Declutter Week: The Kitchen Pantry

Let’s talk about about another, more specialized area to think about that’s usually out of sight, out of mind: the kitchen pantry.

I don’t know about you, but every time I delve into the pantry, I find things that need to be thrown away or used up quickly. It doesn’t matter when I was in there last time.

There are two philosophies when it comes to pantries:

1. Buy items on an as-needed basis. The stuff that remains is usually things purchased that ended up not being used (when good plans go bad and dinner plans become, eh, let’s eat out). If you don’t make plans to use it, it languishes in the back.
2. Buy items over time to create an emergency supply of food. Keep in mind that emergencies can range from “it’s raining and I don’t want to go to the grocery store” to “power’s out everywhere and the grocery stores are closed” to “I’ve lost my job and don’t have funds for grocery shopping” to something majorly catastrophic. If you have food storage, you have to make specific plans to use and replace on a regular basis. Otherwise, you end up with a lot of food going bad.

You’ll notice that either way you’re going to want to make sure you’re using the food you have stored. I’d love to say I was ultra-organized and kept a itemized inventory of the food in my pantry. But I’d be lying. Who has time for that?

—

Daily challenge: Go through your pantry and clear it out. Throw out the old stuff and donate the food you won’t likely use. Make plans for the food you do have if you have a small pantry. If you have a larger food storage, make a list of recipes that use the items you have stored and work those recipes into your meal planning.

31 Days 2016 - Reset Your Home

This post is a part of the series 31 Days to Reset Your Home, part of the 31 Days challenge. Please join me during the month of October. Each day I’ll be posting what I’m working on, challenges so you can join in, and update my progress (and hopefully hear about yours!). The 31 Days challenge is a writing challenge to pick a topic and write a post on it every day in October.

• 31 Days to Reset Your Home
• Resetting Your Morning Routine
• Resetting Your Evening Routine
• Resetting your Weekly Routine
• Declutter Week: Paper
• Declutter Week: The Left Behinds
• Declutter Week: The On Purpose
• Declutter Week: The Kitchen Pantry
• Declutter Week: Your Schedule
• Lovely Links – Oct 10
• In Other News – Kitchen Renovation Progress
• Deep Cleaning: Master Bedroom
• Deep Cleaning: Bathrooms
• Deep Cleaning: Living Room
• Deep Cleaning: The Kitchen
• After the Deep Clean
• A Good Sleep
• Another Kitchen Update
• Maintaining – How to Create a Habit
• The Art of Stress Free Productivity
• Resetting Your Email