The next thing I tackled on my tidying spree was the kitchen cupboard. In my last post I wondered where I'd house the crisps recently evicted from the board game cupboard (yes, I know, clearly not where crisps should live!). My friends said they keep all of their food in the kitchen (they are very smart people) so I figured I'd try and find room in the cupboard for my crisps to live.
Annoyingly I didn't take a picture of the cupboard before going tidying crazy, but it was about as full as this one here if not worse. There were quite a few things in there that I'd kept for the occasions when I cook for myself if Ian's out - but those occasions NEVER happen, we eat together every night (or I eat out and he gets take away), so I figured it was time to throw them all out. We found stuff in the cupboard with best before dates in the year 2007! Why on earth did we move all of this stuff from our flat into the house?!
Here is the new cupboard, all ready to welcome the crisps (which are non-existent now because they were also past their best before dates!).
4 comments:
Good work! Although some things are probably ok after their best-before, I remember reading about some guys finding a tin of venison over 100 years old and it still being "wholesome".
When we bought this house (with all its contents) in December 2009, there was a jar of Tesco chilli powder in the kitchen with a use by date of June 2004. Gotta love the previous owner...........
Yeah, we kept tinned things, it was more things that were past their date and also something we'd probably never eat.
Lisa - I'm now slightly worried about my spices, I haven't gone through those yet!! Any idea how long is too long to have spices?
I would say open the jar and sniff. If it smells like a "dusty" version of what you're expecting, bin it. Not because it'll have gone off, but because there won't be enough flavour left in it for it to be worth using.
Think of a pot pourri that has been in an bowl on the sideboard - after a while it loses all its scent. Well, spices do the same.
Rather than throwing jars away, I empty, wash, dry, and refill with fresh stuff from Waitrose. You can buy refill spices in boxes (with sealed foil sachets inside), which saves wasting all that glass. I also use a black Sharpie to blot out the date printed on the original bottle when I refill so that I know I've refilled.
A bit OCD, I know, but it keeps me happy!!
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