Organizing Tips

Okay, here's a confession. I hate people looking in my pantry. Not because it's a mess, although it can be at times. But because most people's reaction is "Wow! You've got a lot of food in there!"

Once you start paying attention to prices it's very hard to pass up a good deal. I do not waste food but I do stock up a bit more than I need to at times. And when my neighbor who was moving away offered me a free freezer, my friends and family just shook their heads and said "Oh, no!" Yes, it's stocked up too.

If you're careful to use what you stock, eat the oldest stuff first, and don't end up wasting food there's not much harm in it as near as I can tell. And there are some advantages.A few months ago, I heard that a neighbor's husband was in the hospital. This happened just after his mother had been hospitalized and then had come home to stay with them for a while. I went to the freezer and pulled out a quart of homemade soup, and a couple of casseroles and delivered them to help out with the meals. I could not have done that so quickly had I not been stocked up on things and cooked ahead a bit.

At other times, I've suddenly had more people for dinner than were expected. I can usually pull something out of the freezer to stretch the meal or pull a few more pieces of chicken or a few more pork chops out to feed the extra guests without much effort. I like having people over for dinner and by stocking up I can do without the last minute stress. Here are some tips I use so I can stock up without wasting food.

Date EVERYTHING and put the oldest items up front so you use them first. It quickly becomes a habit to write the date on canned goods as you unpack them. I don't bother with the day but note the month and year and put the items behind the old.
Label EVERYTHING that goes into your freezer, unless you like playing "Guess what's for dinner".
Don't cook a big batch of something as an experiment. Scale down the recipe if necessary so you can ensure that everyone likes it before you're stuck with 6 dinners no one will willingly eat.
Keep like items near each other. For example, I have an area in my pantry for vegetables, an area for breakfast foods, an area for sauces, dressings, and marinades, an area for baking supplies, an area for drinks, a pull out box full of snack items, and one small area for things I typically only use when I have company.
In the freezer, use gallon size bags to group several smaller things together. Use one gallon sized bag to contain smaller bags of ground beef or foil wrapped burritos and lessen the chance of losing the individual thing.
Organize your freezer the same way. I have several large plastic boxes. I freeze bags of things stuff laying on cookie sheets and then stand them up in one of these boxes so I can flip through them easily. One box holds only prepared foods. Another box holds raw chicken. Another beef. Another vegetables.
Periodically, go on a "pantry challenge" and use up those things you bought for a recipe and never got around to actually using. (Surely I'm not the only one that does that!) If you're suddenly short on funds, make your menu for the week based only on what you have on hand in your pantry and freezer. You can be quite creative when you have to be and the money you normally spend on groceries can help with the emergency. Later, you can stock up again.
If you don't want to use up what those odd bits, donate them to a food pantry (assuming they're still good).
Consider keeping a list of items in your freezer. This sounds like a pain, but it does prevent you from finding that casserole you made two years ago still waiting for you! If you have multiple items of something (like boiled hamburger), make a slash mark for each one. When you remove one from your freezer, turn the slash into an X. You can then quickly see how many you have left.