How Annaklin Collapsible Containers Changed Our Life on the Road

I have one overhead cabinet in my galley for food, and for two years I filled it badly.

I'm June Halvorsen. Ray and I travel part of every year in a 2019 Class C motorhome, 25 feet long, mostly the Pacific Northwest in the summer and the Southwest in winter. He runs the grill and the campfire. I run the galley, which is a two-burner propane cooktop, a small microwave, a 6 cubic foot fridge, one narrow drawer and that single overhead cabinet. That is the whole kitchen.

For the first few seasons I used the same rigid plastic containers I use at our house in Salem. They were fine at home, where the shelf never moves. On the road they were a nuisance. They stacked two high and no higher, every mountain pass sent the top one sliding, and half that cabinet was empty air, because a rigid container takes the same room whether it holds a cup of rice or a quart of chili.

In spring 2025 I added an 8 pack of Annaklin collapsible food storage containers. Eight pieces, four sizes from 11.8 ounces up to 40.5 ounces, rectangular and round both, silicone bodies with plastic lids that snap down on four buckles and a silicone seal ring.

The point of them is the collapse. Push the base up into the walls and the container goes flat, roughly half its height. Annaklin puts the space saving at up to 50 percent, and standing in front of that cabinet I believe it. Empty, the whole set nests into a stack about as tall as a paperback book.

Eight containers that fold down to the height of four is not a small thing in a cabinet about two feet wide.

Here is what actually lives in them. Leftover chili from the cast iron Dutch oven goes into the 40.5 ounce, freezes in the 6 cubic foot fridge, and reheats in the microwave. Because the pieces are rated from -4°F to 428°F, the same container goes from freezer to microwave without a second dish to wash. I ladle the chili in while it is still warm, let it cool on the counter with the lid off, then snap all four buckles. No spill yet, and a fridge shelf is not the place you want one.

On travel mornings I prep in them. Diced onion, chopped peppers, a measured cup of rice, each in its own size so I am not hunting through the fridge at seven in the evening with a spatula in my hand. On day trips to a lake I pack sandwiches in the 27 ounce and stack two flat pieces in the day bag for the ride home.

Cleaning was the part I expected to be a problem and it was not. They are dishwasher safe, but we hand wash to keep from filling the gray tank, and the silicone wipes clean with a small squeeze of soap and half a cup of water. The buckles flip off, the seal ring lifts out of the lid, and both go back on without a fight. The pieces stack inside each other in the basin, which is not something you can say about a set of rigid tubs. That matters when the sink is a basin on a picnic table.

Two honest complaints. The lids need a firm press on all four buckles, and if you catch only two, the seal will not hold in a cooler bag on a hot day. And tomato sauce has left a faint stain inside the pieces we use most. It does not affect the food and it has faded, but I would not promise you they stay looking new.

Ray was skeptical. He is a retired machinist and he likes a lid that clamps, and he said so. Then I handed him a full 40.5 ounce of stew by the lid alone and he carried it out to the picnic table without a wobble. He has not mentioned it since, which from him is a review. The other reason the pieces stay is weight. They are light, and everything we add to a 25 foot rig has to earn its place.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to count your cabinet before you buy anything. Open it, look at how much of it is air, and ask whether the food you carry really needs rigid walls. Ours did not. Most of what we keep is leftovers and prepped vegetables, and both are perfectly happy in silicone.

I would also tell you the set will not fix a bad cabinet. It fixed ours because our problem was empty air, not organization. If your problem is that things slide around, buy a shelf mat. If your problem is that you never have the right size when you need it, this is the right size, four of them, twice over.

For the small thing nobody mentions: in a galley this size you serve out of the container you stored in. An Annaklin piece goes from the fridge to the picnic table to the wash basin and back into a flat stack, and it never once takes up room it is not using.

If you want the longer version, I wrote up how the set has held up after eighteen months of trips, and a straight comparison against the rigid plastic containers most of us already own. Read those before you spend anything. Then open your cabinet and count the air. The containers are not the interesting part of a camping trip. They are just the reason the interesting part is not buried under a pile of plastic.