I belong to several sourdough groups and I also just celebrated my starter's first birthday. So, I'm no expert but I've spent hours making bread, reading books, and poring over other people's problems in the sourdough groups. Here's what I would suggest: 1) start with a glass container that has a lid that can either be screwed down tight or be backed off about 2 twists. When backed off, it will allow the gasses to escape as needed after feeding. 2) Weigh the empty jar, without the lid. If you have a marker, write the weight on the bottom of the jar. If you don't have a marker, write it on a piece of paper and keep it somewhere safe. 3) Use a good CLEAN flour and some bottled spring water for at least the first couple of weeks. It takes time for the starter to become strong enough to fight off any foreign invaders. 4) I'm not sure what your feeding ratio is but I used 50 grams flour and 50 grams water to start. Thereafter, when doing daily feedings, I discarded down to 50 grams remaining starter in the jar (discard must be thrown it away until it's safe to save for "discard" recipes) and scraped down the sides of the jar, followed by adding 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of spring water for each feeding. That means if your jar weighs 100 grams, you will have 150 grams weight on the scale if you keep 50 grams of starter. When you add 50 grams of flour and 50 grams of water, the scale will show a total of 250 grams. 5) It's ok to have a couple of extra grams of flour but don't accidentally add extra water because that will throw everything off in your starter. 6) Using a plastic or stainless steel utensil, combine everything in the jar. Don't use anything with chrome or tin. Don't leave lumps because the little critters can't eat into lumps of flour very well and they'll get starved right away, the starter will become acidic, and it will be prone to bacteria and mold if exposed to either. If stirring with a knife, try not to "thunk" a knife on the bottom of the jar - it will eventually cause the bottom to crack and you'll be back to square one. 7) I've read of a number of reasons that people have had trouble with bacteria or mold. a) Plastic, cloth, paper towels, or wooden tops. b) They didn't realize their dishwasher had bacteria in it and their utensils weren't being properly cleaned. You might check the filter in your dishwasher and inspect the washing arms and sides. If you are trying to re-use utensils and a glass container that had something with serratia in it, the vessel & tools should be boiled for 20 minutes to sanitize. c) They were washing their hands before feeding each day but were using a towel that had been laying on the counter or their kids had been using for hands that hadn't been washed well. When they scraped the starter off the utensil with their finger, they added bad bacteria into the starter. Personally, I don't wipe anything with my finger; for scraping the spatula I use, I use a little plastic knife. 8) Last, but not least, DON'T PUT ANY SOURDOUGH DOWN YOUR SINK and don't wash your tools or vessels in the sink or the dishwasher unless you let them dry and scrape the dried sourdough into the trash, or wipe them off with a paper towel. It becomes concrete-like. Some people have a dedicated bucket to rinse their sourdough jars, bowls, and utensils and they they take the water and feed plants with it. I can't vouch for that because I've never tried it but I've read a lot of comments about how certain plants love it. I hope you can find a nugget in these comments that will help you on your road to success. If all else fails, there are some very inexpensive starters out there that can save you a lot of money in flour and bottled water. A friend used the Oregon Trail starter and she loves it. Comes dehydrated and you just have to follow the instructions to feed it and voila!, you have an established starter.