So for those of you debating the use of these, and I'm sure every household around the world is totally debating this very important topic, let me list a few of my reasons. As an aside, I don't think a single one of my containers match, are the same size, or are Pinterest perfect. I got them as cheap as possible out of necessity, not for looks since they're behind a closed door most of the time.
One reason I use them, its what my parents did. Now my mom is as frugal as they come. But one time, when they bought cereal, we opened it ready to dive in and stared in horror as a bunch of ants poured out with the cereal. It came that way. We had just opened the SEALED bag. I swear I didn't eat cereal again for months after that. So my mom went out and bought a bunch of cereal containers. Now it was like a compulsion to decant that cereal as soon as we got home from the store every week. Then the problem became we had ants in the house because there were two young kids who would come in from playing and forget to close a door, the dog would bring them in on his paws, especially if it was muddy, and ants are just the age old problem for just about everyone once the weather gets nice. I think I can count on one hand the number of people I know who don't have an ant battle every year.
Another reason I have them, other than ants, is mice. We had a mouse in our pantry last year. We found chewed wrappers, we had those little pre-packed food containers (like peanut butter, or caramel for apple dipping, apple sauce, etc) for the kids school lunches, and they mouse had chewed through those too. So much waste and frustration. Well, that mouse didn't get into a single of the sealed food containers we have in the pantry. Not one cereal, not the pasta, not the one I keep the treats in that is sealed and on an upper shelf to prevent sneaking, not one. He did chew through the one cereal that was in the back that I had left over from some baking treat I'd made and the box of pasta that I didn't realize was in there. So if that didn't prove their worth, I didn't know what would.
Oh! Let's not forget that, because kids are finicky, sometimes their favorite cereal today won't be tomorrow, or for the next two weeks. So that means it's just sitting there. Containers keep dry foods like cereal fresher for longer. Let's face it, no one likes stale anything, but kids HATE stale cereal. So here's to being able to keep the cereal fresh for a few weeks instead of the maybe a week you'd get out of leaving it in the box and hoping that they remember to roll the bag back down to help at least a little bit. So, I guess along with this, I'm saving money too because I'm not tossing wasted cereal.
Lastly, at least among the important (to me) reasons, I can SEE how much is in the container. I know when I'm getting low, I can see which ones aren't being touched. They can see their favorites sitting there and can grab it easily. No one is forgetting to close the box, or rolling the bag down, flip the lid and done.
So there you have it. Pest control, waste control, money control, frustration control....seeing a pattern yet? Control!
So, until the cereal packaging people give us a way to keep out pests, keep the cereal fresher longer, and make it all see through so we can know when to add to the shopping list and keep mom's the world over from losing their minds when the kids inevitably lose their minds because no one told mom they were running low on the favorite, I'm sticking with cereal containers.
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