I may have found a chore to be as loathed as Ironing.
Dumping Old and expired food items.
I decided to do some rearranging in my Food Storage room.
In the meantime.. it has been a mess.
I have been trying to avoid dealing with my "Bottled Food Jars" because I know they are taking up valuable space... but I have been dragging my feet to do it.
Who wants to haul old bottles to the sink.. dump the old food out..
...and then clean the jars?
Anyone?? Anyone??
Ya.. me either.
And it wasn't just the work part of it either.
It was the "mental" stuff.
Knowing that our family wasted food.. was killing me.
Knowing that my picky eater family wouldn't touch much of the stuff unless they were starving.. was in no way any reason to keep it.
And letting it sit there... was just a constant reminder of our wastefulness.. so I knew I needed to do something quickly.
I almost tried talking myself out of it.. with thoughts of:
But what if you dump it.. and the next day the world ends and you need it??
Ya..those thoughts were crawling in.. that I KNOW better not to have.
Especially as an Organizer.
So.. I paid Christian and Mary in Orange sticks to carry the old bottles up the stairs.. while I put my big girl pants on and went to work Dumping the old food.
I felt good opening and getting rid of the contents.. once I saw the black plague stuff growing on the lids of the Tomato Puree's and Salsa.
But.. the string beans from 2008 still looked and smelled good.
A neighbor called during my cleaning jar time.. and I told her what I was doing.. and she told me that she would come and get all of the beans ( not to dump them ).. and my jars once I cleaned them.
Oh happy day.
It felt better knowing I was helping someone -- in some way.
The reasons I won't be doing much bottled canning anymore...
My family just doesn't prefer the contents to canned or frozen goods.
If they HAVE to eat string beans.. they want them french style.
I could sit here and go on and on about all of the things that they don't like to eat.. but I won't.
I'll just say that if you have a husband and children that will eat almost anything..
then you are L-U-C-K-Y!!
I am also afraid of an Earthquake with too many bottled goods.
We know we are going to have an earthquake and so we prepare the best way we know how.
My whole house is filled with China plates and a whole lot of glass.
We have tried to help prepare by bolting things to walls and such.. but every time I look at those jars.. I think of broken glass + dealing with sticky-food-gooey mess... and I feel sick.
No Thanks.
Economically.. unless the taste is MUCH better having it bottled then I would rather not.
To my little family.. the only things worth canning are Peaches.. and Grape Juice.
That's all folks.
I may even sell all of my canning items and just borrow stuff -- when I do peaches again.
It would free up even more space!!!
I am not telling every family to do this.. it just wasn't FUNCTIONAL for my family.
~ And you know how I feel about things being Functional. ~
I slaved away for hours and stayed up late making Salsa... and it was never opened.
Same with everything else.
I am the only one who will eat it.. and therefore.. it went to waste.
So.. I learned... and I took action.
I changed things around.. so we are using our space better.
Filling it with items that I use often.. or putting things in it's place
-- food that has a LONG shelf life. --
And with the bottles that we currently have.. and have kept.. I am going to put a large belt across the front of the shelving.. so when we have an earth quake.. maybe a few jars will be spared.
Maybe.
Today I am Grateful for:
A call from Emma in Norway. Made my Morning.
Sunshine.
Goals and Plans that keep us moving forward.
Always Simplifying
Always problem solving.
The Weekend. I woke up with Sinus stuff.. so I foresee many movies and rest this weekend.
It's Notebook time!
7 comments:
The jars of things are beautiful. I have to admit that I am a canning fool and love seeing jars of home canned foods lining my shelves. But I only can what we will eat.
Good for you for freeing up space. I hope you will show pictures of your newly organized pantry.
I saw a thing on pinterest for storing mason jars, earthquake proof. It's in my "canning and preserving recipes" board. Kind of like a wooden shelf where all of them are on their sides, and seperated by wood.... I can't explain it, but if you can look at it if you want, wouldn't be hard to make, and might be worth it if you're only storing a few items in jars.
Thanks Coco!
Life is all about trial and error! I think it's great that you find what works for YOUR family. Home canning is a lot of work and if your family doesn't like it, why go to all that bother? I do think it's a good skill to know how to use...but there's nothing wrong with buying the other stuff!
We do like home canned green beans better than the store bought ones (I do mine w/ a little vinegar, a recipe from my grandma)...and I haven't done beans for years~ hopefully this summer!
Food storage is so tricky. I always have to throw food out and it makes me sick as well. I buy a lot of canned things that my family does eat but it seems that when I do, we eat other things and then it expires. I am learning to be more on top of this. I have only been doing food storage for about 5 years. I still have a lot to learn. I would have loved to have had some of your Salsa. I bet it was yummy!
I don't can things either, since my family is a lot like yours. Way to go in cleaning out and helping/blessing someone else. I like what Valerie Said about life being about trial and error.
Those jars look so pretty!
I always feel wasteful when it's time to get rid of food that's expiring - but mine is in cans because I've always been too chicken to learn home canning. But my family probably wouldn't eat it either!
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