Attacked!

I have had it!

I opened my kitchen cabinet.  You know, that one cabinet you have that houses all the plastic leftover containers?  Upon pulling open the door, an avalanche of a trazillion tupperware boxes, bowls, and lids came crashing down onto me and landed at my feet.  I suddenly found myself knee deep in a sea of plastic pieces.

Here's the problem.  If you don't carefully nest and stack those trazillion pieces in the one and only way that keeps them in order and makes them fit in there, it gets out of control fast.  And the boys in my house - husband/lover/dishwasher Bob and son Caleb - apparently don't feel like bothering with that.  Pieces are just shoved in there, any old way.

It's chaos in there, just chaos.

And that's how I came to be attacked by my own tupperware the other day.

And furthermore, that's how I decided to take the offensive and be ruthless about getting this disorganized jumble of plastic under control.  Once, and for all.

For a while now I've read things about how plastic containers have bad things in them, and especially about how heating food in them can cause cancer and all sorts of other bad things to happen.  My husband has had cancer, and so has one of my daughters.  Due to too much plastic?  I don't know.

I've also become tired of seeing how many of these containers have become so weirdly misshapen and stained over the years of usage.  It doesn't make me feel like putting more food into them, when they don't even really look completely sterile.

So, I went out and purchased 10 pieces - only and exactly 10, (well, 20 if you count the lids) of Pyrex glass food storage containers.  I bought them all in rectangular and square shapes (for the best fit on the shelf) and in various sizes, small to large.  And no, I have received no compensation from Pyrex, no free hotel nights, no free product, not even a coupon, nothing, for writing this endorsement.  I just simply wanted them.

Out with the old, and in with the new.

First I completely gutted the cabinet, and matched each container with its lid.  I was amazed at how many containers had been crammed into that space over the years.

When I was done putting the pieces into matching sets, I loaded them into garbage bags.  I ended up with three full bags which I will donate to a homeless shelter, or to a recycling facility.

Maddeningly, I was left with a number of containers and lids that didn't have a mate.  You can blame lost socks on the dryer, but lost tupperware?  Where do they go?

Finally, I reorganized and reloaded the cabinet with the new Pyrex pieces.  There is so much space in there, that I don't foresee any problems finding what I need for leftovers and lunch packing, and easily returning clean pieces from the dishwasher.

Leftover pieces

Here's the sparkling clean, newly reorganized cabinet.  I love it, and feel like I accomplished something major in the house.

When I woke up and came down to the kitchen the following morning, this is what greeted me:

Is somebody trying to tell me we have too many potholders?  

I guess this drawer is next.