Freezer Clean

In all the excitement over pregnancy, wedding, house hunting, and everything else, I'm afraid that the household is falling by the wayside.  I never allow things to actually get gross (my mother's voice in my head won't allow that) but let's just say that the organizing and de-cluttering part of the job is not exactly getting my full attention.  The pantry and the freezer, for example, have gone virtually untended for weeks.  The results are not pretty.

Snacks sprout from every corner, bags of half-used pasta spill down one whole shelf, and bottles, jars, and cans are hopelessly piled.  In short, you can't see what you have, and you can't find anything.  This sort of situation is how you end up with four year old boxes of graham crackers you didn't even know you had.  There are four parts to my recovery plan:

1. No buying any new pantry items for at least a few weeks.  New stuff piled on top only makes it worse.
2. Go through the packages looking for things that are already expired.  Toss without mercy.
3. Organize the remaining items, so that you know what you have.
4. Come up with meals that will use up some of the older items, and soon you'll have a lovely pantry!