Time to clean out the kitchen

[spinbaby]

New year and July 4th are always my times to give the fridge and the cupboards a good clean out. There is always an embarrassing amount of expired food and mystery objects. I try to label everything going into the fridge, but never quite manage to.

[PJMcK]

1. It can get scary, eh?

Stuff wrapped in aluminum foil. Tupperware containers with strange growth in them. That bottle of something on the refrigerator door whose label peeled off. Yikes!

Have fun! (Don’t forget to put a fresh box of baking soda in the fridge!)

[spinbaby]

2. I find I have to make rules

I’m working on the freezer now. Any leftovers, unless they are very recent, must be either thrown out or moved to the refrigerator to be eaten this week. Without rules, I start to think that maybe I will eventually do something with that bit of leftover pot roast from September.

[twodogsbarking]

3. Try the meds cabinet. Probably stuff from 1998.....

[hippywife]

5. Expiration on meds is a myth concocted by law.

Short article from August, 2020:

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/drug-expiration-dates-do-they-mean-anything

[twodogsbarking]

6. They lose potency.

[hippywife]

7. Supposedly according to the manufacturer, however...

From the article:

Most of what is known about drug expiration dates comes from a study conducted by the Food and Drug Administration at the request of the military. With a large and expensive stockpile of drugs, the military faced tossing out and replacing its drugs every few years. What they found from the study is 90% of more than 100 drugs, both prescription and over-the-counter, were perfectly good to use even 15 years after the expiration date.

Besides, this is about the refrigerator clean out.

[Luciferous]

4. A few years ago my mom went through

her pantry and found a bottle of salad dressing from the 90s 😬

It sounds like you have a good system in place.

[slightlv]

11. OMG! This sounds like what I found when I cleaned out my

pantry a few weeks ago! I so couldn't believe it, I actually got out my magnifying glass to make sure I was reading the expiration date correctly! Your Mom and I must be sisters by different mothers! (LOL)

I'm working a schedule out now to "clean out" the house, room by room, for the new year. We bought this house 3 years ago. Moved from a 3800 sq foot house into an 1800 sq foot house. We're so trapped by "stuff" no matter what I do it feels like I'm surrounded by "clutter" (because I am!). A lot of stuff is either going to be donated or trashed, and the house is going to get a whole lot more simplified! 'Sides, at my age, I'm finding it a lot more difficult to keep up the day to day cleaning aspect these days. Time to prioritize what we really need and what can go, and start truly living in the downsized house!

[Luciferous]

13. We downsized this year when our oldest

went off to college. Our youngest only has a couple years of high school left and we thought with the housing market the way it was it was the perfect time to sell. So we got a smaller house that had most of the important things updated so the only things to do are mostly cosmetic and we got rid of a ton of stuff. I'm still working on getting rid of more but right now our biggest issue is just organization and finding places for things.

[Old Crank]

8. When I was living in CA we had an emergency food box

We had staple goods with a longer than a year shelf life. Around Thanksgiving we went through the box and pulled all the items which would expire before the next Thanksgiving. Those got replaced with new stock.
The old ones got donated to a local soup kitchen. Since these were all staple goods they could use them well before the expiration date.

[Old Crank]

9. My mother had a black sharpie

And labeled her cans and bottles with the expiration date. Plus put the newest in the back. Right now I have to eat some of my homemade jam that has gotten older than a year.
I've been putting tape on plastic containers in the freezer and using the sharpie on them.

[Blue_playwright]

10. I do the same

My family gets weird meals in January as I use up odds and ends and restock lol

[Phentex]

12. My pantry is a mess!

Old house with deep shelves makes for mystery items that get lost in the back. I basically have to remove everything and reorganize. I use those stacking shelf things where possible but I need a better system.