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Ideas from a Military Mom

Organizing Your Pantry By Using Up the Food You Have – Update

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It’s been a month since I took the Eat Your Pantry Challenge at the Year of Less Blog.   {Here’s} where I was a month ago. 

 
My goal was to get my pantry, which is mainly in my basement, down to what we’ll eat in the next 3 months.  So for one month, I focused on using the food I already had in my basement pantry.  At the end of the month, anything that we wouldn’t eat in the next 3 month would be donated. 
 
As an embarrassing refresher for your memory, here’s what my storage looked like before.

 
I spent the last month purposefully using up these items when planning my family’s meals. I also purposefully donated quite a few items. 

Items Used
10 cans of soup
3 cans of tuna fish
4 boxes of pasta
2 jars pasta sauce
3 cans of refried beans
1 jar of peanut butter
3 can of green beans
4 cans of tomatoes
2 packages of yakisoba
1 jar garlic salt
1 can of beans
1 box of cupcake mix
2 boxes of granola bars
2 packages of snack pudding
2 boxes of snack crackers & cheese
2 boxes of crackers
5 boxes of cereal
2 packages of cranraisins
1 graham cracker pie crust
1 box of instant pudding

Items Donated
2 boxes of brownie mix       (made and donated to daughters’ drama club welcome pot luck)
3 boxes of cereal                  (donated to daughter’s hula halau retreat)
3 boxes of granola bars        (donated to daughter’s hula halau retreat)
3 bottles of salad dressing    (donated to daughter’s hula halau retreat)
2 cake mixes                         (used to make cookies for walk for homelessness {here})
white chocolate chips           (used to make cookies for walk for homelessness {here})
4 cans of soup                       (for daughter’s Key Club canned food drive)
2 cans of pineapple               (for daughter’s Key Club canned food drive)
2 boxes of cupcake mix        (made and donated to school PTO function)
3 bottle of mustard                (donated to local food pantry)
4 cans of chili                        (donated to local food pantry)
1 box of pasta                        (donated to local food pantry)
1 box of rice                          (donated to local food pantry)
2 cans of evaporated milk     (donated to local food pantry)
3 boxes of soup mix              (donated to local food pantry)

I had fun looking for opportunities to donate food during the month.  And fortuitously, many opportunities were available.
 
So after a month of purposeful thinning of the pantry, here is what the same two shelves look like.

 
Because there is less stuff, I was able to better organize it all.  I’m still using the soda boxes to organize some of my canned goods, but now I’ve labeled the front of the boxes.  I’m not one for gratuitous labeling, so I’ve only labeled items that aren’t immediately visible. 
 
 
Now the second shelf.
 
 
Of course, like items are grouped together, so seasonings are together, baking items are together, peanut butter and jelly are together, and so on.
 
And here are the before and after pictures.
 

Although it was slightly embarrassing, I’m glad that I went through this process. I’d recommend it to anyone with more than 3 cans in their pantry. Not only was I able to better organize my pantry, I saved money on my grocery bill last month and had a great time looking for opportunities to donate.

I still have quite a few items in my pantry.  But with a family of 5 and the holidays, complete with guests, coming up we won’t have any trouble using up these items.  At the start of the new year, I’ll take another look at my pantry and see what we can use or donate at that time.  I want to make this evaluation process a regular event in my house.  So check back in January to see the update.

 

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  1. Looking good! I like your idea of soda cases for cans, and the fact that you’re keeping “like” things together. I’ve seen some people’s pantries that give me the organizational shivers! 😉

    This is the time of year when I start stocking UP my pantry for winter months & holiday baking. Like a squirrel, I don’t like to go into winter without a very full pantry. A lot of the good baking ingredient sales & pantry staple sales are between now & Christmas, too. But I know you said you may be moving, so I can understand why you’re using things up.

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  2. Stock up for you…OK, no problem! 🙂 Chocolate chips, Craisins, & peanut butter have already been Buy 1 Get 1 Free. I’m now waiting for good prices on flour, sugar, nuts, and vanilla so the baking can begin! Found new batches of canned pumpkin @ Wal-Mart already. Did you know that Libby’s only makes one canning run a year with pumpkin, and that’s it? Stores around here have a hard time keeping it in stock, and it’s almost impossible to find the closer we get to Thanksgiving…except in my well-stocked pantry. 🙂

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  3. I am so with you on the stocking up for winter; that’s my tendency too. I’m just trying to keep a handle on it this year because of the impending move. And I’ll have a hard time when the baking supplies go on sale. You’ll have to stock up for me this year. 🙂

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  5. Good job on the pantry so far! We don’t have a lot of room in the kitchen in our apartment, so by necessity we don’t have too much stuff. But there is definitely stuff that’s been there for months! Thanks for sharing at The Fun In Functional!

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