Take Care Tuesday- Getting Organized Week #4: Pantry Lists

My pantry is a disaster right now.  There was a time when I had a list of everything I had.  I decided it is time to get back to those days.  So, I created "The Pantry & More" list.  See the free printable below.

Here's the Plan:

Go through the kitchen and food storage area and right down all food items, the size of the package (lbs, oz, etc), How many you estimate you use in a year, How many you currently have, and How many you need to purchase.

At the same time, clean out the old and straiten up.

I also like to write the expiration day on the top of my cans with a sharpie marker, so I can actually see when then expire.

A good tip, as things get close to there expiration date, use them or donate them to a food drive.

Shop the sales.  (I recently read an article about shopping the sales.  I wish I could remember where I saw it.  Anyways, the just of it was that most stores run sales on a particular item every 4 to 6 weeks.  So, the plan is to decide how many of that item you will use in that time frame and then when it goes on sale buy that many of the item.  Then you will have enough to get you by until the sale on that item is on again.)

Buy what you will use!!!  I hate nothing more than to go to my pantry and see things that have expired, because I do not use them.  Then I have the remorse of throwing them away and seeing my dollars go to the garbage can.

I am planning on hanging this in my pantry where I will have easy access to it.  Another thought I just had was, after I have written my food items in I think I am going to either put it in a sheet protector, frame or laminate it. Then I can use a dry erase marker for the quantities so I am not having to print a bunch of these out as numbers change.