I finally finished up with organizing my cabinets, and separating Shelf Stuff vs Preps. I am honestly amazed at just how much canned food I have, and more then that how much canned food I have that I know I've had since early in my marriage, so almost 6 years. Anything I could identify as over 2 years old I herded together and took into my local food bank. Frankly, the fact that I haven't eaten it in the last 5 years tells me chances are I'm not eating it in the next 5.
I'm not a super picky eater, but well... okay, I'm a picky eater. There I said it. So, it's silly for me to have things in my pantry that I KNOW I wouldn't even feed to the dog. I don't eat sauerkraut. I don't like sauerkraut. I don't need a gallon mason jar of it.
One thing I did do in the cleaning crusade was to make a list of every thing that went into my preps storage. I'm going to edit the list a bit (so it doesn't read Crm chkn Sp lrg) and place one copy on the inside of my cupboard door, and probably another in the storage itself. That way instead of buying more (insert canned veggie here) I can snag some out of the food storage, mark the list, and replenish that every other week. Using what I have stored, and saving myself some in the process as I can stock up a bit more on things I need should they be on sale.
You might use a spreadsheet. That's how I manage stored food. As you acquire more and more of it, keeping track of what you have and when you got it becomes harder and harder. I write the purchase dates on products with an indelible marker. When I take things out of the storage, I write it on a clipboard hanging in the pantry or storeroom. Then I update the spreadsheets. Same when I put something in. It is a little time consuming but it does prevent shorting things you need or overstocking things you don't use much.
ReplyDeleteHermit, I hadn't even thought of dating the cans themselves. I do date anything I personally can, but I hadn't thought to do it with store bought goods.
ReplyDeleteA spreadsheet I'm sure is in my near future as I start adding large amounts of dry goods, but I haven't gotten around to creating one yet.