• Plastic hinged lid containers are good storage but can have problems.open pill container image by Roslen Mack from Fotolia.com
  
  Plastic hinged lid containers make good storage for everything from last season's clothes, books and shoes to files, photos and electronic and other equipment. Plastic hinged lid containers, when sealed, are safe from dripping water, from mice and other small creatures as well as from insects. However, certain circumstances can compromise the containers.
  
  

Separation

• The hinges of a container with a plastic hinged lid often separate at inopportune times. Parts of plastic hinges separate from other parts. Even newer containers with plastic hinged lids have parts that can separate. Although at times when the lid parts separate, they can be popped back into place, too often this practice only causes more wear on the hinges and more likelihood of the plastic hinged lid separating every time the lid is open. In time, the parts will not snap back together. When this happens, the container will not seal adequately .
  
  

Breaking

• Worse than separation of the plastic hinges of a container lid is when the plastic hinges actually break. Sometimes the plastic hinges of the container break when opening the container and sometimes one or more of the hinges break when closing and sealing the lid. The parts are plastic. After the hinges break, there is little you can do to salvage the lid. The lid with broken hinges will no longer fit tightly onto the container. This isn't a huge problem if you don't need a tight fitting lid for the material stored in the container. If you do need a tight fit, you'll soon be purchasing a new container.
  
  

Removable

• If the plastic hinged lid of a container is completely removable, the whole lid may be hard to re-set on the container. If you have opened the container and removed some of the contents, it can be hard to hold the removed items and reset the unhinged lid. If the container with a plastic hinged lid has been in use for sometime, the plastic hinges can wear down or break, making it hard to seal the lid onto the container.
  
  

Space

• If the plastic hinged lid of a container is not removable, the open lid hangs out when open, which can make it difficult to keep the container on shelves, desks or other surfaces when opening it to check, add or remove contents. The plastic hinged lid that you cannot remove will always require extra space when open. Another problem with a hinged lid that cannot be removed is the danger of catching the lid on something while moving it, damaging the plastic hinges or completely tearing the lid from the container.