Organizing Food

Keeping up with food can be a big challenge. How often do you find food that has rotted before you used it up? Have you spent big bucks at the grocery store when you could have made several meals out of items you already have on hand? Here are some tips to help you get more organized with your food items.

Take inventory. On a regular basis (maybe once a week) take a quick inventory of what you have in the fridge, pantry, and freezer. If you have an additional freezer, keep a dry erase board on it to list items you have frozen. Take the inventory before you make your next grocery list.

Create at least one meal a week out of what you already have on hand. If you plan a menu each week (which is a great idea) try to think of at least one, preferably two, meals you could create with items you already have. Do you have spaghetti and sauce on hand? Has a casserole been sitting in the freezer for awhile? You may be surprised at how many meals you could come up with without shopping! A friend of mine uses the month of February to challenge herself to only buy the basics in groceries that month and use up whatever she can from her stock.

Use up items with short shelf life. Fresh fruits and vegetables, for example, only last a few days in the fridge. Watch how it is going and if they aren't being used up, incorporate them into an upcoming meal, prepare smoothies for the freezer, fold them into pancake mix and make pancakes one night, add a salad as a side dish, stir fry them into scrambled eggs.

Freeze what you can. Bananas can be frozen (unpeeled) for later use in smoothies. I've even heard you can freeze whole tomatoes! Do some research and freeze items that you tend to have to throw away. Freeze in small packets so you only use what you need.

Cull your grocery list. Instead of buying three types of berries for a week, buy the one the family will most use and mix it up other weeks. It's better to eat up the fruit you have than to throw it away simply because you overplanned for variety.

Use adequate storage. Experiement with bags and containers to see what works best for your family. Try to keep certain types of foods on certain shelves (i.e. left overs are always on the secon shelf.)

Communicate. Use a white board to jot down ideas for what family members can eat if they are hungry (i.e. to suggest using up leftovers.)

With a little thought, you can save some money by making sure you use what you have and stop buying what you don't need.

Question: How do you organize food at home?

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