Why Am I Keeping the Lid?

I opened the kitchen cupboard earlier and a plastic lid fell out.

Just the lid.

I picked it up and automatically put it back.

Then I stopped.

What am I keeping it for?

There is no container.

I haven’t seen the container. I don’t remember the container. For all I know, the container left home years ago and is now living happily with another family.

Yet I’m keeping its lid in case it returns.

So I investigated.

Big mistake.

I have round lids, square lids and tiny lids for containers so small I can’t imagine what I once intended to store in them. Three blueberries? A grape?

Then I found the opposite problem: a perfectly good container with no lid.

Now, sensible Eira would throw away the orphaned lid and the lidless container.

My actual brain went:

Hang on…

And tried them together.

They are completely different shapes.

I still tried.

Apparently hope is stronger than geometry.

The funny thing is, I’m not alone. A Mumsnet conversation this week about tiny household changes descended almost immediately into people discussing mismatched food containers and lids. One person had finally solved it by buying just one type so every lid fits every box.

That sounds magnificent.

Far too organised for me, obviously, but magnificent.

Naturism means there are plenty of mornings when I’m wandering around the kitchen wearing absolutely nothing, yet somehow my cupboards are overdressed. We don’t need more things. We need the things we already own to have a purpose.

So today I’m being ruthless.

If you don’t have a bottom, you’re going.

If you don’t have a lid, you’re going.

If I don’t know what you are, you’re definitely going.

Although there is one little blue lid I’ve put back.

I recognise that one.

I just can’t remember why.

Oh dear.

What completely useless thing are you keeping because you’re convinced its missing other half will eventually turn up?