The Unplanned Pantry Clean-out

I was in the kitchen last night about to cook dinner.  I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to cook.  I know I had some beef mince, so was thinking of doing some sort of sauce to have with pasta.

I opened the pantry doors and looked in.  I picked up a packet of pasta and noticed that it was past its used by date!  So I threw that in the bin, then I dug into the back and looked at a packet of biscuits that was behind where the pasta was and it was expired also.  I started to think about when was the last time I gave the pantry a good clean out and I couldn't remember.  I seem to mainly use things at the front, new things arrive and are placed at the front, so I use them and the things at the back, seem to get forgotten.  Well I just started picking up one thing after another and before I knew it, I had done a massive pantry clean out and I could not believe that half of the things in my pantry were off!  There was a macadamia oil, off!  Taco kit, off, biscuits, cereal and what surprised me the most was the canned food!  I didn't realise that canned food went off, well I figured it would eventually go off, but not for years.  But I found can after can of corn, baked beans, tinned spaghetti, condensed milk and more, all off!  I love baking and used to do a lot of it, so going through my baking supplies, milk, dark, white chocolate buds all off.  I have heaps of spices and dried herbs, most of them past their used by date!  So annoying!  I couldn't believe it.  I then started on the fridge, there were a few sauces out of date.

Suddenly I realised that it was getting late and I needed to get on to dinner, so after cleaning out all of the used by items I got on with dinner, yummy spaghetti (not off, LOL) bolognaise.
So next will be to take everything out of the pantry and give it a good clean out.  I ended up messing up all the order in there as I would find something that was still good and put that on the shelf above, or over the other side.

Here is the most of the pile that I ended up cleaning out of my pantry and fridge last night!  It really does feel so good having a big clean out!

Three full garbage bags of expired food!

So I recommend regular pantry and fridge clean outs.  It's amazing how quickly things go off in there if it's moved to the back and kind of forgotten.  I will post photos of the finished pantry once it's all back to it's organised look.