My Plastic-Free Kitchen

For quite some time, I have wanted to eliminate our use of plastic for food storage. I'm a cook-from-scratch girl all the way, so a simple four-piece set won't even begin to cut it. Maybe seven sets but I don't even want to know how much that would set me back. 

So, while I very much appreciate the aesthetic appeal of the many matchy-matchy, drool-worthy options stores like Crate & Barrel offer, I'm just too cheap to invest in a bunch of new glass canisters. Thus, I turned my attentions to my overflowing reuse/recycling bins in the basement. There I found my solution – the scads of canning jars from our CSA veggies that I had been returning to the farm in hopes that they would be reused this summer. 

I brought them back up, washed them and started transferring my dry goods to them. If I were purchasing new canisters, I'd definitely buy something bigger than quart jars but doubling-up is working for now. I'll keep an eye out for some half-gallon ones at thrift stores. They'll find their way to me someday...

Another concern I had was our use of plastic sandwich/storage bags, especially the Ziploc ones which use so much more plastic...once. Using small glass containers for my husband is easy but the kids' schools don't allow glass. For their lunches, I wrap washed fruit, muffins, etc. in cloth napkins and use wax sandwich bags for the rest. They don't stay closed as nicely but it's not like I'm putting Jello in them and I feel a bit better about them as a single-use product.

Finding this solution has been satisfying. I would have had a plastic-free kitchen sooner if I'd shelled out a couple hundred dollars for new stuff a few months ago but my wallet and the earth are better off because I didn't.