I have recently come to realize I might be a little obsessive about my plastic container cabinet. My parents didn’t have a plastic container cabinet until recently. They had a drawer about a foot deep that was level to the top with lids and bowls. When you wanted to store your leftovers, you opened the drawer and started pulling out bowls and random lids until something matched. When you found what you needed, you stood on top of all the bowls and lids and jumped up and down until you could get the drawer closed again (OK, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much).
Recently when I went to visit my parents my mom asked me to clean out their drawer and arrange everything in the cabinet in their island. I was positively GIDDY I tell you. Fishing out bowls and lids and throwing away sacks full of empty butter and Cool Whip dishes was so cathartic. (I was ordered not to tell my dad I had thrown them away because he likes to save them and gets heart palpitations when you throw something away that MIGHT be useful….next year).
Anyhoo, when we got it all done I felt this warm calm come over me like I had just figured out my meaning in life. It wasn’t quite the feeling I had when they placed my newborn child on my chest, but it was close. I slept like a baby that night.
It was at that point I realized I MIGHT be a titch obsessed with the neatness of my plastic container cabinet. I thought it was completely normal to arrange all your containers according to size so that you get the maximum stacking capacity. And all lids should be stacked from back to front in descending order according to size so that you have maximum visibility for easy retrieval. Square containers are stacked inside square containers and round containers inside round ones. There shall be no mixing of geometric shapes, for this is an abomination in container storage!…..I mean…anyway, that’s kinda what I would say if I were REALLY obsessed. But I’m not.
And then I’m reminded of this episode….
I ask, “Ummm, what are you doing?!?” His response was, “I make french toast, Mommy.”
He is lucky he’s cute.
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I create fun and colorful flashcards for children. When you do that long enough, you begin to see the world as a series of flashcards. Sometimes they are funny. Sometimes they are warm and fuzzy. Sometimes they are mildly innappropriate. Come see the snark at The Flashcard Zoo Blog.
I like my cabinet neat, but I’m not quite as organized as you. I do stack like shapes. But all the lids just go in one bag. And my husband does not adhere to my system, but I let it go because I’m happy if I’m not the one who had to put the dishes away.
YOU ARE MY DAD! Growing up, I always was in charge of emptying the dishwasher and I always just threw the tupperware wherever it fit in the cabinet. It drove him BATTY. Just like you, lids belonged in descending order. Squares stacked inside of squares. Rounds inside of rounds.
You should see MY plastics cabinet! Hubby bought me one of those neat carousel-of-tupperware that have three sizes of storage and one size lid for all of them. THAT would have saved my childhood right there! The rest of my plastics cabinet is just thrown behind the Carousel for if I need something bigger!
But I refuse to conform. The lids on my Carousel do not all face up or down. I just throw them in their rack however they end up! 🙂
Old habits die hard….
I JUST cleaned mine out over the weekend. I have been showing it off to everyone who enters the house (including the dishwasher repairman who seemed super impressed). I never thought of myself as obsessed, but it did help me sleep better.