stop the MADNESS

Our "food grade" plastics had gotten out of control. I knew that. But it took cleaning out the cabinet to really see how out of control it was. I wish i had a picture of the "before" cabinet. It's the merging of the two collections of plasticware from when we were married. It's the stuff that "made putting dinner away easy" because you could just throw it in the tub, put a lid on it, and stuff it in the fridge. Maybe give it a second thought in the morning, if you needed lunch for work.

Granted, it's not the Texas-sized garbage island in the Pacific, but it's close.

I'm ashamed to say i took a large paper grocery sack of lids with no mates to the recycle bin today. We no the drill all too well...you reheat in the micro (not only exposing yourself to all those lovely cancer-causing toxins), but also boiling the heck out of the plastic molecules to cause scorch marks on the tubs. So then you pitch the tub. But what about the lid?

The bags above are just of the items i am freecycling. I figure it is a convinent time of year to do it...there are a handfull of divided dinner plates, an 8 cup pitcher, lots of water bottles and medium tubs, ice pop molds. You get the picture. Perfect for Thanksgiving--especially the ones you can give away without worry of never being returned so guests can take home leftovers.

Speaking of "leftovers"....

Here's my food storage devices cabinet now--with the items that were allowed to stay.

Made me realise i have a nice little collection of Pyrex now which makes me very giddy!

I think i'll make this picture the screensaver on my cell phone, so that when i am at the store, thinking i need to purchase some plastic food storage bins, this will make me think otherwise!

Truthfully, the thing that makes me ill is that i can imagine that i am not the only one in the world tackling this kind of project this weekend. And from the sheer volume produced just by our little family unit, i can't imagine what the total volume would look like for the entire "wasted" plastic food storage that people amass, then pitch. Truly, all i can think of is Wall-E right now. And while it is impossible to rid a modern home of all plastics (i.e. dairy containers are a big one), considering switching to glass pantry storage is way more economical than the viscious cycle that is "Glad" to take your money every few months for the crappy plastic storage bins.

Now that some dairies are going back to glass milk bottles, i wonder how long it will be before they start packing things like yoghurt, cottage cheese, et al in glass or compostable containers. The Italians already pack yoghurt in individualised glass cups with foil lids--which are the perfect size for craft storage of small objects or candle votives, by the way. wink,wink

And although Flylady warns of the dangers of pulling out the markers and rulers to get organised, i couldn't help but do it for this.

I hope it works and i won't have to clean this cabinet out again until we pack up to move.