I keep a three-month pantry of dried, freeze dried, and canned goods. Items are sorted by like goods. Every attempt is made to put the further dated items in the back but, well, life happens. As a result, every January we sort the pantry.
This accomplishes two things. First, we get a good idea of what we have in stock and what we need to put on the grocery list. We also clean and wipe down the shelves, then replace the items in an order that makes sense to us.
Each item is checked to be sure it is in good condition. We look for dented cans, damaged packaging, swelling, mold, and pest infestation. Anything that is not in good condition is thrown away and replaced. We also look for signs of infestation and complete any repairs necessary to stop it from happening again. The goods in a pantry can cost up to $2,000 to replace, so it needs to be taken care of.
Second, we check the dates. Food is dated by one of three ways. The expiration date; the sell by date, and the use by date. Everything that is past the date is disposed of. Everything that is dated for the current year is moved to the kitchen.
The current year items are sorted into a pile we are going to keep and a pile that we don't want to keep. The food we will keep is merged into the kitchen cabinets. We make a list of meals we could have that will use those items up.
The items we are not keeping are distributed through the community in several ways; donated directly to people in town who need the food; placed in the Blessing Boxes; or donated to the local food bank. We also keep a list of those items and decide if we really want to replace them during our grocery trip, as we either didn't use them at all or didn't need the amount we purchased.
This process takes three to five hours depending on how much cleaning we need to do, if anything needs to be repaired and how messy we let the goods get through the year. When the work is done, we photograph everything in the pantry for proof in the event we have an insurance claim.
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