Ive had success using glass Tupperware with plastic lids for most things that I would have used ziplocks or plastic wrap for. I keep a few ziplocks in the garage I’m case I need them but do not have them in the kitchen where they are convenient lol.
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That sounds super reasonable. I have tried a few of the reusable zip locks, and I’ll definitely try again, so far none have met my needs. The two main issues I run into are staining/smell that you cannot get out (maybe because I make a lot of very pungent foods, tbh), and difficulty opening. This is embarrassing for me but it’s like the seal on them is so strong compared to a regular ziplock (maybe because of the thicker plastic?) that I’m literally not strong enough to open them myself…which doesn’t make me feel great, lol. That front of body pulling or pushing motion is really difficult for me.
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I do that too! I mostly use ziplocks for freezer stuff, icing bags, occasional marinating things, etc. I bought some tiny tupperwares recently and those have helped a lot with stuff like, half a lemon, etc. For freezer I just don’t have the space to use containers vs. bags.
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Same.
*Note to self, invent cool, modular, reusable, air-tight freezer storage
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If you could whip up some reusable cling wrap too that’d be great 
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Yes, sometimes there is something that may be a deal for some people but isn’t a swap for your personal use case. They really are frustrating to open.
I have tried reuseable silicone cling wrap and I was unimpressed. I cant clean it easily and i end up screaming obscenities at it. I also used it in the oven and it ended up with little blobby things all over it. I dont think its for people who use fat in their food 
Others find the beeswax wraps work. Also doesn’t fit my use case yet - i cant clean it and dont find it wraps around things properly.
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Same! I tried the beeswax ones as well. I do really like reusable straws though.
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We have some silicone reuseable straws i love! So easy to clean and the kids love them too.
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Ziplocks: Target now has compostable ones. At least they degrade?
Towels: how many do you have? How often do you just use a cloth once before washing?
I have like 25-30 kitchen towels. We use them till they stink. Kitchen rags get used till stink/gross and tossed (mostly wiping food spills and crumbs, rinsed each time). I use paper for anything gross the first time, like bathroom cleaning, cat…stuff, and floor wipe. (We have mostly carpet, or I’d mop.) For meals, we are barbarians that don’t use napkins unless necessary to switch between finger and fork food, I just wash my face after eating.
ETA I end up with like 5-10 kitchen towels and a few espresso machine microfiber cloths in the wash every 2 weeks. On average. Not a full load at all.
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I will definitely give those a try, thanks! We have a lot of towels. I usually buy bar towels and I think they come in a pack of 50 or something. We definitely don’t use them until they stink though, so that might be why we go through them so fast.
That’s incredible! We’re both former food service people and we’ve largely stuck to those standards at home, which prob accounts for us using things so quickly. I do like two loads of just rag/kitchen towels a week! Towels get tossed in the hamper when: they’re used to wipe anything on the floor, anything in the bathroom obv, anything meat-y, anything goopy like wiping up spilled sauce, etc.
If a kitchen towel is damp at all we hang it in the bathroom to dry first before putting in the hamper to avoid any moldiness. Definitely wouldn’t want to tolerate stinky rags. I really like when the towels hanging in the kitchen are always clean, so even after a long cooking session I usually toss the 2-3 towels I’ve been using in the hamper and replace them, that way no one ever goes to grab a towel and there’s stuff on it or it’s wet, etc.
TL;DR - I accept my fate as a towel washing maven for life.
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I want to make sure we don’t end up stocking random items picked up through 2G2G or other sales - the whole point is to use the surprises as a cheap & fun way to keep my cooking from falling into a rut. That being said, I think I will give up on finding someone who likes blue cheese and will put it out for the green bin pickup this week.
- raisin bread panettone to be made into bread pudding & freeze individual portions (or could make in muffin tins? tbd)
- need to get coffee filters to make cold brew with the espresso ground coffee
- prosciutto ends with day old pasta? white beans? slow simmered red meat sauce? (ETA: defrosting 2 chunks - one for the pasta in today’s 2G2G bag which will be lunch tomorrow, one for white beans which are now soaking overnight, meat sauce requires more purchases and will wait for another day)
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I was raised that even after washing, you don’t want to use something used on floor or bathroom on food or counters. Somewhat superstitious I guess, since I wash bath towels with kitchen ones. 
I could keep separate rags for bathroom, floor, kitchen, but I don’t have the patience or storage to keep those straight. Also laundry is difficult when it’s not in unit. Basically excuses excuses.
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That’s next level! I think I’d have to get towels in different colors to achieve that, lol!
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I never wash any dish towels, etc with bath towels. Any rags for floors, bathroom are washed separately.
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Same, I wash my bar towels separate from bath towels, but I use the bar towels for everything (kitchen, cleaning, bathrooms, etc.). I bleach them though!
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What do you wash dish towels with?
I ask because I’ve considered separating but it’s either sheets and towels or clothes, and with other towels I can wash on hot. And apartment washers are huge, so even all my dish towels together wouldn’t fill a load. I know people have a cross contamination concern, but which way does it go?
ETA before anyone thinks we’re completely nasty, our kitchen towels are mostly hand towels. Dishes are dried in the DW or rack. So it makes sense to me to mix them with other things touching mostly clean humans and getting trace human-stuff on them…
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I wash them with dishcloths and hotpads. I have enough for a load.
Kitchen towels here get washed with whatever, they go into the catch-all laundry bin in the laundry room of the kitchen. Sometimes it’s enough on it’s own (the basket probably has a work out shirt from Mr. Meer thrown in along with socks, random kid clothes that didn’t get taken off in his bathroom for whatever reason, etc ) and sometimes it gets added with a batch of kid clothes from Kiddo’s bathroom since they’re all “small” things. Sometimes it gets mixed with adult clothing laundry. I really only avoid washing them with bed sheets because they’ll get stuck inside a pillow case or the fitted sheet pocket thing. Once they get holes they go out to the garage.
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I can wash kitchen towels with bath towels, but neither of those can go with underwear. LOL
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We have sensibly spent much more than intended this month as we got COVID and the littlest one took a turn in hospital. Most of that has been groceries. I thought we’d rely on takeaway but we had an ubereats order cancelled 3 times (!!? I have no idea why) and generally we actually want fairly simple bland foods. I have ended up doing 3 grocery deliveries because we are drinking so much more milk than normal, and then of course I can’t just pop to the local for only milk this week, and then theres a minimum spend, and delivery is $10-15. Worth all of it, though. I tried to focus a lot of the spending on shelf stable foods (or ones that are stable in the fridge for a while) so if it all went sideways again we wouldnt lose too much. I feel like we’ve dropped our assumptions about needing takeaway and are making better decisions about what would actually help us (takeaway takes too long to be delivered, cereal for dinner can be served ASAP with the same amount of energy).
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