Well, I’m thinking of doing a post detailing my process for the containers, but I can explain it briefly for you here. First two things. Indeed, sometimes the information will come before the image, especially if the coding was not very memorable. That is not a problem, since it strengthens the connections, but is maybe an indicator that the image must be altered or more vividly visualized. Second, I believe that one of the most important parts of the encoding is the link between the location and the first image in the scene. A great explanation is in this old but absolutely fundamental post:
Understanding that got me to a new level in my memory journey. Hope that helps you too.
About the containers. I developed this technique drawing inspiration from Lev Goldentouch in his book Key to Study, and from the Macunx technique, which didn’t work form me for the similarities of the virtual loci. I took the idea of putting up to four images in one locus from Lev an the geometrical arrangement from the macunx (or, more precisely, from the quincunx that is a part of it).
I have a code for the first ten numbers, with colors and elements (one is white-air; two is purple-fire; three is navy blue-water; four is cyan-ice; five is green-grass). The containers always are arranged the same way, a dual container is left-white-air, right-purple-fire; a triple container is up-white-air, bottom left-purple-fire, bottom right-blue-water, and so on.
So, let’s say you have an idea which has two subelements to it. For example, learning is a mixture of comprehension (building mental representations) and consolidation (strengthening those representations to be accessible for the long term). Of course, those can be encoded in a single mnemonic scene, but for the sake of the example, let’s say you want to encode them separately. Your locus is your pillow, in your room. So, first, a kid is emerging from the pillow, breaking the pillowcase and spreading the insides of the pillow (that’s the link to the locus). The kid is seated on a school desk working on some book (that would be the image for learning). To his left, there is a whirlwind around a halve finished brain made of jigsaw, with the pieces being moved by the wind. To his right, there is a brain made of still, in a shape similar to a safe, in a container made from purple fire, so the safe is melting a little. As you see, the images in the containers need to be linked to the imaginary loci (the place in the container), and that is easily made with the element/color descriptor. That way you can ask yourself, what is the thing that is being moved by the wind here, or what is the thing being heated by the purple fire, or what is the thing drawing, etc.
Hope that helps.
Personally, I prefer to have definitive images for my concepts, gradually constructed into a visual dictionary of characters. If you are interested in that, you can read my post on my method:
Good luck, mate.