[ladytoysdream]

Not sure where to post this, but under food challenges looked good.

So I am going through my shelves of canning goods, and pulling out any stuff, I don't think we will eat. Got to the bottom shelf of the one cupboard, and found 2 metal cans leaking. Not good Checked the dates and one was 2009 and not sure of the other. Anyways found a spot of rust on both on the bottoms.

Came to the conclusion, maybe I better start checking the dates more. If something is that far out of date, and no plan to use it up asap, then maybe I should feed it the chickens. No sense letting it sit longer and getting forgotten again.

I am thinking maybe a yearly check up. Like in the fall, before adding any quanities of new stuff.

So how often, do you check ?

 

[Contrary Housewife]

I don't keep a lot of canned goods, only a modest supply of boxed stuff. When I go to pull something out I try to make sure I am grabbing the oldest stock, and sometimes when I put new stuff in I make sure to rotate the older boxes forward.

The freezer I inventory twice a year, to keep on top of dated food.

 

[zakity]

We do a mass inventory (pantry and all freezers) in the fall and one or two "mini" inventories throughout the year.

 

[ladytoysdream]

Well I went back to finish up that shelf. Discovered more wetness.Not good. So proceeded to almost empty the shelf. Discovered the problem was a plastic water bottle, that had sprung a hole somehow and leaked.
So the 2 cans that I thought were bad, turned out to be fine. I also had a plastic gallon jug of water that had leaked awhile back. Both of these water containers had come from Walmart. Thinking of storing water in glass jars might be a better answer.

 

[bookwormpeg]

I clean out twice a year.....just did it last week.....kept just enough for the two of us, gave the rest to the church's food pantry....I found a bunch of veggies dated best by 8-2014.....I have been using these for the past two months and they are fine...spoke to the food pantry and they said they would take them....some pantries get very very picky.....I need to do my freezer next week before Thanksgiving....got to make room for the leftovers......

 

[Brat]

I clean out my freezers and take an inventory 4 times a year... As for the pantry I pull old stock to the front every time I buy groceries.. I always keep enough on hand for 3-6 months depending on the sale price.. It is a running rule that when you take the next to the last one of anything out you put it on the list so it gives me time to watch for good sales to restock... Every thing has a place and when it gets restocked the shelf gets cleaned before the new stock goes in..

 

[Raiquee]

Pantry we aren't at the quantity yet where we need to worry about expiration dates. But I do stockpile or fill from the back so oldest is up front.

Freezer inventory gets done at least twice a year, sometimes more. I rarely throw things away from the freezer just cause I'm in there and meal planning so much.

 

[NikoSan999]

Since I really haven't been here for awhile I've been reading back posts and threads. Ever so often I find stuff in the pantry or freezer that I've had to toss. I've learned I don't want to long term stock box or bag items to the extent I had done it a long time ago.
I haven't been doing this but I used to. I used to take the time when I brought stuff home that I knew was going to be a stockpile item I'd take a marker and write the date I bought it. You could write the best by date but I chose the buy date because I don't go by best by. This works well if you can't keep up with rotation for whatever reason. You can glance at the bold black marker and be pretty sure which one to use first. I've slacked on doing that too. I'm not much of one for rotation but the marker ... yeah, it's easy enough. I do usually do it on ziplocs as to the date put in freezer. Do it BEFORE you put the stuff in them... it writes better that way.

 

[Spirit Deer]

I try to avoid buying stuff we can't use up in a year. Still working on perfecting that one, but we're getting better. Buying too far ahead is just greed, and it ends up not saving us anything if we have to throw it out due to bugs, spoilage, etc. I just hate throwing out food.

I do rotate stuff. It helps me keep ahead of things.