rechelle's lifelyrics

Years ago, we had a family blog but I hardly ever posted to it. However, I’ve been thinking about one particular post I wrote that I thought would be appropriate to share here. It’s a little ironic that I started this process in Southern California and then ended up moving to Eugene, Oregon, where it actually appears to be such a “Eugenian” thing to do! I still get stopped frequently while out shopping, “Wow, What a great idea! Where did you get those baskets?” They are surprised when I tell them I found my crates at Wal Mart when I lived in California almost 15 years ago:

ATTENTION! All You Anywhere Shoppers!!

Thursday, September 03, 2009

This is, hopefully, a helpful, and somewhat, educational blog post. A couple of times, on Facebook, I’ve mentioned how exhausting grocery days are for me. I shop for a large sized-family, plus fairly frequent dinner-party-style entertaining. When the big push for our own, non-disposable, grocery bags began to be more predominant, I decided to take a turn at it. I was left feeling frustrated, because, inevitably, I found one or more items had rolled under the seats in the van, and became the following week’s mystery foul smell.

One day, as I was strolling the aisles at Wal Mart, I had a, sort of, epiphany. I was looking at all of those varied sizes of plastic containers, and began thinking about my weekly (if not more) grocery shopping trips. Suddenly, I envisioned a much saner approach to my grocery dilemmas.

These inexpensive crates fit well in most shopping carts, and ensure that groceries stay put for the drive home! People at the check stands often comment at how much easier it is to check my groceries. I use one crate for veggies, one for small items, one for meats… you get the picture. this makes it easier to keep the cold things cold, and MUCH easier for unloading after the groceries are home!

All frozen foods are together, and go in the freezer! Imagine that! So simple, it hardly feels like work! The biggest problem in initiating this system into my everyday life was remembering to bring the baskets into the store.

But it is worth the effort to train myself in this process, because I know everything will fit in my car, and I’m confident loose items will not fall prey to a sharp turn, or sudden stop. They are all snug, in their separate baskets – ready to be unloaded as soon as I get home!

So, in a world where every one is trying to cut down on throw-away, superfluous items, try out my basket shopping idea, and hopefully it will make your life a little simpler along the way!