Tupperdor Guide: Storing Cigars in Tupperware

A working tupperdor needs three things and nothing else: an airtight container, Spanish cedar, and a humidity source.

• An airtight polypropylene container. Sistema, Lock & Lock, and similar food-storage brands with a gasket-sealed, snap-latch lid all work. A 6–10 liter box holds roughly 20–40 cigars comfortably.
• Spanish cedar sheets. Sold in packs of 5–10 on Amazon for $10–20. These line the walls and floor and give cigars their cedar aroma.
• Boveda humidity packs. Two-way packs (65% or 69% RH) are the standard choice — see our Boveda humidity packs guide for exact sizing by container volume.
• A digital hygrometer. Optional but strongly recommended for your first few weeks, so you can confirm the setup actually holds the level you expect. Our cigar hygrometers guide covers picks.

Building a tupperdor takes about five minutes once you have the parts on hand.

1. Pick the container. Choose a box sized for slightly more cigars than you own today — an underfilled tupperdor holds humidity less steadily than one that's two-thirds full. Confirm the lid seals with a full gasket or an audible snap, not just a loose-fitting lid.
2. Line it with cedar. Lay cedar sheets across the bottom and up the sides if the sheets are flexible enough. This isn't structural — it's there for aroma and a small amount of humidity buffering.
3. Add your humidity pack. Place one Boveda pack per roughly 25 cigars of container capacity directly in the box, not tucked inside a cigar box within the box, so it can condition the full air space.
4. Skip seasoning. Unlike wood, polypropylene doesn't absorb moisture, so there's no dry cedar core to bring up to humidity first. Add cigars right away.
5. Close it and check in 24 hours. Read the hygrometer, or feel a cigar's foot, after a day. If humidity reads low, add a second pack; if it's fogging or feels wet, crack the lid for an hour and recheck.

• Don't overpack cedar. One or two sheets is plenty — more doesn't add capacity, it just eats into cigar space.
• Burp it occasionally. Opening the lid for a few seconds every week or two clears any staleness from sitting stagnant air, without meaningfully affecting humidity.
• Label the build date. Boveda packs are spent when they go rigid, typically 3–6 months in a well-sealed tupperdor — write the date on a sticky note inside the lid so you're not guessing later.
• Keep it out of direct sun. A clear or translucent tupperdor left on a sunny windowsill runs hot inside even if the room feels fine — store it in a closet or cabinet instead.

• Using a container that isn't actually airtight. Not every "sealed" lid holds a real gasket seal — press-fit lids without a rubber gasket leak slowly and defeat the entire point of the build.
• Skipping the hygrometer. Without one, you're guessing whether the setup is actually working until a cigar tells you the hard way.
• Under-packing humidity. One small pack in a large tote won't keep up. Size the pack to the container's full volume, not just the cigar count.
• Wiping the inside with water. Some older guides recommend a damp-sponge wipe-down to speed up conditioning. Skip it — it's unnecessary for a tupperdor, since there's no cedar core to season, and it's how mold gets started.

A mason jar or acrylic jar is the tupperdor's smaller sibling — the same airtight-container principle, scaled down for a handful of cigars instead of a full box. It's a genuinely different tool, not a downsized tupperdor: jars suit single-cigar or short-term storage, where a tote is overkill.

• Sizing. A wide-mouth quart (32 oz) mason jar holds 1–2 robusto-sized cigars; a half-gallon (64 oz) jar holds 3–5. Acrylic humidor jars sold specifically for cigars run larger, typically 15–25 cigars, and use a screw-top or hinged glass lid with a built-in rubber gasket rather than a canning-jar seal.
• Seasoning. Glass and acrylic don't absorb moisture, so — like a tupperdor — a jar needs no seasoning period. Add a small cedar disc or a strip of cedar sheet cut to fit, drop in a pack, and add cigars the same day.
• Pack choice. Jar-scale storage calls for a small pack sized to the jar, not a fraction of a larger one — an 8-gram or 60-gram Boveda pack is right for the small air volume and won't overshoot it. Our Boveda humidity packs guide has the sizing chart by container size.
• When a jar beats a tupperdor. A jar is the better call for a handful of cigars you're actively working through, a gift you're conditioning before giving, or a nightstand-sized stash — anywhere a full tote is more container than you need. For a growing collection, a tupperdor or a proper humidor scales better.

A tupperdor turns a $10 plastic container into working cigar storage in about five minutes, using nothing more than cedar sheets and a correctly sized Boveda pack. Build it right — a genuinely airtight lid, cedar for aroma, a pack sized to the container's volume — and it holds humidity as reliably as many wooden boxes costing far more. For smaller quantities, a mason or acrylic jar does the same job at an even smaller scale. Once it's running, use the Humidor Tracker to log your build date and get a reminder before your Boveda pack goes rigid.