Do you have a drawer in your kitchen that you open very slowly, because you know what will happen?
I do. Or I did, until a few weeks ago.
It’s the drawer under the coffee maker, where we keep our food storage containers. Old margarine tubs, Cool Whip bowls, sour cream tubs, and a pile of lids that never seem to fit anything.
One evening last month, I made a big pot of vegetable soup. I wanted to put some in the freezer for a cold day, so I pulled the drawer open.
The lids came sliding out onto the floor.
I bent down to pick them up, one at a time, while my knee reminded me it had been replaced. (It does that when I bend too far.)
When I stood back up, I did something I had never done before. I counted.
Forty-one containers. Twenty-six lids. And it’s just my husband and me in this house now.
That night, I thought about my mother’s refrigerator. Every time I opened it, I’d find a row of Cool Whip bowls, and not one of them ever held Cool Whip. They held leftover green beans, gravy, and half a pot roast.
I learned this habit from her. (So did most of us, I think.)
But I didn’t want to pick lids up off the floor every time I made soup. So over a few short sessions at my kitchen table, I decided to declutter food storage containers once and for all, without tossing a single one I’d miss.
We Were Raised Not to Waste a Thing
Our mothers grew up when money was tight. Noth