The pantry gets cleaned out at least twice a year - or so I would tell you and believe it to be true - but what I found today makes that appear to be a lie. There were four (count 'em - four) containers of hot chocolate mix and although only one of them had an expiration date, that was April 1996. Since I don't think ANY hot chocolate has been mixed in this house since before 2000, I tossed them all out. There was a package (half-used) of lasagna noodles, which seemed to be petrified, so out they went.
A plastic container of dry cat food was there, as well as six cat bowls. Since my kitties have recently gone on to their great reward in the sky, I put those away in a storage closet for safe-keeping, should I ever again decide I want to clean litter pans daily and spend small fortunes at the veterinary office.The cat food will be donated.
The medicine chest also got checked; and it had cough medicine that had expired, and calamine lotion. It may be that stuff was still good, but why take a chance? I found enough band aids to last two lifetimes, especially since no children reside here any more, and the grand kids are beyond the point of needing them, at least not every time they visit.
My plastic storage containers have been multiplying (as I'm sure yours do). I'm referring to the smaller ones. The bigger ones seem to go missing every time we have company (and give them something to take home) and I seldom get them back. So I mated all of them to their better-halves and while they do take up a lot of space, at least I won't have to search for the tops - this week. The next time the dish-washer gets cleaned out by that man who lives here with me, they will all be heaved into the bin willy-nilly.
Who knows what I will find tomorrow, when I complete the project. Have you tackled your pantry/cabinets recently? What oddments did you find?
21 comments:
Oh dear, now I have to go check my pantry and medicine cabinets. I am afraid of what I will find lurking in the back.
I'm heading home to clean out the pantry! I've been inspired! Thanks
I reorganised my pantry yesterday. No great surprises hiding in there. I did clear through my baking tins, some were over 40 years old. I don't think they owed me anything!
I make no pretense of cleaning out my pantry very often - perhaps twice in the past 11 years. I have more plastic ware than you can shake a stick at; but, most of it gets used enough that I'm not tempted to throw any of it out - although some of it may have been "re-purposed".
When organizing my kitchen (moved in 11.5 years ago), I designated the upper, corner cabinet as the plastic storage cabinet. I knew I would have difficulty getting stuff out of the smallish opening (when closed, the door is at 45 degrees to the two walls of that part of the kitchen) and thought that plastic would be light-weight enough to handle. Good choice! In addition, an upper shelf is dedicated to the largest plastic ware.
Repurposed? The cereal containers that Hunky Husband found irritating. They now hold flour, elbow macaroni, dried beans, and such sitting on the cabinet work surface like cannisters.
Good show in getting everything ship-shape!
Cop Car
My medicine cabinets are the pits. I have cold remedies that must be 6years old.
I usually do pretty good on the food.
Since we've moved quite a bit the last few years, the cleaning commenced before each move. Right now, everything is up to date. Or, I could be fooling myself. I might have a few jars of stuff in the refrigerator that have definitely seen better days!
I go through my cupboards every month or so. My spouse and I tend to make impulse purchases and forget about them. This recently added up to 20+ boxes of pasta, 13 cans of tuna and a lifetime supply of green beans. I culled it down to a realistic level and donated the rest.
I'm not so good at going through the medications, though. I'm pretty sure that C has meds from before Nooze was born (she's almost 11).
I actually have a whole secondary decluttering blog.
It's a constant struggle (although we could use some of those bandaids over here:)). It makes me happy to recycle what I can and try to use up things.
Judy you are a paragon.
I feel quite pleased because yesterday my gardener was delighted to accept a Fortnum and Mason's Christmas pud with special brandy butter which came in our Christmas hamper and usually sits in the larder well past its sell-by date.
I do this also...about every 10 years or so.
One time we had a small fire in our kitchen and the insurance company told me to empty my "Lazy Susan" pantry and make a list of what I had to throw away.
Carol and I started to take everything out and soon noticed that every other item was a box of Shake n Bake for chicken.
By the time we had almost emptied the pantry, Carol was rolling on the floor laughing because we had just counted our 16th or 17th box of Shake n Bake and we had NEVER made any oven baked chicken in our lives.
It must have looked good to us in the store but we never used it and yet every time we went to the store again we bought more that we also never used.
It was probably the only time in history that someone made a false claim to the insurance company in THEIR favor.
We didn't have the nerve to claim 17 boxes of Shake n Bake.
Nancy, that's hilarious. I failed to mention that I also found about 7 packets of Knorr soup mix - none of which was under 5 years old.
rennratt: Are you for real. You are amazing!
Nancy & Kenju: I keep having to remind myself to use the honey that my brother gave me. He hasn't kept bees since about 1994!
Cop Car
Oh you are meant to clean the cupboards out every so often then? Oops.
That's not my job. :D
I can honestly say that I have nothing that needs to be thrown out. And why, you might ask?
Because my neatnik daughter did a thorough cleaning in Jan. of this year when she stayed with me for 3 months !
I work on the theory that unless its more than 2 years out of date its OK so far nothing consumed while using this theory has not been fatal, here's hoping my luck lasts.
You made me chuckle this morning! I did a clear out of my cupboard the other week, and found all sorts of things with sell-by dates in the 1990's (I won't say which year!)
Though I do think the calamine lotion might have been OK - if it shook up to a liquid, it probably was! ;)
I'm afraid that I have a "reputation" and the family checks all labels before taking anything out of my cabinets or my refrigerator.
I'm having my kitchen cabinets refinished and all the doors are already off and at the shop. In the meantime, I have to clean out all my cupboards--and it's just like what you are saying. How embarrassing. Our church hall burned down 3 years ago and the new hall opened about a month ago. We are really short on bowls and serving dishes for the coffee hours and pot lucks so I'll bring some of mine down there. Since it's so hot outside, and I assume you have a/c, staying indoors is a good thing to do.
You must have been peeking in my cabinets - I should just toss everything and start anew!
I do this but about every several years.
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