70.3 Oregon '25

Logistics: 

We waffled on fly vs. drive and what that would mean for our hotel reservation dates.  This was driven by concern about how to get the bike there.  Tri-bike transport was no longer operating and it looked like a road trip to see all the parks on the way would be a substantial detour.  

By mid-March, we couldn't find any hotel rooms at any price in Salem.  We found a peaceful lavender farm on Airbnb a scenic 30 minute drive away outside Silverton.  Fri check in, Mon check out.  If I were going back, I would try to reserve the tiny home on the property for a night in addition to the guest house because sleeping in a tiny is on my bucket list and it could let me get into an even more reclusive monk mode since my sherpa entourage (Jens and Fallon) stay up later and don't need to wake up as early.  

We flew (LAX-PDX, Fri AM-Mon mid-day).  We lucked out in that Coach Ingrid had a soft-sided Scion bike bag she was willing to lend.  Wayne had experience with it and helpful tips to ensconce it in pipe insulation/pool noodles and remove the derailleur and even shared his packing material.  Sherpa Jens elaborated on this approach with zip ties vs. painter's tape (don't forget to pack something to snip them open).  He used dynema string to rotate the derailleur into a safer spot within the bike frame and ziptied it secure without needing to remove it.  Bike went through oversized luggage undamaged both directions.  The gear bags that came with it and wedge into the frame are slick, I could fit my entire transition kit in there.  If you fly and there is a Fearless contingent driving, see if they can bring your co2 cartridges for flats ($5/ in expo).   

Group check in was an unexpected upgrade.  14 Fearless training buddies "flash mobbed" race check in at 4PM Friday and a helpful volunteer captain was able to assign us numbers next to each other so we would be bike rack neighbors.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to find my transition Ikea Bag because everyone on Fearless would be following the same Ingrid tip, but it wasn't an issue.  Saturday morning, Fallon ran an Ironkids half mile while Jens assembled the bike (too bulky to fit in a Subaru Forrester rental car fully assembled), did a test ride to check the shifters left it in low gear, and staged the gear bag.  It turns out they want you to tie your transition gear to the bike/rack bar overnight but thankfully, the Fearless teammates who came through later in the day could get my bag off the ground.  

I wanted to see the swim start, so I walked there.  It took almost half an hour each way.  If I were new and doing it again, I would suggest biking over to look at it to save time.  Some folks were actually swimming the whole route as a preview.  If that is you, find one of those high viz swim buoys that doubles as a dry bag so you can drag your phone/minimal gear with you.  You will swim it faster than a sherpa friend will need to walk your stuff back.  People were also doing check out swims off the dock that is the end of the swim.  The current isn't ripping too badly to swim against there.  If I were doing it again, I would make sure to have water, a good sunscreen base, and/or Judene's parasol on hand.  It was surprisingly hot and sunny and I got a little cooked and dehydrated during the race setup.  Saturday, my crew headed to a Salem board game cafe for lunch and entertainment in the shade.  I'm glad they didn't serve coffee because I would have partaken and had trouble going to sleep that evening.        

25:10 Swim  get up at 4AM, shellac self with Zealios sunscreen, choke down a muffin/cold coffee/chocolate espresso beans, leave Silverton 4:30 with a frozen water bottle for T2, sunglasses and my running shoes.  Get to transition at 5:15, fill my aero waterbottle, wiggle into a wetsuit.  I didn't pack Trislide because I thought aerosols weren't allowed on the plane.  Untrue.  Probably could have borrowed from a Fearless neighbor if things were really tight.  I wore sacrificial socks for the walk to the swim start with a partial water bottle and a honeystinger.  Worked great-- my toe was peeking out a new hole right around the last call trash cans and I didn't need to use/track down a morning clothes bag at the end.  One thing I hadn't appreciated is that the seeded time sign people left transition at 5:45 and if you don't immediately attach yourself to "the fast group" per Ingrid instructions at departure, you are going to need to hot foot through the gravelly shoulder to get to the front.  Not advisable in bare feet.  Fortunately, Julia, Diane and Tony were in a similar predicament and we ended up in the 37-40? min group together.  It did create some confusion for the rest of the race-- seeing Fearless and not knowing if they were 40 minutes deeper into their race or behind you based on where they had ended up in the swim line up.  Swim itself was fast.  We dropped in in groups of 4 and were spaced so far apart I only bumped into one person.  There is kelpy stuff toward the finish and I climbed out feeling a little bit like swamp thing.           

3:34:02 Bike  My fueling plan was an aerobar bottle of water, and an entire 11-serving box of date coconut rolls (should hit 250 cals/hour target and I need to eat 1 roll every 20 mins or so).  I don't have a power meter and Ingrid gave me basic instructions (stay over 13mph, HR in low 140s).  Course was straightforward, not too hilly.  Outside of a little stress about whether I was drafting and some TMI issues (wishing I had tied on the bandana for discrete snot management, Coeur shorts generous liner helping a lot with chafe but not completely eliminating it past mile 40 and should I have reapplied vaseline/buttr after the swim?) this was smooth sailing.  I remembered the race reports from last year emphasizing wishing they had fueled more on the bike and was feeling pretty proud of myself having finished everything about 10 miles from the bike dismount.  If I were doing this again, I would practice grabbing bottles out of the cages, refilling aerobottle on the wing, and passing/throwing out stuff at a simulated aid station.  I had experimented once in training with tailwind in a bottle but the logistics of managing two hydration systems without being confident grabbing stuff out of cages was too much to bother with.  I skipped the aid stations and biked self-supported.      

2:23:56 Run We were lucky this year and it stayed relatively cool/overcast compared to the previous day and previous year's race stats.  Overheating was still my main concern.  I grabbed an oversized sport top bottle we had stashed in the freezer from my transition bag to start the run.  I drank what I could of the melt and bowled the remainder to Jens and Fallon shortly out of transition.  I like Ingrid's idea of chugging Pedialyte to start the run ("you are a raisin and you want to be a grape") but I hadn't trained with that and I wasn't sure what its freeze-thaw properties would be.  I had a dry pack of LMNT I carried as emergency salt (and ended up licking some off my hand to break up a side stitch at mile 12).  I tried to reach for the race day electrolytes (Mortal) at the first couple aid stations but went easy because I hadn't sampled these in training and even so, things got a bit sloshy/burpy.  I was delighted to find the aid stations had ice and my routine settled into filling the shelf bra of my Fearless top with ice and then crunching a cube on the walk breaks.  Generally, I had trained at 1:30 run, :30 walk but the course felt congested at the start and with athletes running two loops.  I ended up running through "a handful" of 30 sec alerts (2:30)  and walking :30 to just not feel like I was constantly passing people and then walking in front of them.  This worked for the most part for 11 miles, but if running is not your happy place, I wouldn't recommend this experiment.  I was delighted to stumble across Stephanie as we entered the finisher chute.  I had no idea she was so close (the confusion of the staggered swim start) or I would've pushed myself a little harder to catch up with her earlier on the run.  The run was largely in Minto Park so it was a quiet-run-through-a-cathedral-of-trees sort of vibe, not the sort of run where there is music blasting at you for the duration to keep your spirits up and your mind distracted.  Company for some of it would have been good.        

6:37:11 Total  This surprised me as it was 58 minutes faster than the Santa Rosa time I posted at my last half 8 years ago (pre-kid) and which I had been carefully avoiding looking up lest I feel disappointed that I finished but not as fast.  It wasn't all the swimming with the current.  I took 16 mins off the bike and ran pretty much the same pace (54 seconds slower).  I am super happy with this and the great coaching guidance I got following Ingrid's plan.  Now to find fun ways to maintain the gains for the rest of the season without another race on the horizon... Although Elsinore '26 on summer solstice is a stone's throw from Sweden and sherpa Jens has fond childhood memories of celebrating Midsommar he might want to recreate with Fallon...   

1. Line dry laundry evolution [Expert]

7/14: Embark on my first "full" line dry hang...  I pick an auspicious, misty and overcast day for it, but the sun eventually dries everything out.  

I should time this approach vs. the dryer approach since it feels more tedious but I couldn't quantify by exactly how much.    

This makes me extra motivated to reuse towels rather than getting fresh ones.  They use up so much real estate on our line!  They dry a bit stiff but no family members have complained so far so no need to fall back to plan B (short dryer air fluff).    

It also motivates me to continue to shift my "uniform" over as much as possible to fast drying fabrics (bike shorts, hiking paints, swim tops).  Also to pieces multiple times if they are serviceably clean.  

I should buy more kid-sized hangers for kid clothes since the "hack" of hanging the adult t-shirts on the hangers they would be stored on worked so well.     

This indoor over sink drying rack wasn't ideal.  These were small items like underwear I didn't want to walk out side and display to the neighborhood.  Yet it seemed like there wasn't enough air circulation and
thicker fabrics like socks got funky and went back through the wash after a baking soda pre-treat.  

7/16:  "Perfect is the enemy of the good" attempt #2

Line dry almost all items except small thick items and kid clothes.  There are fewer towels this time.  The line does a great job quasi-pressing hubby's pants to feel slightly stiff.  The indoor rack is not so heavily loaded and since it is a sunnier day, items dry there without issue.    

What few clothes remain in the dryer I can run on a much shorter "minimal dry" cycle and they come out bone dry.  

7/17:  (Thursday) I usually run two+ loads of sheets and sundry on Friday.  I line dry our king-sized flannel duvet and the linen cases and fitted sheet while I'm at it because more often than not, the duvet will get knotted up in a ball in the dryer and "knot" dry anyway.  The second load of kid's twin sheets and enough clothes to make a full load would go straight into the dryer.  I'm moving up the king size laundry load a day so our house sitters have relatively fresh sheets if they opt to stay in our bedroom instead of the guest room.  Maybe in the future I will have different weekly wash days designated for each sheet set so there is sufficient line space to hang them all.  That would probably also more evenly apply greywater to our banana circle as opposed to flooding it with 2-3 loads back to back.  

I found it took about 7 mins to hang rags and assume it will take another 7 to put them away, so this method comes at about a 15 min premium per load (using my current workflow).  But I suppose I could also consider the bonus steps/light activity minutes as a benefit.  I also found I could hang the small items dryer below the fence sightline in hopes of getting greater air circulation with more privacy.  

7/22:  ran two loads coming back from a weekend away.  Innovations were to cut the number of trips outside with some batch processing by dragging the hamper of towels/pants out.  I gave myself permission to sort the socks and non-swim kid clothes into the dryer (combined over two loads and set to "less dry").  Hang shirts in staging area by the washer.  Put delicates/small items on the little drying rack while it was next to washer.  Move the "delicates" rack outside to its more discrete post for better air circulation.  42 minutes of labor including the sort-fold-hanging that I would have incurred using the dryer the old way across 2 loads of laundry.  This also has the summer advantage of not adding extra heat to the living area and keeping the house quieter for more of the day.    [7/25:  17 mins to do a conventional load, so +4 mins/load?] 

Shopping green - packaging audit [Intermediate]

 When shopping, look at the packaging of the products you buy and try to increase the purchases of items that have recyclable/biodegradable packaging.  

This Monday, we did a lunch time grocery shop as a family.  

Wins: 

We brought and used our reusable plastic bags

We recycled extra reusable plastic bags in the plastic film recycling bin

Purchased largest available tubs of spinach which reduces the plastic recycling generated/serving

Purchased "big sheets" format of seaweed snack which has less packaging/serving and no little plastic trays.

Unwittingly purchased the bulk+thick yogurt which uses less plastic packaging than making it from scratch with bottled milk or single serving containers.  

Opted for bulk organic oatmeal and jelly beans using our mesh reusable bags rather than prepackaged servings

Further ways to reduce packaging: 

Reuse the packaging in the home several times before recycling (i.e. pizza kit is a humidity tray for seed starts, yogurt containers can be pots for seedlings, Talenti ice cream containers are now holding our diy yogurt experiments). 

Record what ends up uneaten/composted.  If we overbought an item and end up not eating it, that is doubly wasteful.  

Buy loose at farmer's market and use own reusable packaging: spinach, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, avocados, cucumbers

Grow at home: spinach/climate-appropriate greens equivalents, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, berries, avocados, cucumbers

Buy in bulk and "decant" into easy to use format: cheese tray

Make from scratch/swap to an alternative that is easy/fun/satisfying to make from scratch: mochi desserts, french fries, brioche hot dog buns, bread, pickles, pasta, pizza dough.     

 *There is an art to this.  There are days when making from scratch is a fun satisfying project, there are other days when the convenience of store-bought or its marked down price point are just too good to pass up.

Research ways to clean your home without toxic cleaners.  

Check out the findings of our household cleaners audit in February.  

Commit to using a product that you have found or you hae made for cleaning your home and laundry.

I cleaned several loads of laundry with soap nuts and continue to reach for vinegar as a surface cleaner.  I tried to grow helix/ivy as a soap nut alternative because my husband objected to the smell.  My transplants failed in the wine barrel I put them in, so I will need to go back to the propagation drawing board.  

Experimental Yogurt

 "Start out by making yogurt and/or buttermilk.  Learn about proper milk handling, good aseptic technique with the starter, and proper temperature control."  

This started as a brainstorm to reduce packaging and an aspiration to learn more about the extra functions on my appliances.  

1.  I glugged 96 oz (2 jugs) of Alexandre regenerative milk into my Instantpot and followed the instructions to pasteurize it.  Following this setting should have brought the milk up to at least 161*F to kill any harmful bacteria or pathogens.  The milk was purchased vat-pasteurized and unopened before, so I was curious if this step was actually necessary.  Reddit commenters suggest that bringing the milk to this temperature also denatures protein (commercial pasteurization does not reach the same temperatures) and that denatured protein reduces the amount of whey byproduct and makes for a thicker consistency yogurt.  

2.  I used my temperature gun to allow the temperature to fall to a level where the live cultures in my smidge of store-bought yogurt could survive.  In retrospect, I think I messed this step up.  I thought it was OK at 140*F but I should have let it fall to 110*F.  On the upside, I stirred in more than the suggested 2 Tbl of yogurt/gallon, so that may have cooled the solution a tiny bit and introduced much more culture to potentially survive the scalding.  I will have to try this again with the appropriate temperature drop and see if the yogurt consistency and whey production are different.  When planning a future batch, I should also take some notes on how long it takes for the temperature to fall.  This recipe was largely "dump and go" except for this step and I would hate to botch a batch because it wasn't cool enough before leaving for an outing.  

3.  I followed the instructions to ferment the yogurt by holding it at a 110*F temperature for 8 hours. 

4.  After allowing it to cool (overnight), I spooned it through a mesh bag to try to thicken it a bit and captured most of the whey in a separate jar.  I am puzzled about what to do with the whey, but I think I can sub it for buttermilk in baking projects, use it as the liquid base for oatmeal (when I'm not eating yogurt), feed it to my dog, put it in a soup/chili, use it to start another batch of yogurt, or compost it.  It might even be OK as  

5.  The instructions suggested refrigerating the yogurt for 12-24 hours to develop flavors (but I ate some right away as a breakfast parfait).  

6.  (experimental) In one of the pint containers I filled, I also tried adding 3 tableish spoonfuls of milk powder since I prefer the *really thick* style of yogurt and this was pretty runny.  

First round stats: 

milk: 2924 grams yields 1383 grams (runny) yogurt and 1271 of whey (give or take some spills)

recycling generated = 146 grams of plastic (2 milk cartons) vs recycling for 2 containers of store yogurt = 72.47 grams!  

cost = $16.98 vs. grocery store yogurt equivalent (2.03*$7.49) = $15.23 

Surprising!  At face-value, it costs about the same to buy vs. make yogurt.  It also appears that to buy your higher-volume milk input in a plastic container actually doubles the amount of recycling you generate.  If you were looking just to reduce waste created, you should be opting for the bulk containers of very thick, heavily filtered yogurt (i.e. Siggi's) which we were already doing.  This isn't making a compelling case to DIY yogurt unless you feel you cannot find a yogurt brand that uses sufficiently sustainable milk for your standards (untrue in our case, the regenerative dairy makes the yogurt we used as a pricing benchmark); have a way to completely avoid recycling (perhaps via the Strauss bottle exchange program, or running your own dairy); or you find enough worthwhile uses for the whey to offset some of the cost (very possible if this can replace the milk I add to coffee and smoothies).  Finally, there is a nontrivial chance that my newbie mistakes with adding the culture too early generated a lower yield of yogurt than was achievable by a more experienced yogurt-maker and that this would shift the ROI of the entire project more favorably.   

7/16: whey is tasty totally serviceable milk alternative in protein shakes.  ROI is improving.    

7/17: no whey does it taste good in coffee though.  It is too dense and clumps on the bottom.  It is also more acidic so it doesn't seem as effective at mellowing the bitterness of the coffee.  ROI is dubious again.  

Shopping Green

Collect six reusable bags for shopping.  

Commit to using them on your shopping trips.   

In 2016, I voted "Yes" on California proposition 67 which prohibited single use carryout bags (but allowed sale of paper/reusable bags for a fee).  It passed with 53% of the vote.  But  taking stock nine years later, I wouldn't call this a home run.  Sure, plastic bag litter dropped 72% in the first year, but then in following years, plastic bag waste actually increased as shoppers moved over to purchasing 10 cent thicker reusable plastic bags in their stead.  These need to be reused 5-10 times to have a lower environmental impact than single use ones.  We were some of those people, between covid and parenthood, drive up pick up was a siren song we couldn't resist.  In a half year, Senate Bill 1053 will take effect which would phase out these heavier duty plastic bags as a legitimate alternative for shoppers to buy.

I am not sure what process my local grocer will adopt, but I did some research online, learned that some NJ grocers let their drive up customers choose "no bags" and stage the purchase in reusable bins called wacos.  So I sent that into my local grocer as a suggestion for the time-being.  

Here is my bag haul:  

A Postmates courier bag was mistakenly delivered to our address and has become my "go to" cooler because of its mylar liner.  I like the irony of stashing ingredients for home-cooked meals in a meal delivery service bag.  When we overbuy disposable water bottles (parties, camping trips), I stash the extras in the freezer and use them to extend the cooling capability if I know we'll be out in the heat with perishables.  As they thaw, they make delightful thirst quenchers if we are out on a picnic (although I usually reach for my reusable water bottle first).  

The Sierra Club bag is a similar spec with a few more zip pockets and came with an annual membership.  I like that they now give us a "no gift" option for membership renewal.    

The grey bag (with a wolf pattern liner) was a DIY gift from a mother-in-law and is my "every day carry" for miscellaneous stuff that doesn't quite fit in a fanny purse.  It reminds me of an L.L. Bean boat tote, but slightly less structured.  I love the beausage of its fastener button (a piece of broken wooden bowl) falling off and the increased fraying on the perfect length of straps to work as a cross-body bag.  

The 2 mesh bags would be great candidates to make more of for the expert level of this badge "sew in."  I've found myself opting for extra packaging at farmer's markets because I didn't have something like this on hand to keep my cherry tomatoes from commingling with my mushrooms and all getting crushed under the weight of some artisanal jar of honey.  I also love that the bags have their tar weight on a tag if you're really scrutinizing your total.  I also often use these as "delicates" bags in the laundry which is why it feels like I never have quite enough on hand.  

Finally, I've found a tidy way to fold up those heavy-duty plastic bags like little table top footballs.  I've stashed a couple in my car and two in my purse.  

My commitment for the rest 0f 2025 is to:  

(1) Keep the inflow of new "reusable" plastic bags under 3/week from drive up purchases (the amount we are using to line trash cans).  At least until better options arise.  I was tracking at 4-6/week.   

(2) Deploy my stash of reusable bags (now tidy triangles) for in-store shopping.  

(3) Frequent the superior Saturday Farmer's market more often after triathlon training season (and its scheduling conflicts) ends (August) to further reduce packaging waste.  

How cool would it be to roll up to the farmer's market (4.3 miles away) with these cool kitty litter panniers with instructions from REI?  

What's Your Beef?

Research the difference between grass-fed beef and that which is corporately raised.  www.eatwild.com

Unsurprisingly, grass-fed beef has a lower fat percentage which means you get more protein and nutrients with less total calories.  This switch is the caloric equivalent of not having to exercise off 5 extra pounds of fat per year if you were eating a typical amount of beef (2.9oz/day).  Grass beef also has more omega-3's, conjugated linoleic acid, and higher vitamin and mineral content (E, beta carotene, B complex, calcium, magnesium, potassium).  

The challenge with grass fed has more to do with confusing labeling.  "Organic" designation does not guarantee the animal was fed grass.  "Pasture-raised" means the animal spent the last 120 days of its life on grass.  "Grass-fed" is the ideal of cattle who spent their life eating grass.  

Read MaryJane's take on the importance of organic beef at www.maryjanesfarm.org/ieatmeat.asp

Wow, did MJF write this at least 8 years ago?  This post has aged pretty well and it seems public awareness is at a point where this argument isn't that controversial anymore.  I skimmed the Blood Type book cited a few years back and concluded it was more fad than fact, but the fact that we can tell from DNA who is more likely to be able to metabolize dairy, get diabetes more frequently, be heavier than average or dislike cilantro does hint that there may be genetically linked differences in what diets work best for people.  

Write down what you learned and how, if at all, it has changed your mind about the meat you eat.  

I wish there was more discussion about the quantity of meat consumed.  To throw another fad diet into the debate, the high-longevity Blue Zones diets claim their adherents average about 10 oz of meat per month, which is about a tenth of what Jo Robinson believes the average intake of beef is these days.  If we are all largely in agreement that grass-fed is best, would we be willing to cut back our consumption of beef to just the quantity of quality beef our budget could support?  

Within our household, we differ on this point.  I will pre-emptively buy the grass-fed items.  In an effort to not let them spoil, I store them in the freezer, requiring a defrost.  My husband, far more carnivorous, can emerge from his office ravenous often prefers to go to the grocery store over his lunch hour and buy the commercially raised loss leader before considering defrost options.  Now we have leftover mystery meat languishing in our fridge, which out of a mix of guilt and convenience, I find myself eating so as not to waste it.  There is lots of room for improvement in this cycle, don't you think?      

Publicly, I am vegetarian.  My rationale is largely to avoid mystery meats, decrease my ecofootprint and because it is harder to overindulge in less energy dense plant-based entrees.  This started 6 years ago when Covid exposed slaughterhouse supply chain shortages.  I made a game for myself to watch a video about commercial meat production for every meaty meal I ate.  Pretty soon, I was salting my plate with tears and prefering to go without.  I have not done this exercise for dairy and suspect much of my meat consumption was offset by increased cheese consumption.  

Privately, it is more complicated.  I am struggling with body composition in perimenopause.  I've come around to entertaining the idea that increased protein intake (ideally above 100 g/day) will help maintain and build muscle that my excessive cardio was otherwise metabolizing preferentially to body fat.  More protein also seems to help with satiation and avoiding unplanned binges on high carb and processed food that would lay down even more intractable body fat.  I still try to source protein from whole food plant sources (i.e. beans, tofu) first, but supplement with vegetarian protein powders to avoid GI distress when experiencing cravings or too busy to meal prep.  That said, I consider a protein powder and fake meats processed food and am now incorporating carefully sourced meat dishes which have the potential to be less processed.  

For instance, we toured a local cattle ranch that grazes cows in the southern California foothills for fire and flood mitigation.  We have been working through 15 or so pounds of cuts sourced from them.  I converted some of the ground beef into a meat loaf (with home grown celery greens, onions and garlic) we smoked for Father's day yesterday that was surprisingly good.  However, I still prefer to think of ethically sourced meat as a garnish/treat rather than a staple on my plate.  

Get it Together- storage container audit

 

"To be truly able to function on a high level in the kitchen, you need space and organization.  Pull out all your storage containers.  If you don't use them, toss or recycle.  If they don't have a lid, toss or recycle (unless you really do use it lidless), and toss and recycle all those abandoned lids (we all have them!) that don't fit anything left in the cupboard."  

By this point, I've streamlined my storage containers to a few species:  

1.  Wide mouth mason jars - great for dried bulk storage as well as bean/soup easy meal prep

2.  Pyrex 2 cup bowls - double as cereal bowls and everyone seems to have a few of them, so our inventory ebbs and flows with the circulation of potluck dishes and housewarming gifts 

3.  Fit packers (meal prep rounded rectangular containers with see through lids) - go-to for leftovers since we often cook a double batch and can easily eat straight out of the reheated container without dirtying more dishes.  We can stack these 6 or 7 high in our chest fridge without worrying they might fall and break.  They are also the perfect length to span across our chest fridge upper compartment storage baskets to put leftovers that really need to get consumed soon front and center.  

4.  Round deli containers - these are great for sending the kid to the car with a back seat snack and not worrying they will get bobbled and broken along the way.  I also favor these for potluck/hostess type of items when I don't think the recipient will go out of her way to return the empty dish.  The majority of these are retired when my kid turns them into germination stations and bug habitats, for Science!    

5.  Small round plastic snack/condiment containers.  We started with 20 or so of these in order to bring individual materials for an over elaborate preschool snack, perhaps it was single servings of banana ice cream from the surplus that ripened on our trees all at once.  The stock has dwindled to 4 now since these also made great cat food scoops, mini bug habitats, containers for dice and other small toys, etc.    

But even with a limited array of storage containers, there were a few cupboards I had started approaching with dread for fear of a landslide of corroded mason jar lids or the chaos triggered by crowded corner of orphaned lids.  Today was a big day for recycling, plus moving two honey dippers to the donation bin.  I feel lighter.  I will set an annual reminder on my seasonal cleaning lists to reaudit.    

In the future, I also aspire to move away from plastic (did you flinch when you read about reheating the plastic containers and eating straight out of them?) but we haven't yet found anything to beat the stacking convenience of the rectangular fitpackers for leftovers, a drop-friendly serving/"I'm full" (after eating 1 goldfish) storage bowl for little hands, and the plastic mason jar lids have a much longer lifespan because they don't rust and canning isn't really our jam yet (see what I did there?).  

If anyone has any suggestions to level up our storage though, please let me know!