How To Achieve Meal Time Freedom: Step #1 - GET ORGANIZED

 As a single mom to three children with varying special needs, time is often a valuable commodity I do not have the luxury of having much of. Because of this, over the past 12 years, I have learned skills to save money and in the long run, saved time and saved myself of much food-related drama. In this short article, I will give you some of the resources I have used along the way. I hope this helps someone out there along the way.

The First Skill: GET ORGANIZED!

Ways you can get organized? Start by inventorying you "Four Corners Pantry" .

What is a four corners pantry? 

https://youtube.com/shorts/moknoa-ntgM?feature=share

The "Four Corners Pantry" is your { 1st Corner} working pantry, {2nd Corner} your refrigerator or refrigerators, {3rd Corner} your freezer or freezers and {4th Corner} your extended or "prepper" pantry. 

Let's start with your working pantry also referred to as the "1st Corner. This is where you keep your food items you use every day or almost every day and includes baking items and spices. I inventory everything within this area on a monthly basis just to ensure that if any items were used up by anyone other than myself (I am OCD about marking off items as they are used or half way empty), then these needed items are put on the grocery list. 

Next we will move to the refrigerator(s) also known as the 2nd Corner. I remove everything once a week, wipe all containers down and make meals out of any remaining items in the crisper drawers or main shelves. This ensures nothing goes to waste. I also wipe down and sanitize the entire refrigerator and note any condiments that need to be used or purchased and add those to my grocery list. If something is half empty I will mark it on the list to check for restocking from my extended pantry. 

I also keep a detailed list of all of my freezers which I refer to as the 3rd Corner. I keep all of my "fast food" like extra lunch meat, extra slices cheese and pizza rolls in the freezer above my refrigerator. I keep all of the meals that are already cooked, uncooked but packaged for meals and quicker items like bags of vegetables, meatballs, hot dogs and hamburgers as well as any and all extra bread items in my easily accessed upright freezer. I keep a copy of the meals and other "fast food" items that are in that freezer taped to the door so items can be "X'ed" off as they are used and need to be replaced. I then keep all items like packages of meats (think beef, ground meats, chicken, turkey, etc.) and larger bags of frozen vegetables, extra large bags of shredded cheese, yogurt cultures and bagged smoothie mixes in my chest freezer with an inventory folder close by so items can be "X" 'ed off as they are used and need to be added to the grocery list.

At the first of every month, I check the inventory lists against what is actually in each freezer and correct any items that have been used and not marked off. This may seem excessive to many people but it helps me save money by knowing what I need more or and what I do not need to purchase. This also enables me to mostly shop just once a month from the box stores, my numerous other on-line services and make use of any great sales I may come across during the month to add a little extra into my freezers.

The last area I inventory is my extended or "prepper" pantries (this includes buckets, bins and home-canned goods) and I refer to these as the 4th Corner. As you see if you watch my video tour, only one area of this extended pantry is actually a traditional pantry. I also use storage bins, 5 gallon buckets, dresser drawers which are all labeled and inventoried. I also ensure that everything is dated. Home canned items are dated by the date they are canned. 

Any meals I make for the freezer are dated by the date they were assembled and if possible, the best by date which is of the oldest food item in the bag or container they are in. For instance if I make a meal of items with best buy dates of Jan 2024, Nov 2023 and July 2023, I will put "BB 7/23" AND the date the meal was packaged. This meal will go on the top of the stack of meals so that it is used first. Even though foods are frozen before the best buy date and can be kept past that best by date, I am ensuring that the ultimate freshness and nutrition in the foods I serve my family. The same goes for store bought canned foods; as long as they are not damaged, they can still be used AFTER the best by date.

These resources are helpful and FREE:

https://youtu.be/OG3aA_1n7yU Video explaining how to stock your extended pantry

https://youtu.be/Hj71sxN6jCE How to Stock Your Pantry with Real Food

https://youtu.be/gw8oq66-hwU How To Stock Your Pantry for $5 a week / $30 a month

https://youtu.be/c80fczhecsA  Top 7 Meal Extenders

https://marysnest.com/free-traditional-foods-pantry-list/ 

https://marysnest.com/how-to-build-your-great-depression-pantry/#download

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