Homemaking.

Over on Facebook the other day, a family member had shared their experience with a post going around that storing strawberries in a glass jar kept them fresher. I casually commented that I had noticed that glass containers seemed to keep things fresher in general, and that I do a vinegar wash as well. In fact, I buy vinegar in bulk at Sam’s Club because I go through so much between washing produce, cleaning, and laundry. I was so surprised at all the comments saying that they had never heard about the glass containers, and complete strangers started questioning me about my vinegar use, haha. My husband and I were talking about the surprising (to me anyway) demographic of people who had never heard of all the uses for vinegar and glass jars. Most of them were women my parents’ age or older. We concluded that it must be because “better” convenience products were pushed on them in the 80’s and 90’s, like microwaves (and microwavable meals), boxed sides, frozen dinners, “better” laundry detergent and cleaning supplies, etc. Homemaking changed a great deal, it seems to me, in just one generation. I’m sure that kind of thing has happened since the beginning of time, but it was bizarre to me to see it first hand.

Anyway, all that to say… I thought maybe I would give you all a roundup of my favorite tips and tricks for around the house! Some “life hacks,” if you will. As I was thinking about what I wanted to include, I realized that most of these I learned or figured out from either Pinterest or watching the Rachel Ray show (love her!), or just experience. And almost every one of them was because when we got married, we were pretty darn broke and I was trying to pinch every penny I could. And some just make my life easier or create less waste, which are both pretty important in my book! I also realized that I’m apparently very passionate about all this, because I started typing all this out and felt like I could write a book. I’m thinking I will do a series of tips, with a post for each one since I seem to be so long-winded, haha. I guess I’ll start with the glass jar thing, because that’s what started it all.

Glass Jars + Containers

So, we’ve all seen renovation shows or those pretty photos on Instagram or Pinterest of shelves lined with glass jars full of various foods and spices. Yes, they look pretty, but I think they serve a purpose as well. A lot of packaging has dyes or other things that can cause the food in it to taste bad after a while. A prime example: I buy the old fashioned oats in a giant cardboard canister (because it is so much more cost effective – you can still add whatever flavor you want, you can control the amount of sugar, etc., and you know exactly what you’re eating), and then transfer them to a big glass jar when I open them. If I don’t, they get stale a lot faster and start to taste cardboard-y to me. {Slightly related note… did anyone else take those “taster/non-taster” tests in high school science? It was wild to me that we could all lick the same piece of paper, and most of my class didn’t taste anything. Meanwhile, I was over there grabbing for water because of the bitter taste on my tongue – it was so weird. So, I am a taster, and I often taste things in foods, like preservatives and artificial flavors, and aftertastes left by containers, especially ones with strong dyes or plastic. I’m so weird, I know.} We store all of our pastas, grits, and other such pantry items in jars when we can, as well as our flour, sugar, and other baking ingredients – we have glass canisters on our counter for those!

Our pantry is *far* from organized, but we do keep a lot of things in jars.

For years we, like most people, used to use Rubbermaid plastic containers that we got at our wedding shower for storing any kind of food like leftovers, cut up fruits and veggies, etc. But I noticed that after several years of use that the plastic was getting scratched, which was trapping stains and odors into the plastic. After using those containers for like ten years, a lot of them had a pretty nasty old plastic smell, and I was starting to taste it in my food. I was already weird about reheating food in the plastic containers in the microwave, but even just using them for storage was starting to gross me out. I researched a little and decided to replace the majority of our plastic storage containers with glass Anchor containers, which we had a couple of already and really liked. That is almost exclusively what I use now – We still have some of the plastic containers that weren’t as old (we found a box of Rubbermaid ones from our wedding that we had never opened…), but I rarely use them. I also save jam jars, and use Mason jars for storing homemade sauces, leftover takeout salsa, and whatever else they will hold. The glass doesn’t hold smell like plastic does, doesn’t stain like plastic does, and for whatever reason, things usually stay fresher longer. I like to think that it’s because the glass isn’t porous and isn’t as hospitable to bacteria… but I know nothing about science, so don’t quote me on that, haha. I also, maybe most importantly, keep my coffee in glass jars on my coffee cart. It definitely stays fresher than leaving it in the bag! Disclaimer: our glass containers do still have plastic lids, but they sell replacements so that they can be switched out every few years, plus the lids are recyclable!

Leftovers taste so much better out of glass containers!

We bought our glass canisters at Target, and almost all of our other glass jars are from IKEA – I always like to grab a few more every time we’re up there.