The short answer
Clear in dark storage, opaque anywhere daylight reaches. If your attic has no window, clear wins and it is not close. If your garage has a window or a translucent roof panel, put the ribbon and the wrapping paper in opaque bins and use clear for the plastic foliage.
The two, side by side
Published figures and practical behavior | Clear (Sterilite 66 qt ClearView) | Opaque (Rubbermaid Roughneck 25 gal) |
|---|
| Outside | 23 5/8 x 16 3/8 x 13 1/4 in | 28.875 x 19.875 x 16.75 in |
| Inside | 19 7/8 x 13 3/8 x 12 7/8 in | 21.25 x 14.75 x 16.25 in |
| Interior height | 12 7/8 in | 16.25 in |
| Identification | See the contents | Label required |
| Light protection | None | Full |
| Wall | Thinner, clearer | Thicker, opaque |
The identification argument
Eight identical bins in an attic is the problem this whole category creates. Clear walls solve it with hardware rather than discipline: you look, you see the tree skirt, you take that bin down.
The honest limit is that clear is only clear in good light. In a dim attic with a torch, a clear bin packed full of tissue paper and red-and-green objects looks much like the next clear bin. Clear helps most when the contents are visually distinct, and helps least when everything inside is the same color.
The fading argument
Ultraviolet light passes through clear polypropylene. Over years it fades printed wrapping paper, dulls ribbon, and yellows white plastic. Reds go first.
This is not a fast process and it is not a reason to panic. It is a reason to think about where the bin actually sits. A dark attic delivers almost no light at all, and clear is fine. A garage with a window, a carport, a room with a skylight — those are lit environments even when they feel dim, and the light-sensitive contents belong in opaque bins there.
What is genuinely light-sensitive: printed paper, ribbon, fabric, painted card, dried natural material. What is not: glass ornaments, plastic foliage, metal, light strands. A split by content type is more useful than a blanket rule.
The other difference: wall thickness
Clear bins are typically thinner-walled than heavy opaque totes, because clarity and rigidity pull in opposite directions in polypropylene. That shows up in the published numbers: the Roughneck loses 7.6 inches between outside and inside length, and the ClearView loses 3.75 inches.
That is a real trade. The Roughneck gives you less usable volume for its footprint and more crush resistance. On a garage floor, under a stack, the thicker wall is what you are paying for.
Getting both
Label opaque bins properly and clear bins stop having an advantage. A label on the short end, readable from the aisle, with three or four words on it, beats squinting through plastic every time.
The system that works is on labeling so you find it next year. And if the deciding factor is interior height rather than either of these, the published figures for every bin we rank are on bins by capacity.