Thursday, October 8, 2009

Chip clips make me happy


Do you ever avoid doing/buying something, and then when you finally do you ask yourself, "Why in the world didn't I do that weeks/months/years ago?"

We've had a lack of "chip clips" in our house for quite awhile. There was a daily struggle to determine which bag of chips or other food were "chip clip worthy." It consisted of a tiered system of criteria that looked something like this:
  1. How many chips are left? (more chips = more loss if they go stale)
  2. How new is the bag? (new chips gone stale seems more wasteful)
  3. Which chips am I personally more likely to eat (for me, Santitas got the clip before Lay's)
  4. Which chips taste OK stale? (Doritos are passable; chewy pretzels are not)
  5. Which chips cost the most to replace if thrown away? (I'm looking at you, Gardettos)

Also, it seemed the number of chip clips dwindled year to year. We received a bunch for our wedding (granted, that was ten years ago), and we've picked up a couple along the way -- including a random clothespin here and there. But items like this have a way of disappearing or finding other uses. One currently clips the Costco-sized bag of cat food in the garage (Otis does not go for stale food. Also, see #5 above.), and others end up clipping various bags inside the refrigerator or around the house.

Of course, every time I fought through this decision tree I asked myself the question, "Self, why don't you buy some chip clips?" But the feeling soon passed, and it never happened to occur while at the store.

Then something very special happened. I was in Wal-Mart and happened to think about this issue. I sprinted to the chip clip aisle (ok, it's not an entire aisle - but there are options) and made this vital purchase. It has changed my life.

I am a rich man. Rich with chip clips. Now every bag of chips, no matter its race, creed, color or flavor, is properly clipped and fresh for eating at our leisure.

Chip, chip, hooray!

5 comments:

LaurieJo said...

I'm so happy for your family! I know what a challenge it can present to be without a proper freshness barrier for your chips. Glad the problem has been resolved.

Thoughts42Day said...

Well said. I share in your joy.

DVD said...

Excellent! Now how about some twisties for the bread/bun packages?!

Jennifer Willis said...

I have a confesion to make: We have aobut 2 or 3 of your old chip clips. You left them here after one of our family events (Easter maybe...I'm not sure). I'm assuming they are yours b/c of the traffic conference theme they have. I have had every intention of returning them but have not gotten the chance.

Brian said...

Jenn - all is forgiven.

DVD - Luckily I'm a trash bag tier-upper. It makes me feel like a cowboy in a rodeo - I always throw my hands up when I'm done.

Back to the point, it allows me to save twisty ties for other household needs.

Twisties + duct tape = universal solution.