If you know me, you know that I hoard food.
It’s comforting, and I like knowing that if we lost out jobs we wouldn’t starve for at least six months.
But food needs to be cycled through, and I don’t actually KNOW how much food I have, so I have begun:
THE FOOD INVENTORY PROJECT!
I also defrosted my freezers while I worked on this.
The plan is to tally everything in each food storage location, type up a list with a box per item, stick the list in a folder sleeve, tape it to the wall, and then use dry erase markers to mark off what’s been used.
Easy to update on the computer and print out again.
East to wipe the plastic sleeve clean.
So, photos!
The first freezer I did was the meat and leftover freezer. I don’t have a lot of meat right now, but there are a fair bit of leftovers.
Not a great picture, but done.
The second is the fruit and veggie freezer:
This is a better photo. You can see where items are crossed off and where my husband made notes that things were added.
Then the fridge’s freezer, where I keep dairy products mostly.
Then I moved on to dry goods, and so far I’ve only gotten one area sorted.
Our largest pantry:
This whole process let me pull some of the oldest items and toss them from the freezers, which they’ve needed for a while.
It also lets me know what I need to shop for, so rather than buying something a ridiculous number of times (I’m looking at you, frozen cauliflower), I know what I actually need.
A few items I finally admitted I was never going to eat them and tossed them.
I still have to do all of the kitchen cupboards, including the spice cabinet. There’s a LOT stored up there, and I have a LOT of cupboards and very few dishes.
Then the bedroom stash of dry goods – mostly spares of spices, extra sugar, extra salt, dried pasta, and the like.
And finally the bins of rice and beans I keep in stock.
I haven’t figured out what to do for the fridge though. It changes a LOT, very rapidly.
Thoughts?
