Does anyone pre color their RI and then store it in containers? Thus far I have not found any small containers that are up to the challenge, lots of dried out colors! And with a toddler, mixing colors as I go is out of the question. THanks for any input!

I always pre-color my darker colors-red, black, navy blue, etc... I store my royal in tupperware containers. If it sits for a while, you may have to give it a stir.

So do you have space alloted just for that? My kitchen is small and I have literally a pantry as wide as a door, and it's shared with canned goods. So I have to use really small containers. Last time I used disposable piping bags without tips and just tied the backs shut and waited for the tips to crust, then threw them in a ziploc...worked okay, but obviously not the best way to store it!

I just put mine in cleaned out butter tubs. Put in the frig. Worked fine

I use those ziploc and the other is rubbermaid, I think, they are sometimes with the bags and foils, the rubbermaid (I think) have twist tops, and the ziploc have pop-on blue lids, I actually use my bottom veg drawer in the fridge strickly for my icings. I keep my colored icing to darken or combo with other colors for detailing. And also store whatever white I have left over to color later. I also use those squeeze bottles, so on those I either use the lid, or put some Press and Seal wrap over the tip.

Huh, I was SURE that someone here on CC had told me NOT to refrigerate RI under any circumstances. It seemed weird to me, as I'd rather just do the separate drawer thing.

I have never refrigerated my royal (Antonia's) Everything in it is shelf stable so it doesn't need to be.
I use the small containers and just stack them in a corner of one of my counters.

I have done both ways...refrigerated and shelved...and both ways worked fine. When I have time, I go ahead and put them in their piping bags, put them in the sandwich size ziplock bags and I have a rectangular basket in my pantry on my baking shelf that I just toss them in. I do have a label maker and do tag the bags with the dates on them. The longest I have kept some on the shelf was probably about 6 weeks and the ones in the fridge...probably about 3 weeks because I needed them quicker...HTH!

I bought square Tupperware-type containers just for my RI. I think like an 8 pack was just a few dollars at WM. Good for mixing and storing. I keep it on my supply shelf for a few weeks. It starts to separate after then and if I don't use it by then I toss it (in the garbage, not down the drain since I heard about people clogging their drains with hardened RI!). I've never put mine in the fridge either, just always with a lid on.

I store mine pretty much the same way as Michelle. I bought inexpensive Ziploc containers and wrote "Royal" on them. I lay a piece of plastic wrap over the icing and close them up. I also bought a rubber spatula and wrote RI on it as well. That way I don't scratch up my KA or deflate my RI.