I’ve tried for years to search out extra sustainable kitchen storage options, however like many well-intentioned contemporary begins (assume: New Yr’s resolutions to take lengthy walks within the chilly, vows to eat a bunch of greens every single day) my makes an attempt usually ended with me sighing with defeat within the Ziploc aisle on the grocery retailer. I had, actually, given up on changing the single-use containers and wraps in my kitchen with reusable choices. There was merely no getting round it.
I’ve this good friend, we’ll name her Alice, who’s a kind of individuals who carries a collapsible mug and a set of cutlery together with her always. Her dedication to the reason for preserving single use gadgets out of her life borders on spiritual. Alice dehydrates her citrus peels and turns each scrap into inventory. She politely declines all plastic baggage, straws, and utensils. She is nearly a little bit too good on the zero waste way of life in the way in which that the ladies of Stepford, Connecticut have been a little bit too good at mixing cocktails for his or her husbands.
Just like the heroine of Ira Levin’s novel, I believed I may by no means be as good as Alice. I used to be too frantically busy doing issues that have been extra necessary than lovingly wrapping leftover meatloaf in silicone. I had a hodgepodge of reusable-ish containers in my cupboards: largely pilfered Rubbermaid containers and restaurant-issue plastic quarts and pints that have been nicely previous their prime. In some unspecified time in the future I had acquired just a few beeswax wraps and promptly forgotten about them.
Then I noticed W&P’s Clear Kitchen Storage set, and I believed it is likely to be time to strive once more. It was a mixture of vainness and comfort that satisfied me. The 20-piece set included a dupe for almost the whole lot I sometimes used: soft-touch silicone and glass containers in 16- and 24-ounce sizes, see-through zip-top baggage (additionally in a number of sizes), and a set of six stretchy lids and three silicone wraps. I may ditch my random assortment of containers and begin utterly contemporary as a substitute of including a glass bowl right here and a silicone bag there. All the things within the set might be tossed within the dishwasher. Plus, the entire set got here in an aesthetically-pleasing blush colorway that appeared prefer it belonged within the kitchen of somebody who didn’t have over a thousand unread emails of their inbox.
Any time I’ve purchased a set of flimsy meals storage containers prior to now, they tended to vanish fairly rapidly. I’d ship a good friend residence with leftover cobbler or convey a aspect dish to a cocktail party and by no means see my container once more. However the W&P set arrived at my home six months in the past, and it’s nonetheless totally intact. I chalk this as much as the truth that these containers appear so, nicely, good. I’ve lent out the seal-tight glass containers just a few instances, and so they all the time discover their manner again to my kitchen. I get it: I’ve no downside quietly stealing one thing fabricated from plastic, however glass and blush-colored silicone? That’s one other story fully.
It began sluggish. I’d put away leftovers within the glass containers, or toss too-ripe berries in one of many stand-up baggage and put it within the freezer for future smoothies. Then I examined out the stretchy lids. One of many causes I believed I may by no means hand over plastic wrap is the truth that I make a number of yeasted breads. The stretchy lids match all of my prep bowls, and had a good seal that was so leakproof I may use them to retailer soups and sauces with out risking spills.
The product I used to be most suspicious of was the set of wraps. I’ve sometimes discovered reusable wraps to be unwieldy and arduous to scrub. Extra importantly, they usually caught solely to themselves and to not no matter I wished to wrap or seal. I’ll be the primary to confess that I used to be fallacious about these. They have been simply nearly as good as clingfilm at protecting plates or wrapping pastry dough, and so they have been straightforward sufficient to scrub with heat, soapy water. They did require a little bit of rearranging on my dishrack so I may set them as much as grasp dry, nevertheless it was nothing I couldn’t deal with.
Of all of the makes an attempt I’ve made at sticking to an eco-friendly meals storage system, this has been probably the most profitable experiment. I’m nonetheless not as virtuous as my good friend Alice. I do preserve a roll of plastic wrap in my kitchen for emergencies (or these instances when my W&P wraps are all hang-drying on the identical time), and I’m liable to stealing my neighbor’s Tupperware for weeks at a time. However that, I’m satisfied, is an emotional factor reasonably than a sensible one. As a result of I’ve not solely managed to carry on to (and use!) all the 20-piece set I began with, I’ve truly added just a few issues to my arsenal. I purchased a further four-pack of glass bowls in addition to the model’s light-weight, leak-proof plastic lunch bowl.
And I’ve my eye on their stackable freezer cubes. Now that my fridge seems like much less of a multitude, I’m able to sort out my freezer subsequent.
