Oh. My. Goodness. AGAIN?? Today I had in mind to prepare this delicious spinach & mushroom torte on a bed of wild rice. I planned this a week ago and made sure to buy all the necessary ingredients. Then today I went to grab the bag of spinach out of the fridge and...well, the bag had been opened by someone and left opened, and most of the spinach was dried up! Last week I discovered someone hadn't closed the chips and they had gone stale, yesterday I found that my recently purchased vanilla wafer cookies were also left open and gone stale, and now the spinach had gone. Oh, and this is a regular occurrence in my kitchen, with the excuse always being "I would have clipped it shut, but I couldn't find the clips". Ok, this was just too much for me. I planned for that spinach to go in 3 different meals this week, and I hate wasting food and subsequently money. I threw my hands up in the air, ordered Chinese food, and put myself in time-out the rest of the afternoon (a mommy break where the kids aren't allowed to disturb). A bit melodramatic for spinach right? Well sometimes it's the smallest things that serve as that "straw that broke the camels back". I swear, being a mom is going to make me a saint...or loony-bin crazy. 
Sometimes it's the millions of little frustrating things that can cause compounding stress. I say anything to help reduce the stress of the little details is FANTASTIC! So today I've decided to get rid of that one tiny little stressor amid the sea of stresses. I am creating a place to store those bag clips so that they there will never be no excuse for not closing bags properly after opening them. Of course, I will still have to train them to use the method...but hopefully a little time and training will alleviate more years of stale food frustration.
Simple Solutions
I purchased a magnetic dry erase board and adhered strips of magnetic tape to the back so it could attach to the refrigerator. Overly simple idea? Maybe, but at least those clips have a home and won't continue to elude us when needed. Are clips the ideal solution for food storage, probably not, but they sure are the cheapest until I can figure out something better!One Month Later:I literally waited a month to publish this post just so I could share the results. I am happy to report that (to my surprise) the kids were right...the only reason they didn't close things properly was because they couldn't find clips! (So why didn't they just ask?? ....kids. *sigh*)
After wrangling those clips, I sat my kids down (and memo'd the hubby) and explained the importance of not wasting food and money, and how part of that was being responsible enough to close and put away food properly. I also stated that if any food item went bad or went stale because they chose not to close it properly I would charge them $1 for each food item they allowed to go bad. To a 5, 7, & 8 year old $1 is a LOT of money! (Especially since they don't receive an allowance, and do odd jobs to earn their money.) Well, I haven't had another incident since! Thank goodness! *wink*
Now when I reach for the spinach, or the chips, or my vanilla wafers, they are just the way I bought them...fresh! Yep, clips may not be ideal food storage method, but they work! *excited fist pump*
Great idea!
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