 run: 6.0 in against 7.5 in, both round, both blue in some sets. In a drawer they read as the same lid until you try to seal something. A tape measure settles it in about five seconds per lid.

The matching base is the other half of the check. The Simply Store 3-cup rectangular container measures 7.25 x 5.5 x 1.75 in (18.4 x 14 x 4.4 cm) and lists at $4.99, exactly matching the 7210 lid's footprint. If a lid overhangs the rim on any side instead of seating flush on it, it is not the lid for that base.

Decide the orphans with one price comparison

Here is the rule that ends the "just in case" debate about a lidless container: a replacement 7210 lid lists at $9.99 while the 3-cup glass base itself lists at $4.99. The lid costs twice what the base costs. That settles it.

So buy a replacement lid only when the base is one you cannot easily replace - a discontinued 11-cup dish, an oven-to-table piece you actually like, a set that is otherwise complete. For an ordinary 3-cup rectangle, replacing the whole container is the cheaper move, and a lidless base becomes a mixing bowl, a fridge dish under plastic wrap, or recycling. Recycle any lid that survives the sort unmatched. It has already failed the only test that matters.

Read the resin code molded into each lid and check it against your municipal program, because cities accept different rigid plastics. Glass bases go in normal glass recycling only if your program takes tempered glass. Many do not, and those bases are better donated intact.

How many containers you actually need

Size the collection to your leftover cycle rather than to the cabinet. Penn State Extension's food-safety guidance puts cooked leftovers at 3 to 4 days in a refrigerator held at 40 degrees F or below, with a freezer at 0 degrees F, and says to reheat to an internal temperature of 165 degrees F. Past four days it is the freezer or the trash.

That gives you a number. Cook four dinners a week, pack two portions from each, and you need roughly eight to ten containers in rotation, plus a few for produce and lunches. Call it twelve matched sets. A drawer holding thirty containers and forty-one lids is not a storage problem waiting for a bigger rack; against that count it is eighteen containers too many. Once you know the count, compare each container's stated capacity with its actual outside dimensions before deciding which ones earn the space.

Size the rack to the lids you kept

Two configurations cover almost everything:

  1. A fixed 24-lid organizer, 13.2 in wide x 10.8 in deep x 3.3 in high, with 5 adjustable dividers, fitting round and square lids up to 9 in across, at $19.99. Its 10.8-inch depth clears most standard wall cabinets with room for the door to close.
  2. An expandable 40-lid organizer, 10.5 in deep and 5.8 in high, widening from 13.2 in to 21.3 in, with 8 adjustable dividers, at $29.99. Use this one when a base cabinet gives you more width than depth, or when your lids include clip-lock styles that will not lie flat.

Pick by your widest lid first and your count second. If your largest lid is the 7.5 in 7203, either rack clears it. If you own a 10-inch rectangular lid from a large bakeware set, neither does, and that lid belongs stored flat on top of its own base. Before ordering, measure the drawer or shelf opening the rack has to live in. The 3.3-inch height is what fails in a shallow drawer, not the footprint.

Twenty minutes tonight, in this order

Empty the whole cabinet onto the table, bases in one row, lids in another. Snap each lid onto its base, working from largest to smallest, because the big ones are unambiguous and clear the field fast. Put every matched pair aside nested, lid on, and count them. Read the molded numbers on the leftovers and give yourself one honest minute per orphan: does a base exist in this house, or not? Recycle what fails.

Now count what survived. If it runs well past twelve sets, the rack you buy will be bigger than your problem - cull to the number your four-day leftover cycle actually needs, then measure the cabinet opening and order the rack that fits it. Store bases nested with lids upright in the rack beside them, never lids on bases, which triples the stack height. When the rack arrives, the sort is already done and loading it takes five minutes. Inventory first, container second, is the same order that makes a pantry count worth doing.

Sources and references