Cool Whip bowls and other nuisances

I come from a long line of "waste not - want not" women. But what used to make sense to me, now does not. I remember as a child daydreaming that I would open a whole-foods store, and sell everything in bulk - bring your own container. I envisioned everyone lining up with their empty 16 ounce shampoo bottle and refilling it out of the tap for a quarter. I might have two brands - one for oily hair and one for dry hair. Milk - I always thought "Oh what a waste, they made this whole gallon jug just to hold milk for a week, then you throw it away?" So I was going to let them refill their containers out of a milk tap. I think I imagined the other end of the tap being connected directly to the teats of a cow. Anyway. My whole point is that we have containers for everything. And those containers are only used once for that product. Then they go to the landfill. Thousands of empty milk jugs daily in each landfill. So, as a solution, I had decided that I would not throw away the empty bowls, jugs, jars, bread bags, or containers of any sort. The milk jugs were refilled with water for winter watering purposes or used as trot-line floats. I never accumulated many of them, since we milked our own animals. This noble idea culminated in an obscene cabinet collection of bowls of all shapes and sorts, and a drawer full of lids. The manufacturers don't even have enough respect for the environment to make the containers uniform across like products. For instance: Why won't a cool-whip lid fit a margarine bowl? I like products that use mason jars with standard mouths so that I can buy rings and lids and re-use the jar. I think meat should come wrapped in paper instead of foam trays. Soda? Why can't we buy our own syrup and carbonation tap? Aah. Because then they couldn't get a dollar-twenty-nine for every 16 ounce plastic throw-away bottle. (and it's .89 for a 2-litre on sale, go figure.)
I grew to hate the cabinet full of bowls and drawer full of lids. It was frustrating to match two pieces together, and sometimes by opening the cabinet, I was treated to a plastic avalanche. I called it sabotage and I looked for the culprit to kill him/her/them.
So now I'm older and I do not tolerate any plastic bowl in my cupboard without it's matching lid being paired with it and stacked with others of like capacity or shape. I'm like the tupperware nazi. Husband has learned to conform.
I am ruthless. I throw bowls away if I can't see the lid. I throw the lid away if I can't find the bowl. This has simplified my life sooo much. I feel so much more comfortable in my kitchen when I know I can just reach up and grab a container with a lid and not have to worry about the booby-trap crashing down on my head.
I went to a friends' home last weekend and helped with the cooking. I opened a cabinet and the tupperware bowls came tumbling out and they knocked over a drink that was "safely" sitting on the counter, and I secretly smiled to myself.

MsAmber