Over the last few years, people have become more aware of food waste to save money. Many people are failing to organise their kitchens correctly, leading to people throwing away expired foods and spending money on a last-minute dash to the supermarket to refill their kitchen cupboards. Surprisingly, a simple rejig of the kitchen cupboards can save money in the long run. We’ve all been in a situation where we’re ready to make a meal and think there’s plenty of food in the cupboards, only to find the items we need have expired. Not only does this mean we’re wasting food, but we’re also wasting money replacing items we already bought in the first place. That’s why it’s worthwhile reorganising the cupboards each time you do a food shop so you can bring forward the items soon to expire and get some use out of them. Not only will it help save money every month but it’ll also reduce the amount of wasted food. In this post, I’ll share how reshuffling items in the kitchen can reduce food wastage and prevent unnecessary spending.
Here’s what to do when organising your kitchen cupboards:
Highlight the expiry dates
If you don’t want to waste time picking up items and struggling to find the expiry dates, just grab a marker and highlight where they are so you can quickly check it out before deciding to use it.
Put soon-to-be expired food on eye-level shelves
Having items at direct eye level means it’s the first thing you’ll notice when opening the kitchen cupboards. The quick reminder will help you to remember that it needs to be used as soon as possible.
Move old items to the front
Once you’ve done a food shop, bring forward the existing food from the back of your cupboards to the front so it’s in clear sight. This will encourage you to finish older products before opening new ones.
Put the food you need for the week on one side
If you’ve just bought items in the shop you’ll likely need to use a lot of them for meals in the week. Place all the items you know you’re going to use and shift them to one side of the fridge. Keep the spares and those with a longer expiry date to the right.
Freeze short-expiry date items
If there’s an item about to go out of date, pop it in the freezer so it can be used later in the week. This way there’s no food wastage and you’ll still get your money’s worth.
Apply the same rules to fridge and freezer food
The same principle applies to fridge and freezer food, bring items with a shorter expiry date to the front so you remember to use them before they go off. You can also freeze foods like meats and vegetables if their expiry date is approaching.
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