Growing up in a hoarded house, I never knew what I was going to find in my parents' fridge. Some food would be fresh, but most of it got shoved to the back and would stay there for months or even years. Needless to say, I try to keep my fridge from looking like my hoarder parents' fridge.
Today we took stock of the fridge. This is everything that had gone bad.
I was pretty surprised, it was a lot of food! Half of this stuff I didn't even realize was in the fridge.
Our fridge and freezer aren't that stuffed.
My sister-in-law had an idea about this. She's an urban farmer who tries to make sure that she wastes practically nothing. She suggested that a whiteboard could help. Each week she lists out everything in the fridge and freezer and then makes her weekly meal plan. They scratch things off the list as they use foods during the week. At the end of the week they know what has to get used first for the next week.
I figured, why not? So I made a "whiteboard" (ha!) out of an old envelope and then we planned our meals for the week. We're much less likely to buy doubles of things if we know what we already have.
We'll see if this is a habit that sticks or whether I give it up. But it would be nice to waste less food, as food in D.C. is terribly pricey.
How do you avoid food waste?
I love this! You did great!
ReplyDeleteI have a problem of meal planning, then deciding not to make the meals because I'm either too tired or don't feel good. We've been getting better about wasting food, but I still hate to do it!
How's the list working out?