Day 62

I stack my recyclables up in the kitchen corner near the refrigerator until someone is coming to visit or they fall off the counter.  At this point, I usually collect them and then walk the 25 feet to the bins in the garage where they then wait until I remember to put them out for the truck.  I would probably have less chance of growing some food born pathogen as well as get more exercise if I made more routine trips, but  then I wouldn’t have had this AH HA moment I had last week.

I was getting ready to pack the kids a snack for summer camp and this was what the counter looked like.

On the left is a couple of containers that I BOUGHT EMPTY to store food (pre Simple Year).  On the right are three containers that came FREE WITH PURCHASE and I was getting ready to dispose of.

That makes no sense, yet I have been doing it for years.  Out goes the hummus and feta containers to make room for the sexier, Robert Palmer girls of storage containers, Gladware (NOW! With interlocking lids)*    I’m not sure at the exact point that reusing containers like we did in childhood, fell out of vogue.  (by the way, I don’t consider myself that old, this wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things). I remember:

• Drinking out of mayonnaise jars (or canning jars) as well as using them for soups and other fluids
• Jelly glasses- these were even made to reuse with decorative pictures printed on the sides
• Butter tubs- this is what we used to pack lunches and store leftovers
• Chip and cookie tins- also decorative as well as great for storing toys

Now we seemed to have created a gazillion-dollar industry for  reusable storage containers for our stuff, and not just our food stuff, have you seen the aisle of storage bins at any big box store, like Target?  How many specialty made boxes do you have for holiday decorations?  While growing up we just had a couple cardboard boxes.  And, aside from needing some occasional duct tape through the years, they seemed to work fine.   I can’t help thinking of the late George Carlin’s famous and very funny “stuff skit.”    He was ahead of his time.  (link here).

On the Gladware website, they purport that their containers will make your cabinets more orderly, your children smarter and your husband better looking.  Well, OK, they actually only state the first one, the last two they simply imply.  But, I’m going to go out on a limb here and offer that it is probably not the containers so much as the person stacking the containers.   My grandmother had incredibly tidy stacks of little pimento cheese glasses and cottage cheese containers lined up in pristine rows waiting for reuse.  On the other hand, my cabinet is full of those specially made containers, yet there is still a clear plastic avalanche anytime I open the door.

Even past The Simple Year,  I’m going to make every effort to go “old school” with my storage containers and reuse those already in existence.

*If you didn’t get my somewhat vague 80’s Robert Palmer reference, this link might help.