Tag: Pantry Shopping

Let’s Talk Expiration Dates.

Let’s talk expiration dates.

A friend and I chatted at a recent rainy soccer game.   She had stayed up until 2 am the night before organizing her pantry.  Most of her time was spent checking expiration dates and tossing expired food.

We discussed how frustrating it is when we review our cabinets and pantry, and have to purge expired food.  It feels wasteful and lazy.

HOWEVER, getting down on ourselves about how we got to this point is neither useful nor productive.  It’s better to learn from the experience (see the process below), and change our behaviors from here (stick with the article until the end).

A few months ago, I wrote about National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day (November, Click HERE).  So let’s declare this week Clean Out Your Food Cabinet Week, what do you say?

Here’s How:
  1. Grab a garbage can, a notebook and a couple of boxes or paper bags.  Take a deep breath and begin.
  2. Clear off a counter for work space, near your food cabinets.
  3.  Choose a cabinet. JUST ONE.  Starting at the top, take everything out and put it on the counter. Then wipe down the shelf.
  4. Now, check every item. Yes, EVERY ITEM.  Even the stuff you bought recently.  It could be the newest, but still out of date. I was surprised to find my recently purchased canned beets were already expired.
  5. If the item is past its’ expiration date, toss it.  I understand, that is the hard part.  Yes, I know, it’s wasteful.  And yes, I know, you spent good money on that.  HOWEVER, the potential for food poisoning is much more important than a $3 can of tuna.
  6. If the item is open, but not past the expiration date, still check it for freshness.  Foods like breakfast cereal or crackers get stale if open too long in the cabinet.
  7. If the item is not expired, but you don’t think you will use it, label one of those boxes or bags as “donate to food pantry”, or “send to preschool”, or “give to friend/family” and start a pile of items to leave your kitchen to go and grace someone else’s.
  8. Review everything, then place the keep items back in the cabinet.
  9. If you have time to tackle another cabinet – JUST ONE – go ahead.  But DO NOT take apart more than on at a time!  Otherwise….
  10. Take out the trash, and drop off the donations / items to share. Pat yourself on the back for a job well done.  Repeat.
Once you’ve cleaned out the cabinet and pantry, it’s time to consume differently.
  • Use a list.  Post it on the refrigerator, and add items as you run out of them.
  • If you have to shop, buy only what you need for this week.
  • Stock your food like a store.  Pull the oldest items to the front, and add new inventory to the back.
  • Take advantage of sale items and stock up, but make sure to add those surplus items to your menu plan so that you use them up.
  • Plan to do this a couple times a year!
To:

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Want To Clear Clutter? Shop Better!

We need stuff.  I recognize that we and our homes require stuff to operate.  Yep, I get it.

But do we really require ALL that we keep? Are those trips to Costco or Sam’s Club, Target or Walmart really helping?

Let’s talk consumables. Consumables are, well, items we consume. Food and drink, paper goods, toiletries, even candles. Consumables are products that we use up and need to replace regularly.  Let’s call them our supplies or inventory.

Groceries? Shampoo and soap? Toilet paper, paper towels? Laundry detergent and cleaning supplies? Yes – All of these things take up space in our homes and require $$$ and time to be replaced.

How we use and replace our consumables can be directly related to our clutter struggles, though, and getting a handle on consumables is a step towards getting a handle on our clutter! Here is how to consume differently.

1. Opt out of your usual trip to the grocery this week. Delve a little deeper into your cluttered pantry, crowded cabinets or over-full freezer and use what you have.

2. Assign a home (shelf, cabinet, closet, etc.) for your consumables so you can find things when you need them (and not have to re-purchase them). Imagine if a store owner didn’t bother to organize her stock room.  The store could lose money and sales if they couldn’t put their hands on their inventory.  We dedicated a shelf in the laundry room to big purchases of toilet paper, paper towels and cleaning supplies, so we can grab what we need, and also easily determine when we need to buy more.

3.  Check your inventory before you shop.  Now that you have a home for your inventory, be sure to check it before you shop.  We usually have extra toiletries like toothbrushes and deodorant, so when those need replaced, we check the inventory basket before adding those to the grocery list.  Which leads me to…..

4.  USE A LIST!  We have a pre-printed grocery list hanging on the fridge all the time.  We are all supposed to add to the list when we realize a need, and then the list in theory is ready for me when I go to the store.  We all, including me, drop the ball sometimes and forget to add items, but that is why I also check our inventory before I leave.  And when I shop, I try to stick to the list.  Not even a great sale price may persuade me to buy an item if I know I neither need it nor have room for it at home.  (And, remember to bring the LIST with you, unlike me at Costco recently.  Or take a picture with your phone!)

5.  Shop for items based on NEED instead of a HABIT it.  My clients learn a lot about their shopping habits when we organize a kitchen.  For example, when we pull many similar items (let’s say canned green beans) from cabinets around the space.   They may say “every week, we eat lots of green beans, so I always pick some up when I’m at the store”.  Then we’ll realize the client’s meal planning has changed, and there were some busy times recently when they ate out a lot, or how the doctor recommended lower sodium veggie choices, or how the toddler decided to not eat green things for a few weeks, etc.  And how that “I buy 4 cans every week” has now wasted $$ and caused clutter.   Buy items because you need them, not because “that’s what I buy every week”.

So, shop a little differently, save some money and clear clutter – all at the same time!  Win, win, win!

Less Truly Is More!

 Less Truly Is More.  Less grocery shopping this week gives you more money in your pocket, more space, more room to move, more storage possibilities.  Your challenge this week is to clear kitchen clutter with Pantry Shopping.

I’ve organized several kitchens and client menu plans (link to other posts) lately.  Clients often ask what they can do to get ready for our organizing appointments.  “Don’t Buy Anything New!  Use What You Have!” is the answer!  This practice is also known as Pantry Shopping (per Mary Hunt at www.debtproofliving.com).  Why Pantry Shop?  I have been in homes where there are literally hundreds of cans of food, and dozens of boxes of cereal or cake mixes or pasta.  All those cans and boxes are clutter and are costing you money if unused.  You will be amazed at how much food you actually have on hand.

Go through your cabinets using  Julie Morgenstern’s S.P.A.C.E. method of Organizing.

S: Sort your food.  Group canned goods together, further sorted by veggies or fruits, canned meats, soups, etc.  Put spices and baking supplies together, cereal items, sauces, pasta and side dishes (rice and potato items), etc.

P: Purge items that need to go.

  • Expiration dates make purging kitchen stuff easy.  Expired food needs to go.  I know you spent money on it, and that it might still be safe and flavorful to eat, but ask yourself – is it worth the risk?  No, it’s not.  Possible food poisoning in exchange for a few bucks saved at the grocery?  Do the math.
  • There are also items that have been open in your cabinet for an undetermined amount of time.  Open cereal or saltines may not have expired, but they might not taste good anymore. 
  • There may be food that has expired to you and your lifestyle.  Baby foods, items your family has decided they don’t like, foods you bought for a recipe but never used (and don’t plan to), or impulse buys.  Donate these items to your local food pantry or hand them off to a friend, but get rid of things that won’t be used before they expire. 

A and C: Assign A Home / Container-ize:

  • Decide where to store food that you keep.  We consider who uses an item when we pick storage spots.  My youngest likes to get his own cereal in the morning, so cereals and the bin of after-school snacks are in a bottom cabinet within his reach.
  • In that same low cabinet are foods in glass jars like pickles and spaghetti sauces because I am a terrible klutz and storing things low to the ground means I break less!
  • The other benefit of Assigning a Home for specific types of food comes when it’s time to make a grocery list.  By looking at the space where the cereal or pasta or soup belongs, I can tell at a glance if I need to add it to my grocery list. 
  • Decide what is a reasonable amount to have on hand for specific items. I have 2 half shelves in one cabinet dedicated to canned goods.  The lower shelf is for stuff I use all the time and is double stacked, and the top shelf is for the items I rarely use.  If the shelves are full, I do not buy canned goods.  It’s as simple as that.
  • Corral small items like dip or seasoning packets, breakfast bars or spices into handy containers so the items are less likely to get lost and instead will get used up!

 E: Equalize (Maintenance)

  • Rotate the stock:  Check your expiration dates, and put the closest expiration dates up front, so you use those food items first.
  • Incorporate your Pantry Food into your meal plan for the next few weeks, to use up your excess food.  Do this at least a couple of times a year, to keep things moving. 
  • Don’t buy items if they are not on the menu for the next couple of weeks.  Break out of your typical shopping habits, and instead only buy what you really need.

Learn to live with less this week, and like it!  Less Really is More!