— Trudy Haines

This is a good question, and I think that's something that, uh, that I bump into on an ongoing basis. And, um, you know, the first thing is to, to label and date items. And there's some things that, um, uh, are self-explanatory. Um, you know, upon just looking at them, maybe you can just date them, right? Um, but if something is gonna be wrapped up or in a container, uh, that becomes frosty or, or otherwise you can't see the contents of then labeling it, uh, is very helpful as well as the dating. Um, now regarding the freezer, um, uh, you know, and, and I guess, and the, the, the dry storage, the pan pantry as well, uh, the organization, uh, is gonna be a place to start, okay? Where you have, um, uh, maybe s you know, small things, or in this case, you, um, uh, specialty items that you might put in a particular location, uh, where you know that there are these small quantity or specialty items located. So you can just check on that periodically, uh, to see what you want to use next, or what needs to be used up pretty soon. Um, and that's gonna be, uh, true of the freezer as well. Okay? And then the other thing is, um, to just revisit these spaces, uh, with some regularity, you know, whether it's a once a week sort of a schedule, kind of get into the freezer and, and dig down or, or dig deep into the freezer, uh, to refresh your memory on what it is that you have in there. And then, uh, you know, come up with, uh, those few things in that coming week. Or you can use those certain items that you have in the freezer or the pantry and, um, uh, earmark them. You pull them out for defrosting in the refrigerator, you know, where the defrosting process might take a couple, three days depending on what it is. Uh, and then after which time there's still gonna be, uh, good in the refrigerator for another couple, three, four days, depending on what it is or how they were handled prior to freezing, right? And so you could develop this sort of a rotation system, um, that'll keep you, uh, on top of your inventory. Another way to do this is to come up with a list, uh, that you might, uh, you know, tape to your refrigerator door, uh, where you can note certain things, uh, that you want to use up within the next, let's say, week or so. Okay? Um, but if you don't want to have this sort of a, a, a list on your refrigerator door, um, then, you know, there are other ways that we talked about that you can, um, manage your inventory. Um, but, uh, uh, yeah. Then the other part of this is finding things to make right that'll utilize these items. Sometimes it's just a leftover item, and that's easy, just thaw it, reheat it, and enjoy it. But if it's, um, you know, some specialized, uh, ingredients that you just use occasionally, then you have to like, go back to, you know, maybe that reasonable cuisine or maybe you want to, uh, look at other reasonable cuisines, uh, from, you know, around the world that will utilize the same ingredient. So you can enjoy some different types of cuisine, um, built around this one ingredient, or it'll give you a chance to challenge yourself to, uh, explore some different parts of the world and to enjoy, uh, some different flavors at mealtime, again, built around this given ingredient that you have in your inventory. Okay? And so those are all things to consider, and in there lies the solution for you.