If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know that I’ve done a lot of decluttering over the past couple years. I’ve taken numerous carloads of stuff to Goodwill, and have (except for last month when I was on a mission to find stuff for our son’s play kitchen) mostly stopped going in to shop when I drop stuff off. I got rid of about half of my craft supplies, and I’ve cleared out closets and cupboards all through the house, tossing or recycling or donating stuff that we didn’t need anymore.
I had already made one pass through the kitchen a year or so ago, getting rid of stuff that we weren’t using. But I mostly focused on gadgets and excess glassware rather than food. Last night, I was browsing around online and I came across this awesome blog written by a lady who has managed to get rid of 10,000 things by purging 100 items at a time! Pretty inspiring if you’re thinking about getting rid of clutter. Christine’s writing had me laughing out loud, and then it got me up off my butt and into the kitchen to do something about our too-full cupboards.
I love to cook. And to shop for groceries. We eat all of our meals at home (and I do mean all… we took a friend out for his 90th birthday last month and he chose Olive Garden. But before that, we hadn’t eaten out since September). That’s how I justify our full pantry, freezer, and cupboards. But I had noticed lately that there was stuff at the back of the cupboards that I was never using, and it was just serving to make the cupboards a little less useful than they would otherwise be.
So at about 11pm, I was standing in the kitchen surrounded by boxes and jars and bags of stuff that I didn’t need. Some of it was a wee tad bit expired and went in the trash:
Yes, we moved to a new house in 2009. I vaguely remember being in a big hurry to clean out the old house and I think I tossed everything from the fridge and pantry into a cooler and boxes without paying much attention. But you would think that I would have noticed this when I unpacked. Or at any time during the past 2.5 years. Anyway. Moving on.
In addition to a couple of seriously expired things, I also found a few duplicates. Two bags of dill seed (that’s going to take a while to use up…), three containers of cardamom, two bags of ground ginger. Good thing I like to cook from scratch and use a lot of spices.
By the time I finished consolidating, purging and cleaning, I had quite a pile on the kitchen table. All of this stuff will either be donated to family or friends who will use it, or trashed if it’s expired, or recycled if it’s an empty container (I was able to consolidate a lot of stuff so that it takes up less cabinet space. Three honey jars are now combined into one, for example):
I also found a few more gadgets and dishes that I didn’t need. Three baby food grinders? I think we’re fine with one.
I came across a few nearly empty jars of cocoa butter and coconut oil that I had used a while back to make lotion. So I dumped them into a saucepan, melted them down, and filled a container with my newly-minted lotion. That meant I was able to recycle three containers that had been taking up space in my pantry.
I ended up getting rid of everything in that picture plus about half that much again by the time I was finished. So much better. I don’t have to root around in the cupboard to find what I’m looking for. And everything in the cupboards is stuff that I use on a regular basis. And none of it expired when I was in my 20s.
Anyway, I hope Christine’s blog inspires you and makes you laugh. And if you have anything in your kitchen that expired in 2004, please tell me about it to make me feel better!
Leah says
This isn’t kitchen, but it is fairly galling. Somewhere around 2003 or so, my brothers and I decided to clean out our old bathroom at our parents’ house. It had a huge linen closet absolutely jam-packed with stuff. We did a lot of purging. Best of all, we managed to get rid of everything expired. The worst offender was a bottle of something from 1992. yes, over a decade old! Horrifyingly, we moved into that house in 1994. I can’t even imagine. After the ridicule she went through, my mom is now much better at getting rid of expired crap.
This is also a good reminder to go bust open the can of coconut milk I have in the pantry. It’s slightly expired, and I assume it’s bad. I should probably just find out (and if it’s not, cook something tonight).
Anonymous says
Good thing I discovered that packet of yeast and trashed it yesterday… at least I didn’t make it to a full decade! Have fun with the coconut milk. It’s one of my favorite ingredients and I usually buy at least a can a week.
Leslie says
The kitchen is the one area I have the hardest time keeping clutter-free too. Its not stuff that usually takes up space or gets in the way, so I forget about it. I’m not nearly as bad as my mother-in-law though, she has several open bags of flour and sugar, as well as duplicate spices.
Anonymous says
I’ve been doing really well with the visible parts of the kitchen for the last couple years. Our counters are usually clear, and stuff no longer accumulates on the dining room table. But inside the cupboards, fridge and pantry are now a whole lot better than they were yesterday. I think I was suffering from out-of-sight, out-of-mind. I had tackled the rest of our closets and cupboards over the past few years, but the kitchen needed a second look.
Mrs. Money says
I am a decluttering addict. I can’t wait to be able to stay at home and declutter even more before the baby comes!
Anonymous says
Me too! Congrats on making the switch to stay-at-home mom! I think you’ll love it, and I wish you all the best :)
Frugal Vegan Mom says
Our pantry and fridge are tiny, and I compulsively clean them out on a near-daily basis. I’m one of those people who could tell you the entire contents without looking.
My mother, on the other hand, whoaaaa…. their large suburban cupboards are packed full of mostly “edible food like substances” and I find expired things every time I’m there. Nasty!
Anonymous says
“edible food like substances” LOL. I think that’s what you’ll find in a lot of kitchen cupboards!
Piper says
A few years back, a coworker and I were sorting food collected at Christmas to be given to the families our company had adopted along with the gifts that we had purchased. The food was mainly donations from fellow employees but a few of our customers had brought things in when they found out what we were doing. One of the donated items had expired TEN YEARS before. O_o So don’t feel bad about yours–at least you didn’t donate it ;)
Anonymous says
OK, that makes me feel better :) At least my 8 year old yeast is in the trash.
Janice Greene says
It is funny how you find the most random things in your kitchen. Haven’t got to my kitchen yet, but just decluttered the my books and movies. sold a bunch at yourstuff4cash.com.
Kay says
I don’t have expired stuff in my kitchen cupboard – I go through them once in a while. However I do have a cold room, where I do store some extra spices and such. I don’t think I’ll find expired stuff in there, but duplicates? more stuff than I can possibly use? Stuff that I can really use, but because it’s out of sight, out of mind??? those kind of stuff I’ll be sure to find there. Hmmmmm, time to get decluttering. Thanks for the wonderful reminder. I’ll get cracking.
Jenny says
When I got sick this New Years I was choosing between cold medicines that expired in 2001, 2004, or 2007. None of it worked too well, but I’m not sure if that’s because it was so old, or because cold medicine never works too well for me. I also found some vitamins that expired in 1998.
Anonymous says
I just did this in my kitchen this weekend – rearranged some of our pots/pans/gadgets and got rid of a SLEW of expired stuff in the pantry. I also tried to arrange the remaining pantry items to put the stuff that will expire sooner in easier reach so we’re more apt to actually use it. I hate throwing away money and wasting food, UGH!
budgetingbabe says
Thanks for sharing! I just cleaned out my medicine cabinet and it’s crazy how many items I threw out due to expiration dates. A full plastic grocery bag of medicine and supplements! Makes me cringe to know how much money was wasted there. I never thought to catalog all the stuff I’m throwing out, but I really should. I have a few bags going to GoodWill so I’ll have to write down what’s in them before shipping it out.