"To be truly able to function on a high level in the kitchen, you need space and organization. Pull out all your storage containers. If you don't use them, toss or recycle. If they don't have a lid, toss or recycle (unless you really do use it lidless), and toss and recycle all those abandoned lids (we all have them!) that don't fit anything left in the cupboard."
By this point, I've streamlined my storage containers to a few species:
1. Wide mouth mason jars - great for dried bulk storage as well as bean/soup easy meal prep
2. Pyrex 2 cup bowls - double as cereal bowls and everyone seems to have a few of them, so our inventory ebbs and flows with the circulation of potluck dishes and housewarming gifts
3. Fit packers (meal prep rounded rectangular containers with see through lids) - go-to for leftovers since we often cook a double batch and can easily eat straight out of the reheated container without dirtying more dishes. We can stack these 6 or 7 high in our chest fridge without worrying they might fall and break. They are also the perfect length to span across our chest fridge upper compartment storage baskets to put leftovers that really need to get consumed soon front and center.
4. Round deli containers - these are great for sending the kid to the car with a back seat snack and not worrying they will get bobbled and broken along the way. I also favor these for potluck/hostess type of items when I don't think the recipient will go out of her way to return the empty dish. The majority of these are retired when my kid turns them into germination stations and bug habitats, for Science!
5. Small round plastic snack/condiment containers. We started with 20 or so of these in order to bring individual materials for an over elaborate preschool snack, perhaps it was single servings of banana ice cream from the surplus that ripened on our trees all at once. The stock has dwindled to 4 now since these also made great cat food scoops, mini bug habitats, containers for dice and other small toys, etc.
But even with a limited array of storage containers, there were a few cupboards I had started approaching with dread for fear of a landslide of corroded mason jar lids or the chaos triggered by crowded corner of orphaned lids. Today was a big day for recycling, plus moving two honey dippers to the donation bin. I feel lighter. I will set an annual reminder on my seasonal cleaning lists to reaudit.
In the future, I also aspire to move away from plastic (did you flinch when you read about reheating the plastic containers and eating straight out of them?) but we haven't yet found anything to beat the stacking convenience of the rectangular fitpackers for leftovers, a drop-friendly serving/"I'm full" (after eating 1 goldfish) storage bowl for little hands, and the plastic mason jar lids have a much longer lifespan because they don't rust and canning isn't really our jam yet (see what I did there?).
If anyone has any suggestions to level up our storage though, please let me know!
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