Too much air for comfort.

Why decant into bottles?

Just think if you had 16 ounces of milk left in a 32 ounce container.  The carton is taking up space in the fridge.  A half-gallon milk carton gobbles about 25 square inches of space in your refrigerator door, while a tall, slim bottle may take up only 9 square inches (approximately).  Let's not even talk about cubic inches although they do relate to "airspace."

Here are some bottles which I have collected over the years for decanting (photo #1).  Each of these bottles is good for the container-addicted because they wash easily in the dishwasher and the cap sizes are very standard.  The tall, slim one on the right once held V-8 juice.  This goes back to when most products were still sold in glass containers (you can't find this bottle anywhere these days, and I "hoard" my three very jealously)!  These are perfect for milk containers, and I pour into these when my milk carton is down about a pint.  One V-8 bottle plus one pint bottle holds the remaining milk and makes storage in the fridge much easier.  My son actually loved this routine because he could grab one of the pint bottles and drink right out of it without getting into trouble (he usually just finished it and put it into the dishwasher, not back into the fridge).

Photo #1. 

Photo #2

Next over is a one-pint health drink bottle.  I think it's quite Smooth and Elegant!  It takes a regular screw-top lid which has a little gasket to make it liquid-tight.(Note the "Synergy" drink bottle in Photo #2.  This was my source for the Smooth Elegant bottle.  Once one of us downs that we'll have another pint bottle I will hang onto and use!)  This bottle is currently holding one delicious pint of cream.  The remaining 6-8 ounces from the quart cream carton went into the little juice bottle, far left in photo #1.  As you can see, I've almost used all of that, and we have an air-space problem again.  Put this back into the fridge this way and the half & half dries inside the bottle, making it harder to wash, even in the dishwasher.

Reader shrinks in horror . . . she can't be planning, she wouldn't possibly . . .  (If my mother were here she would be saying -- "Don't bother doing that!  That's fine the way it is!  Just DRINK that cream!" My mother was known to put a 5 quart casserole back into the fridge containing 1/2 cup of tuna surprise.  We never did see things eye-to-eye.)  Yes, I would possibly . . . .  see photo #3.

Photo #3

I've poured that dab of cream into one of those tiny catsup bottles you get from room service at nice hotels.  Yes, I have a collection of these!  It's just the right size for cream for one or two cups of coffee for me.  I've taken cream in my ice-chest for camping before in these little bottles, and have also packed single-serve maple syrup if I'm going to do a camp breakfast up hearty.  These little bottles are quite charming, and I note that visitors are enchanted if I serve them coffee and their own little cream bottle.  Maybe we all have a deep-seated desire to play house?

Photo #4

Back to my liquid decanter section.  The jar on the left in photo #4 is a salsa jar, but I've discovered they are great for pint use also, as well as for storing little dry goods like nuts or M&M's.  I tend to use these pints for milk, and the other Smooth Elegant and small juice jars for the cream.  No particular reason, I just like to do this.

The tall V-8 jar is also excellent for juice.  Our favorite juice is the unsweetened Cran-Raspberry from Costco which comes in a huge plastic jug.  I decant it ASAP into several different jars and stash them around the fridge.  This is also more convenient because my hands and wrists sometimes ache, and lifting a huge jug is painful.  I also decant liquids for my 91 year-old mother in her little retirement apartment.  She has osteo-arthritis and osteoporosis.  EVERYTHING is heavy for her these days, and she no longer complains about me decanting -- she appreciates it!