At the beginning of the pandemic I did go through my freezer and pantry to assess what we have. I also changed some of what we stocked to have more pantry staples like coconut milk, dried beans, bulk rice, etc. We’re lucky to have a huge variety to work with because of the space in the back up freezer, and it is super useful to have a back up veggie, meat or sauce.
But, that is also why it looks super packed… We added to the staples we keep on hand, but now need to adjust down some of the quantity of frozen veggies.
Overall, stocking up has reduced our grocery bill because we now do 2 trips to Aldi and 1 misc. trip a month. Now, if we are out of something, we make do until the fridge is empty again.
But this has inspired me to try and use up some the freezer and pantry to make a bit more room!
In general, what do you store in the garage pantry? Do you ever have to worry about too high of temperatures? We have a detached garage that can get hot, but I would love to add a shelf there to get some of the back up storage out of my cabinets and make them less crowded. But never pulled the trigger because of concerns about heat.
For the most part when we buy a costco pack of something we put one unit of it in the inside pantry and then all of the rest go in the garage since we don’t have much room inside. We also put things we don’t use all that often out there, like cans of certain beans that are only used for a few dishes. We also put all of the candy and most junk food out there so we have to work harder to get to it.
Our garage is attached to the house and we put in extra insulation when we built it since we use it as a home gym, not a garage. Generally the temps in there stay between 40 (in the coldest parts of winter) and 65-70 (in the summer). I know there are some foods that will go bad if they are stored at the wrong temps, but we’ve never had an issue with anything going bad. In the summer the garage actually stays cooler than the kitchen.
This has gone through many iterations. Brought all the most-used stuff into the lower shelves, put floppy bags into stackable containers, made an empty spot for htbf to throw his random purchases…
This counter used to be covered in spices, and it got really bad once I moved in with my duplicates. I found another spice rack on Buy Nothing and saw my chance. I put away all duplicates and rarely used spices in a box and consolidated them in cases where the doubles were both half-empty.
I thought people might enjoy this here. My quart size jar of taco seasoning, prior to mixing. I do TWO of the “biggest batch” on there. I love how pretty the layers look before mixing.
I found it on someone’s blog through Pinterest years ago. Really liked it, so we just kept making bigger and bigger batches haha. This is at least the second time we’ve made it since we moved in, so this amount lasts us 2-3 months I guess?
Honestly this thread is more of a walk of shame for the me than anything, apparently.
Two 5lb bags of very expensive coffee. (One decaf, one regular)
Imperfect produce order. I actually got six packs of those chicken thighs, just put one out for the photo.
The tiny expensive purple barley and the gruyere are to continue my quest for Latte to try as many individual foods as possible before 1 year old. I’m at 198 right now.
A delicious abomination. It’s like, cheese blended with spices and beer or cream or something to make it looser. For a cheesy spreadable yum. In this case, I got one with jalapeños and one with blue cheese. They’re both pretty good but in the future I’ll probably go back to the one with horseradish. I don’t get them often, but with nursing I’m snacking more than usual, so I like to keep it mixed up. They’re excellent with crispy pretzel thins.
Our fridge is a mess. Two shelves have broken and the top shelf is actually bowing, so we’ve lost all sense of organization. I need to find & order replacement shelves. What I really want is a new fridge with freezer drawers, but that seems like an overreaction to a broken shelf.
On the plus side, it’s packed full of food gifts from friends & family which makes me smile every time I open the door. And all the door stuff (with labels for sections) is working pretty well.
Basement overflow with bulk stuff used to refill upstairs things. Beer, wine, grains & beans, an entire box of various dried chiles, snack bars, tea, dog treats. The drawers hold bulk spices, dog supplies, vacuum cleaner bits, & paper cups/plates for the rare party.
Holy cow - that’s about the amount of calories I eat in 2 hours…this is a really fun idea though. I might try to take pics today of my food, although I’ve already eaten first breakfast without any pictures.
