My Favorite Containers

One of the most frequent questions I get on reduce our waste living is, how do you buy or store your meat and bread? This is definitely one area where I had to do some research and experimentation. For my bread, I go to the bakery with fabric bags. I purchased this one from Vert Essentiel in Vaudreuil:

This bag is great because it is quite large and can easily hold two loaves of bread. I also bought a baguette bag but really you don’t have to buy special bags. Bea Johnson suggests using an an old pillow case (and I have). My husband calls the pillow case the beginner criminal kit (put the bread in the bag and no one gets hurts). Although Bea Johnson says that you can store your bread in the freezer in fabric bags, I tried it and found that it works for bread left for a few days. Longer than that, I was left with freezer burned bread. The preferred alternative? An air tight sealed metal container:

I purchased a set of stainless steel containers from Life Without Plastic (http://lifewithoutplastic.com/)

I use them to store my bread in the freezer :

I also use these containers to put meat that I get from the butcher. I store the meat, be it chicken or beef, in the stainless container and put it directly in the freezer. These containers were expensive, but I consider them an investment. Made of 304 stainless steel with a silicone seal to ensure that the food stored is air tight to prevent freezer burn, they are expected to last forever. The pot can even go directly on the stove top or in the oven. They are also dishwasher safe (the cover is not because of the silicone seal). Am I gushing enough? Although I wasn’t shopping for clothes and stuff in 2018, the one thing I was buying was containers. Yes, containers. And how excited was I when I was notified that a package was arriving? Very excited. My children told me I was weird (which I am).

Marie Kondo says to only keep what sparks joy. For me, my Dalcini containers spark joy. The shine of their stainless steel containers makes them look like jewels. Dalcini is a Canadian company located in Ottawa and they have exquisitely designed stainless steel containers (https://dalcinistainless.com/).

Unfortunately, these are not air tight containers but they are beautiful. I use them for lunches and short term purchased items like paté or cheese:

While I have also purchased stainless steel containers from Onxy on Well.ca for a lower price, these containers are not as attractive or good quality as the Dalcini containers. As I am an advocate of the buy me once philosophy, I prefer to buy fewer but better quality items. I see the Dalcini round snack containers in my future!

Of course, glass jars are definitely part of the reduce our waste lifestyle. The downside of glass is its weight but it is see through so that you can see the contents. Bea Johnson swears by Le Parfait canning jars. I recently purchased a few to try them out. They are from France and a little difficult to obtain. I also got mine from Life without Plastic but you can also order them from a distributor in the US. I can see the appeal of these jars. They are basically plastic free, with only the pretty orange seals made of rubber.

These jars are very robust (the glass is especially thick) and they can be used to store all kinds of things, even leftovers like soup. The usual canning jars, such as Bernardin, are also good because they are made of glass. However, they have liners in the covers containing BPA alternative coatings. While they are BPA free, the safety of the replacement materials is not known and since they are chemically similar, I suspect that they are not that different from BPA. However, I continue to use these jars with the rationale that the food does not really touch the cover much:

Finally, another key change made in terms of containers is that I no longer buy plastic sandwich bags i.e. Ziploc type. I use reusable fabric bags, such as these from Marie Fil and Dung Beetle Design:

Plus they are so pretty! My daughters are also enjoying using these reusable bags for the food they bring to school and work.

While I am enjoying my new containers, I certainly do not advocate having anyone buy alternatives immediately. I always suggest that people look at what they already have before buying any new. Slow consumerism should definitely be favored. Consequently, I am still using some of my plastic containers. Plastics do have the advantage of being lighter than glass. As long as the plastic is a relatively safe variety (PP or PE) and the containers are not used to heat food, it is definitely better to continue to use them than have them end up in the landfill! Responsible usage of plastics is really what we should all be striving for.

Challenge for the Week: What are your favorite containers? Do you have any storage tricks to share?