Okay, today I have a real making space post. Not that the other post on Monday did not make space. It did and it made me very happy as well as the recipients of the Chex Mix I made.
So here is the back story. Every year, about this time, I find myself in my kitchen more and more. This year, I seem to be in there even more because of the pandemic. I have a very hard time working in a space that is not organized. It makes me just a little crazy. OK, it makes me a lot crazy! During the 31 day declutter I went through all my kitchen drawers and cupboards and did a good clean out. So, my cooking utensils are all where they should be and easy for me to find and use. What got ignored was my food storage space.
We do not have a pantry like many people do. We bought a Rubbermaid pantry and have it hidden neatly away in a nook that had no use what so ever. That is where all our food stock and baking supplies are stored. Today was the day I decided to totally empty that pantry and reorganize it. This was prompted by the fact I bought some canned goods last week because I did not have what I needed for a meal. Upon putting them away, I discovered I had PLENTY of the canned goods I bought. They were hiding behind another item.
Have any of you seen the commercial where the Aunts all descend upon a young couple that had just purchased a house? As one Aunt is going through the refrigerator she keeps announcing, "expired, expired, expired". That was me today too. It was shameful the amount of food that was past the expiration date by almost a year! I know some people do not worry about expiration dates on items but, having had cans blow up on me before, as well as seeing cans bulging, I no longer ignore that. Especially if they are tomato based.
Items that were not going to be used or we had multiples of and were still not expired were gathered and will be heading to our church's food bank.
All of this will be leaving my house this Saturday. (That is when we deliver to the food bank) There are 15 items there. As for what got thrown away...............I stopped counting after 30. My pantry is now very organized, I know exactly what I have in there. It feels so good to have that cleaned out and ready for me to commence with my kitchen baking.
Case in point...............................In my freezer,I have multiple bags of vaccumed sealed, frozen cranberries I purchased about 3 years ago. Today, I made cranberry sauce with one of the bags. Next up on my list is to make sour dough hamburger buns. (Arthur is doing great!) There is also going to be pumpkin doughnuts, cranberry orange bread, cherry pie, banana bread and possibly a cheesecake. No, this is not all for hubby and I to consume. We share these goodies with people we know who do not bake or have time to bake. During this strange time, homemade goodies are being welcomed with huge smiles. It does my heart good to bring a little sunshine to others.
It is time for me to kick back and do a little knitting.\
Until next time............................................................................
I can imagine how clearing the pantry made baking more enjoyable. I've got some stories, too, of finding too-old-food in the pantry or freezer.
ReplyDeleteI started to clean out our cupboards and freezer then the lock down occurred and I stopped. I am thinking now of trying to use the odd things in my cupboards just to thin them out!
ReplyDeleteGood for you! I've fallen off the bandwagon because I am busy with Christmas.
ReplyDeleteI need to do more decluttering. I agree that a cluttered kitchen is hard to work in. At this point, while I'm working, my husband is in charge of the kitchen, and he doesn't so things the way I do. It is hard to share a kitchen! When I retire, I'm taking back the kitchen!
ReplyDeleteAh yes, the pantry. My pantry desperately needs a clean out. It has been on my to-do list for some time.
ReplyDeleteGood job. I need to do that too.
ReplyDelete