--So you're halfway thru that half gallon of the good stuff and to go deeper you've got to get totally gooey. So whip out the scissors and try to trim off the top of the container; never comes out right does it? If the container was perforated it could be easily reduced in height in, say, one inch increments. Space saving in the freezer, too.
-- Steamboat, Jan 27 2006

My idea for Pringles Tear-Away_20Pringles_20Canister
Similar execution, different reason. [DesertFox, Feb 02 2006]

...but wouldn't it leak out the sides and get the freezer all gooey?
-- po, Jan 27 2006


The problem I see with this device, you know from [po]'s statement of the obvious that it would leak out, is that with exposure to air like that it would get freezerburned in no time and taste gross.
-- DeliveranceRiverBoatCaptain, Jan 27 2006


But [Steamboat] has correctly identified two real problems with the way ice cream is curently packaged: half-used containers are messy to access and they waste too much room in the freezer. I frequently will cut down a carton with a pair of kitchen shears to make it more space-efficient. If micro-perforations aren't the answer, then how about at least providing printed guidelines (they can be on the inside of the container) for those of us who have the will but are not necessarily handy with a pair of scissors when raiding the freezer after midnight?
-- jurist, Jan 27 2006


You guys actually cut the carton to save room? You got too much time on your hands, to take scissors to an ice cream carton -just right- so that the lid will go back on.

I do one of two things to solve the problem mentioned by [Steamboat]: Scoop the ice cream, get a little ice cram on my hands, now here's the tricky part, wash them. Let me repeat that in case you didn't get it; wash them.

Or if I am feeling really lazy I just take the whole damn carton with me and eat out of it and finish it off.
-- DeliveranceRiverBoatCaptain, Jan 27 2006


No "Martha Stewart Award" for you, Cappy.
-- jurist, Jan 27 2006


Awwww, does that mean I DON'T get to go to prison?
-- DeliveranceRiverBoatCaptain, Jan 27 2006


In days afore most your little lights shined, ice cream was packed in paper covered "servings" then packed into larger boxes.

Later, we blew our lead trying to keep ahead of the communists; grubby lot that, spooning out of boxes like the proletariat do.
-- reensure, Jan 27 2006


[drbc] "Perforations" need not imply complete penetration through the cardboard (or plastic coating.) Just enough weakening of the wall to make tearing easy. So no worries on air exposure - actually less air is entrained as the sides come down.

One could have multiple tabs to pull to make this easy(as on frozen orange Juice cylindars.)
-- csea, Jan 27 2006


Looking at an ice cream carton right now, this idea would not work at all.

The top of the carton has a lip, making the lid close tightly on it. If you cut the sides off, the lid would just rest on top, and air would get in. Besides the fact that the lid would fall off if tilted slightly.
-- DeliveranceRiverBoatCaptain, Jan 27 2006


But this is just the kind of problem halfbakers are good at solving. Nice try [Steamboat].
-- PollyNo9, Jan 27 2006


How about make the whole carton operate like a push pop, then you could just trim of the bottom of the container to save space. Also there is the icecream glove but as Ali G found out it is hard to get investors onboard with that concept.
-- redsimple, Jan 27 2006


Nothing to prevent multiple lips at 1" intervals with perforations cut just above and inside of lips (except perhaps cost.)
-- csea, Jan 27 2006


Or, if you please, you could just add a rubber band around the newly cut container like an o-ring gasket to provide a tight seal. In all honesty, though, I've been cutting down cartons for years and never before found this to be a problem that needed to be addressed.
-- jurist, Jan 28 2006


Actually a gasketed lid would be better than a rubber band on the freshly-torn lip; less likely to crumple that way.
-- Steamboat, Feb 02 2006


Just be like me and eat the whole gallon at once *urp*.
-- shapu, Feb 02 2006


You -wash- your hands, [DRBC]? Man, you have too much free time. ;)
-- pigonthewing, Feb 03 2006


If your ice cream is gooey after the first half of the carton, you aren't storing it properly in the first place.
-- Jscotty, Feb 03 2006



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