Sustainable Storage Choices

In my short researches this afternoon, I've found that glass containers are acknowledged as the best, with porcelain, ceramic, and stainless steel following up as good choices. My plans now are to raid the old kitchen things my mom and grandma have given me over the years as they've modernized their kitchens, to find the glass and ceramic containers I know I have somewhere. Next, I'll raid Goodwill and Salvation Army shops (where, bonus!, I usually also find great old vinyl records).

If you'd like to support some green, sustainable product manufacturers, I did come across a few awesome websites that you could check out for brand-new good stuff.

http://worldcentric.org/
http://www.to-goware.com/
http://www.grinningplanet.com/

Other options are glass products from such well-known names as Pyrex, Corningware, and Anchor Hocking.

It's easy to reduce plastics in your kitchen! And I'm even taking one website's suggestion and storing my smaller sewing items in some of the old plastic containers I've removed from the kitchen cabinets. Next on the agenda: get rid of all paper napkins and paper towels. I'm already halfway there.

funky cloth napkins rolled up and ready for dinner

Cabinet Clutter

If you have a kitchen, you have problems with clutter. I don't care who you are or where you live; if you don't have clutter problems, especially in your storage-containers cabinet, you are probably not human.

Today, my mom left the clean reusable I Can't Believe It's Not Butter and Cool Whip containers on the counter after unloading them from the dishwasher, and I set to work putting them away.

"We have too many," I said after several futile stacking attempts, and she agreed.

I pushed around a few more containers and found six Cool Whip containers in the back.

"Do we ever use these? We could get rid of them, you know."

Mom considered, and then said, "Well, I like them for when I make soup in the fall and winter."

Images of plastic containers in the freezer popped into my head. Then, in CSI-like quality, I could see the plastic poisons leaking into my mom's frozen soups, like cartoon neon-green poison fumes in old episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"Mom, I want to buy you new containers."

At first, she wondered why I would want new containers when we already have containers. I'm a chronic reuser, after all. But when I explained my fears of plastics, especially old ones, she saw what I meant.

"I mean, if you don't want to ..." I said.

"Well, I don't want cancer, either!" she said. So I set to work.


Most of the containers are recyclable #2, #4, and #5, which is great (they won't go to landfills yayy!). And some of the unlabeled lids will fit nicely under flowerpots in the potting shed. But what are we going to store Mom's soups in this winter if we get rid of all of these?

...which is what I'm researching this week. Mom remembers her mother and neighbors exchanging foods in glass canning jars, so I'll start there and see what other options I have. Stainless steel? Protected aluminum? Wood? We'll see. Stay tuned.

ah, Ha ha ... ha ... so ...

I'm finishing up my book list for one of my classes this fall, and I just noticed that all of the authors are women, and at least three of the books are concerned with seeking home. Clearly there is a theme, but it's an unintentional theme. My plan going into this book list was to seek diversity. Hence the title of this post.

Before I carve these authors and titles in stone, I ask you, my faithful readers, to provide me with one title of a literary nonfiction book with a male author or regarding some topic other than home or place ... or preferably both. Just one from each of you and I will be delighted.

Many thanks to all. And if you don't give me a suggestion, I'm blocking you from my blog for the rest of time. Just kidding. I'll probably just add another woman writer's book about home to the list and risk being accused of having a one-track mind.