{"id":4840,"date":"2018-03-18T19:32:35","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T19:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/betondinner.com\/?p=4840"},"modified":"2018-04-27T23:54:12","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T23:54:12","slug":"spring-clean-your-pantry-freezer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/spring-clean-your-pantry-freezer\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring Clean Your Pantry &#038; Freezer!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/spring-clean-your-pantry-and-freezer.jpg?ssl=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4910\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/spring-clean-your-pantry-and-freezer.jpg?resize=600%2C900&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/spring-clean-your-pantry-and-freezer.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/spring-clean-your-pantry-and-freezer.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Jay was recently gone on a work trip for 8 (8!) days. I always get a weird cleaning and organizing energy when he&#8217;s away. If I have to be alone-lone-lone, there&#8217;s some joy to be had in crossing things off my lists and scrubbing the shower for the first time since 2016, amiright?<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>And since there&#8217;s surely further joy to be had in rehashing it here for you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I arranged all the junk in all the junk drawers (plus used this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.younghouselove.com\/2018\/02\/podcast-86\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">command strip tip<\/a> to make things stay put, amen hallelujah &#8211; see the Quick Tip halfway down the post!)<\/li>\n<li>I <del>ruthlessly purged my t-shirt drawer<\/del>\u00a0got rid of 3 t-shirts<\/li>\n<li>I redecorated my mantle (read: I ordered a thing from Etsy for my mantle &#8211; but it&#8217;s okay, because I found cash in one of my junk drawers!)<\/li>\n<li>I reorganized the bathroom cabinets (why can&#8217;t I let go of you, hotel shower cap I will never use? why am I such a hoarder with a wannabe-minimalist soul?)<\/li>\n<li>I put away all the playing-in-the-snow gear that has lived on our bedroom chair since it snowed (which was at the beginning of January, I&#8217;m sorry to say)<\/li>\n<li>I mopped the floors, so that this could happen a few hours later (IS IT NOT UNCANNY HOW THIS HAPPENS?!?)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flour-on-the-floor.jpg?ssl=1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4842\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flour-on-the-floor.jpg?resize=450%2C600&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flour-on-the-floor.jpg?w=450&amp;ssl=1 450w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/flour-on-the-floor.jpg?resize=225%2C300&amp;ssl=1 225w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AND: I took everything out of the overflowing pantry you see above, to <strong>purge<\/strong>, <strong>prioritize<\/strong>, and <strong>organize<\/strong> it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Isn&#8217;t it kind of shocking to realize <strong>how much food you actually have?<\/strong> Especially since there was more than one occasion during the <del>year<\/del>\u00a0week Jay was gone where I was pretty sure we were going to starve since we had &#8220;no food&#8221;. But in reality, we could live for a long time on what I have in the freezer and pantry (and, um, the overflow pantry items I keep in the laundry room.\u00a0\ud83e\udd26\ud83c\udffd\u200d\u2640\ufe0f\u00a0I mean, a girl&#8217;s got to keep the backup to the backup peanut butter SOMEwhere).<\/p>\n<h2>So here&#8217;s the challenge for you and for me: try to eat everything in your house that was bought in 2017 in the next 6 weeks.<\/h2>\n<p>(Or, you know, you choose your own terms and deadline.)<\/p>\n<p>I actually challenged myself to do this for our freezer food in January. It&#8217;s halfway through March and I&#8217;m STILL WORKING ON THE FREEZER, Y&#8217;ALL. I still have:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2 jars of this <a href=\"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/simple-basil-marinara-sauce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">marinara<\/a> (putting it on the meal plan this week!)<\/li>\n<li>a big bag of cubed pork (I got a ton of pork shoulder on sale and I had yessir, yessir three bags full, so I&#8217;ve been working steadily on this)<\/li>\n<li>so, so, so much shredded turkey and stock from the time I massively undercooked a huge turkey for an event and ended up having to stick it in a pot and boil it for later use while Jay ran out to get rotisserie chickens OH MY GOSH THE SHAME AND I STILL HAVE IT ALL UP IN MY FREEZER MOCKING ME<\/li>\n<li>2 blueberry sausages no one liked<\/li>\n<li>a kielbasa sausage<\/li>\n<li>a pound of ground chicken (thinking about trying these <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paleorunningmomma.com\/garlic-jalapeno-chicken-sausage-patties-paleo-whole30\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sausages<\/a>, bc obviously I don&#8217;t have\u00a0any other sausage options, or these <a href=\"https:\/\/life-in-the-lofthouse.com\/pf-changs-chicken-lettuce-wraps\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">lettuce wraps<\/a>, thanks to advice from my <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/1696685337307396\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">meal planning Facebook group<\/a> [join us!])<\/li>\n<li>random bread products<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The pantry backlog isn&#8217;t as intense, but I do have a lot of pasta (that &#8220;must buy 2 to get 3 free&#8221; sale at Harris Teeter got me good), and I have a recipe idea for a soup with white beans and apparently I&#8217;m just going to keep buying white beans until I have enough to make experimental soup for the entire neighborhood.<\/p>\n<h2>Here&#8217;s what to do to get started, for either the freezer or the pantry!<\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li>Take everything out.<\/li>\n<li>Throw away anything that is significantly past it&#8217;s date (I&#8217;ll let you decide how old is Too Old&#8230;if the sell-by date was in 2016 I got rid of it).<\/li>\n<li>Plan to use things that are close to their dates right away. Like, this week! Give yourself a deadline &#8211; if you don&#8217;t use it by X date, you have to throw it away.<\/li>\n<li>Sort things that are duplicates and put the older one in front so you&#8217;ll use it first. Try to use it right away. Like, this week!<\/li>\n<li>Make a list of the things that you need to use up so you can have it nearby when you&#8217;re <a href=\"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/meal-planning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">meal planning<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Make another little list of things you don&#8217;t know what to do with so you can search for recipes later (hey, lentils, hey).<\/li>\n<li>Put everything back, with a little more organization (I love this post from Shutterbean about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shutterbean.com\/2014\/hs-the-organized-pantry\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pantry organization<\/a>\u00a0&#8211; and this is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesimpledollar.com\/using-whats-already-in-your-pantry-to-make-amazing-free-meals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a clever idea<\/a> about storing things in little meal groupings).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>It&#8217;s not complicated! I don&#8217;t have any rules for you &#8211; I&#8217;m totally still buying groceries. I&#8217;m just not buying much in the way of pantry food or freezer food.<\/p>\n<h2>To recap &#8211; here are the benefits to spring cleaning your food:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>you get a <strong>more organized<\/strong> pantry and freezer<\/li>\n<li>eventually, you&#8217;ll have <strong>more space<\/strong> in pantry and freezer (ahhhh less clutter ahhhh)<\/li>\n<li><strong>not wasting food\u00a0<\/strong>(it definitely makes me appreciate the abundance I have!)<\/li>\n<li><strong>saving $<\/strong> on groceries by using what you already have<\/li>\n<li>I am here to <strong>CHEER YOU ON<\/strong>, MAN!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/media.giphy.com\/media\/xT1XGUM8m88TVfDh5K\/giphy.gif?w=720&#038;ssl=1\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So seriously! Please <strong>chime in with a comment below if you&#8217;re IN to spring clean your pantry and freezer<\/strong> with me! Tell me your deadline, any additional rules you&#8217;re throwing in there, what you need to use up &#8211; I want to hear it all. And let&#8217;s help each other out with ideas if you have an oddball ingredient you don&#8217;t know what to do with. (Here&#8217;s mine: marinated artichokes? I probably bought them for a recipe but I have No Idea What It Was. Help!)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jay was recently gone on a work trip for 8 (8!) days. I always get a weird cleaning and organizing energy when he&#8217;s away. If I have to be alone-lone-lone, there&#8217;s some joy to be had in crossing things off my lists and scrubbing the shower for the first time since 2016, amiright?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[102],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/betondinner.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/spring-clean-your-pantry-and-freezer.jpg?fit=600%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p59xGs-1g4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4840"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4912,"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4840\/revisions\/4912"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/betondinner.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}