However, I thought I'd share what happened to me for a... do this and not that... story. I learned again that one can never be too organized when keeping a pantry. Perhaps this is an area an OCD person needs to be in charge.
We finally started the mother of all projects this week as the temperatures were finally warm enough to work in the garage. I am in charge of three sets of shelves, two of them I'm in and out of all the time but one set hasn't been touched for a couple of years (and showed the neglect).
Imagine my surprise when I pulled everything off the shelves and found three boxes of canned goods on the bottom shelf that hadn't been touched in nearly two years. My husband told me last summer that he'd put all the extra canned goods on the set of shelves where I keep items for everyday cooking. Obviously he'd missed these...
It was a case of two false assumptions as I assumed he knew they were there and since they had craft items on and around them, he assumed they were not among the boxes I was talking about to place on the other shelving.
I kept thinking I had more canned goods than what was on the shelf.
Well, fortunately they were all still good but we both learned a lesson I'm incorporating now:
- Don't mix food items on shelves used for other storage unless you are persistent about keeping them organized.
- Do place "like items" together as much as possible.
- Do label any box so it can be seen from the front of the shelf, not just on the top of the box.
As with everything else in life, we learn by our mistakes and fortunately this was easily fixed. As for the garage reorganization plan... it's definitely a little at a time project!
We will be working on it all week. I can tell you that one set of shelves already looks better and those are the shelves that were so jumbled I could lose three boxes. ;)
Links
This is a very informative article from 2002 by Jackie Clay, all about making bread... here.
This is a very short article about stocking up but it is good... here.
5 comments:
Oh I know how that is! I won't be doing the pantry until after I take the small sweaters off the blinds. :)
If I had the money...and the space...I'd take one of those units from Shelf Reliance in a heart beat. I've seen on similar homemade out of wood. And cardboard
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-can-organizer-out-of-cardboard/
Your hubby is the engineering sort!
I am having trouble with rotating my canned goods and I have got to get my pantry better organized too! I will be watching for some good tips:)
I used to mark the can tops with the date the at was purchased but now I mark it with the best to use by date that is on the can from the manufacturer. I keep a small recipe box with cards in it for where things are stored in the house. Like the Easter thing, seasonal clothes etc. We also have cards there now for where the stashes of groceries are that do not fit in the shelfs. REALLY helps to know quickly where the extra packs of T.Paper are!! :-) . I was given a 10 pound bag of sugar. The couple that gave it to us said it was hard and knew we tried to use everything. Well I showed them all it took to make it soft was to plunk it gently on a table. !! They still did not want it...they said they would rather have a fresh bag from the store!!! :) I was grateful they asked if we wanted it. They were going to throw it out!!!! Sarah
LOL That 'can' happen so easily.
On the serious side, I wish people wouldn't joke about OCD. It is a mental illness which can be very hard for a patient to cope with.
We've all done stuff like this at one time or another! Glad it was all useable still!
I need to work on our food storage area- but it is hard to get at right this moment. Soon. Very soon!
Bit by bit it will all get done!
Deanna
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