Buy ice cream in plastic buckets. They make great storage containers for paddling/traveling and the lids (upside down) make great cutting boards!
Travelling in a car yep
Paddling not so much…they are not watertight and are no match for rodents.
Paint buckets with gamma lids are good for paddling and also make a good stool/table. They are heavier duty.
Have fallen out of love
with ice-cream, but those food containers usually have too thin material for cutting board. If you have enough room for ice-cream bucket - take a small cutting board of proper material.
And - yes, they are not waterproof. Plastic tobacco jars are more tight, can be bought in secondhand shops.
Drywall mud buckets
Too big for kayaks but might be good for canoes. Really sturdy.
I HATE cheap ice cream…it’s mostly fillers, air, and artificial flavors.
5 gallon bucket with lid
The ultimate in canoe accesories. Waterproof, floats if not overloaded,sit on it at the sandbar, store your small gear in it when you get home.
I prefer a smaller bucket
A 3.5 gallon bucket for in the canoe. Works great for filtering silty water too, if you fill it up with water and let it settle overnight before filtering.
Other than that, any of my expensive gear goes into Lexan dryboxes.
When I installed the 8" Gaspachi Hatch
in my Ocean Kayak Scrambler, XT,
I shoved one of these ice-cream buckets mentioned into the kayak to hold my things that I dropped into the hatch.
Yes, it keeps them dryer than a bag.
Yes it keeps them handy and not lost inside.
Yes it is bigger than the bag I could have installed.
NO it isn;t strong and so crushes easily!
I’d rather NOT use it in my Dirage SinK as the lid will leak and the thing will crush.
STILL, a couple of these nesting inside each other are carry-buckets for small things and water.