Organizing your pantry, step 1: toss expired food

Pantries NEED to be organized. It is very hard to function with a pantry that is not because you waste time and money doing 1 of 2 things:

1. Over-shopping because you didn't know you already have 6 jars of pasta sauce

2. Eating out due to frustration in not being able to find what you need to make your meal

Neither of those are great and none of us needs to waste any more time or money.

Having an organized pantry will not only save you time and money but you’ll feel more confident and assured when it comes to planning your grocery shopping. This makes meal preparation so much easier. You can organize your pantry but you don’t have to commit to doing it all in one day. I am giving you the tools and instructions to organize your pantry, one step at a time.

The first step to focus on is tossing expired foods from the pantry.

Take out each can, box, or package of food and look at its expiration date. The expiration date is typically 2 years after it was packaged. If you haven't used it in that time, chances are you will not.

Look at the following packaged foods in your pantry:

• Canned foods

• Pasta, rice & other grains

• Meal starters (Hamburger Helper, Rice a Roni, Tacos)

• Sauces & condiments

• Tea & hot chocolate

• Cereal & oatmeal

• Nuts

• Baking ingredients like flour and sugar

If you can't find a date, think hard about when you got it. If you're struggling to remember, it's probably time to toss it.

If the package is open, see if it passes the smell test. You'll know if it smells off, especially with rice, nuts, and oils.

Unfortunately, all you can really do with expired food is throw it away. You can not donate it to a food bank or shelter. 

If the food is in a glass container, you can clean it out and recycle the glass. Or use it for storing other food once you've cleaned it out. Otherwise, just throw it away.

While you're at it, throw away any packaged food like crackers, rice, pasta, nuts, etc. that has been opened and not securely closed. It is most likely stale and attracting critters. 😟

I'm going to give you steps in the coming posts on how to organize your pantry so that food waste doesn't happen in the future. For today, make a promise to yourself to do better about this and move on. 😉