Look what I found!

I'm generally not a fan of "Big Box Stores", and much prefer to shop local boutiques and privately owned "non-chain" shops. When I have a need for a specific item, I check in at all our little local shops for that item first, and then check out the big box stores in our community. But if I can't find my needed item locally, I frequently succumb to ordering it on Amazon. Adding the cost of shipping, not to mention the waste of resources to get that item to me, does cause a twinge in my guilty conscience.

Let me digress for a moment. As big corporations and big box stores go, IKEA has been trying to improve their sustainability model since their founding in 1943 as a furniture mail order firm specializing in simple, wooden furniture. They are presently fully committed to a circular model, intending as much product as possible is made from recycled and renewable material. For instance, their 100 % cotton woven rag utility rugs are made from fabric scraps from their bed linen  manufacture.

I seldom have the opportunity to spend a lot of time by myself in an IKEA store but this week I did have a chance to browse to my hearts content. I usually head directly for the kitchen department because I just never know what new, interesting or useful gadgets might be lurking there to catch my attention.

Trying to move away from plastic in general in my life, but single use plastic specifically, I have stopped buying plastic food storage bags. Imagine my surprise to discover over the past 2 years IKEA has partnered with a company called NESTE to manufacture their ISTAD zip-loc storage bags from bio-plastic made from sugar cane. My daughter introduced me to ISTAD a couple of years ago, and after multiple uses and washings they still have not sprung a leak. I will keep using these until they are gone, but I'll try hard not to buy any more.

Ikea is also a great place to find all sorts of nice wooden utensils, fabric placemats, baskets, and long lasting glassware. But my big find this week was glass refrigerator containers!


IKEA has introduced a line of glass storage containers called 365+. They come in dozens of sizes and shapes,  have 3 different types of lids to choose from! Both  the round and rectangular shapes come in several different depths and are sold separately from the lids, so one can choose the lid most suitable for the intended use. Lids range from clip on plastic to bamboo, to glass  with a silicone gasket. You can even buy a package of different colored silicone gaskets to identify the container for individual family members, or food identification. I'm excited to find glass refrigerator dishes with silicone insert lids! I hope they keep selling them for some time in the future so I can stock up.




If you have found any all glass refrigerator storage containers, other than IKEA, I'd love to know about it! Thanks for continuing the conversation!

B.