Like many immigrants, my mom never wastes anything. She will wash one Ziploc freezer bag over and over until the end of time. She will lightly wipe and reuse Saran wrap. She saves takeout containers so that she can pack my sister and I food to take on our flights after a visit home. She keeps Barilla sauce jars to make salted eggs. I have adopted her habit of automatically ripping napkins in half and saving the other half for later (hot take: most napkins are too big).
My mom is an ingenious organizer so one Mother's Day, I thought I'd get her every organizing freak's dream: a label maker. (I received one from my partner the year before for my birthday and I had never felt so seen.) But the next time I returned home, I opened our pantry to see that my mom hadn't labeled anything — with the label maker anyways. Instead, I saw more examples of my mom's organizational creativity, which I will now share here:
Don't have a label maker? Use scissors to cut the words from the packaging (ransom note-style) and tape them onto the container.
Recycle Costco mixed nut containers, which are ideal for storing dried wood ears, grains, or other dry foods.
Talenti Gelato containers are great for storing small amounts of grains, nuts, or seeds. In general, save lightweight, transparent, wide-mouthed containers that you can fit your hand into for easy measuring and washing.
What other pantry organization tips do you have?
I love those Talenti containers! They're so durable. I use them for paint.
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