From Clutter to Food

Last week when my househelper opened a cupboard to put away some empty food containers, as she often will do after washing dishes, she was met with an avalanche.  Yes, I had intended to tidy up that cupboard for some time now, but instead, I simply tossed each new empty peanut butter jar, milk liter bottle or margarine tub in and closed the door quickly.  After all, I just might be able to use those containers someday, but didn’t have time to organize them right then…Can anyone relate? 

Indeed, I have used milk caps for homemade game pieces, yogurt tubs with a few beans or buttons inside for shaker instruments and dish detergent bottles as squirt guns for the kids, but do I really need all that filled my cupboard? 

No, I don’t. 

So, I offered some of those containers to my house helper who had gladly taken empty containers before.  She eagerly accepted and we filled two grocery bags full.  Today I asked her what she did with all of them.  She smiled and said that she sold them.  I was glad, as I assumed this was their fate.  Upon the end of her work day today I commented that I needed to do some cleaning up and would look for more containers for her to sell.  I glanced up at a shelf in my kitchen and found around 15 empty spice jars.   

I have been at a loss of what to do with them since they are glass and I don’t want the kids throwing them around in their pretend kitchen, so I asked her if they were sellable. 

House Helper:  “Yes, madam, they are expensive!”

Me:  “Who wants to buy an empty spice jar?  What do they do with them?

HH:  “Take-Out restaurants buy them to put salt in.”

Me:  “Oh, that makes sense.  How much can you get for one?”

HH:  “Oh, they are expensive….100 kwacha”

Me:  “Really?!”  (this amounts to about half an hour of work in common wages)

HH:  “Oh yes!”

I proceeded to pass 11 jars down to her, keeping a few for my own homemade spice concoctions, cinnamon sugar shaker, etc.

HH: “Zikomo kwambili (thank you very much), madam, you give me food!”

Me:  “Zikomo (you’re welcome)!  And how about the other containers here?”

HH:  “The 2 liter oil bottle is 30 kwacha, the 5 liter is 50 kwacha, the tin can 10 kwacha.”

Me:  “Well, as I clean the garage and pantry, I will look for more containers for you!”

HH:  “Zikomo kwambili!”

As our language teacher told us in a lesson about Malawian culture “Everything is useful!”  Things we are likely to throw away without a second thought because they are broken or empty are likely to be useful to someone here.  As a mother of preschoolers, many things like toilet paper tubes are indispensable for making dinosaurs for my dino-crazy son as well, but to learn that my cluttered cupboards can help feed a family is something else altogether!