Cleaning out the kitchen

[gategrrl]

Yesterday, for no real reason, I decided to clean out my spices. It was entertaining to note the "Use By" dates on some of them - especially the ones from the back of the cabinet that said "Use By Aug2002" or "Use By May2003" and so on. 

I threw out a LOT of spices, including the newish Anise. The Guy and I don't particularly like the licrocice-tasting spices, so out it went.

This morning, I cleaned out my baking shelf - you know, the shelf with the sugar, brown sugar, flour, oil, baking soda and baking powder and stuff to ... bake with on it. I am part-way organized. So I did the same thing to the baking stuff that I did with the spices. I found my corn meal in the rear of the shelf, checked out the date on the bottom, and realized that it had been there for at least three years past the dead-date. 

It's amazing how much space I've got on my baking shelf now! I even threw out some of those novelty cups that the kids like to accumulate and stuff in the pantry because they won't fit in with the regular glasses and mugs. And some old stuff that hadn't seen the light of day in ages. AND I even found a jar of chunky peanut butter I didn't remember was there! Now I don't have buy any right now, although I might, the way prices are going up.

Comments

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

It's so amusing that you posted this as I did the same thing last Friday night. I had spices dated 2006 and 2005 and some with no dates at all. I'm guessing maybe they were so old that they weren't putting dates on the spices yet. ?? Some of these weren't even opened. I also had some dried beans dated 2005. I guess it's been a long time since I've *really* cooked like I used to all the time. I had some *really* old brown sugar. I don't even use brown sugar, so I can't even imagine why (or when) I bought it.

MW's guitar teacher has been coming to the house (instead of us going there) since last August, and I hate it. Every time he comes we clean up the house, but everyone just shoves stuff anywhere, so my pantry was also filled with little containers of half-eaten snacks and opened packages of stuff that nobody was every going to finish eating. I threw all that stuff out, too.

I need to finish cleaning out the pantry, though. I should probably toss a lot of what I have there and just start fresh.

Are prices going up on peanut butter? I've seen the price on rice get outrageous around here recently. It seems like I'm spending a lot more on groceries than I used to and I don't think I'm buying anything different. I think I actually need to go back to what I used to do and plan out meals and buy only exactly what I need. I just don't cook like that any more, though. I probably should do more cooking, too, I guess. *g* (We don't eat out, but I mean we end up eating something quick and easy like spaghetti with sauce from a jar and the kids like these little frozen veggie pie things--and other things like that, I guess.)