Have you ever had a little problem that grates on you? Like a door that sticks or a hook that needs reattaching so that you can get that stupid broom off the floor? And then have you gone for like, a year, without fixing it because you didn’t have the right part or you couldn’t find the right five minutes to deal with it? And every, single day, you stare at it or walk past it and it bugs you, but not enough to take care of it?
For about 3 years now (I know) my jar lids have lived in a plastic grocery bag in one of my larger kitchen drawers. When I want one, I’ve had to dig around, finding a lid, and then a ring. Since they were all mixed together, odd sizes, wide-mouth and narrow-mouth Ball jar lids and rings, single piece mason jar lids, plastic lids of both sizes, this meant rooting around and usually a lid or two falling on the floor. Those lids would then have to go through a high temp wash in my dishwasher, taking up valuable space and energy. And I put up with it. I went to the Container Store and I didn’t find an ideal and reasonably priced solution. I went to IKEA, my local hardware store and many other big box shops at various times over the course of the past three years, but again, that perfect solution wasn’t easy to find.
Finally, a few weeks ago, I just broke down. The plastic bag split, and fully half of my probably hundreds of lids fell on the ground. I was fed up, so I raised my budget and looked for some good, but not perfect solutions. I immediately found something that would work at IKEA. You know what? IT’S AMAZING! I no longer dread finding lids for my jars. I no longer get frustrated digging through a giant bag to find one, tiny jam jar lid and I no longer waste energy cleaning lids that were never used but fell on the floor.
When I got these little containers home, I sorted through the giant bag. Many of the lids in there were corroded or otherwise not usable, so they got pitched. How could I have possibly known that in the chaos that was “the bag o’ lids” though? The lids that were left were sorted into lovely, separate, imperfect containers.
I wish I had taken the compromise solution 3 years ago, rather than holding out for something perfect that I never ended up finding anyway. The practice of fermenting adds so much to my life. Most of those things are very positive, but some, like the added jars, bowls, crocks and generally, clutter, are less appreciated. Emptying the dishwasher had honestly gotten to be a minorly stressful event. First world problems? Yes. Still, though, it’s those little things that grate that I think are probably worth just #@$!ing fixing.
Now I have, and I’m a happy lady. Any kvetching to do about your excess fermentation gear? Or, you know, share the love or your wonderful lid storage solutions!