Want to feel guilty? Declutter your pantry of expired food. Expired food that legitimately could have fed a hungry child.
Ugh.
A few weeks ago, when I had a daunting deadline and little brain power in the face of a-thousand-little-things-I-could-do-for-a-book-launch, I headed to my safe and creative space at our local library to get some writing done.
As I walked in the back door, a small table with an even smaller sign caught my eye. I stopped, read, and gasped in delight. I think my eyes might have even watered.
My little local library . . . is having a FOOD FOR FINES DAY!!!!!
I’ve heard of these things, but if mine has ever done one before, I missed it.
With trembling fingers, I added the date to the calendar in my phone and set it to alert me.
I am fairly sure I have a ten dollar fine right now, and I’m fairly sure that’s because ten dollars is the limit to their fines per book. And I dream of the day when I get fines paid off and finally get set up to check out library books on my Kindle. (So the books will return themselves . . . )
Right. You can’t get set up for checking out ebooks when ANYONE IN THE FAMILY has a fine.
Now, I know that there are some of you thinking: Ummmm, you can’t scrape up ten dollars to pay off the blankety-blank fine??!?!?!?!
I could. It’s even possible that I had ten dollars in my purse at that moment.
I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me to look for cash (they don’t take debit cards) instead of planning for the momentous occasion of Food for Fines.
Whatever.
The point of this post isn’t actually library fines. Go here to read a post all about that guilt.
This post is about food waste.
My very first thought when I saw this announcement was that I had the PERFECT food to donate. I knew for a fact that in the bottom of my pantry there were two Costco sized boxes of macaroni and cheese. Costco sized boxes are big boxes with eighteen little boxes inside.
THIRTY-SIXISH BOXES??!? That would cover my fine and it would give me motivation to get those boxes donated.
Because that’s why they were there. At least one of the boxes-full-of-boxes was there specifically because I purchased it to donate. And then I never donated it. But I kept thinking I’d have it to donate when someone asked for donations.
A few days later, in a moment when I saw those boxes, actually noticed those boxes and (most significantly) thought to pull them out to be ready for this momentous donation motivation, I thought to check the expiration dates.
And . . . they expired in ’17. Last year.
Totally undonatable.
Blergh.
Obviously, we don’t eat enough mac and cheese to justify the jumbo packs. So I offered them for free to more-adventurous-expired-food-eaters and when there were no takers, I decided to throw them away. And bought another 18 pack to leave in the car until that lovely alarm goes off and sends me to the library to “pay” my fine.
Throwing away food is horrible. It makes me feel horrible. But I’m also not willing to eat them (especially since we didn’t even eat them when they weren’t expired) and I can’t donate them.
What I can’t do is the thing I’m tempted to do: leave them in the bottom of my pantry, knowing we’ll never eat them, because I want to avoid feeling the guilty feelings caused by throwing them away.
That horrible guilty feeling is icky. I don’t like it at all. But once I feel it, it’s over. And the space in my pantry is free. Which feels good.
But when I leave it there, even though I avoid the intensely awful feeling of guilt over throwing away food, I live with a nagging feeling caused by knowing there is expired food I’ll never eat taking up significant space in my pantry, and by knowing that one day I’ll have to throw it away and feel that horrible, icky guilt feeling.
So throwing it away is like ripping off a bandaid. It has to be done. Especially after offering it for free in local group on Facebook and not having any takers. That was even more painful because it added humiliation to the mixing bowl full of bad feelings, but it did confirm that there really was no other option.
Did y’all know that my new book, Decluttering at the Speed of Life, is now available!?!? In it, there’s a chapter specifically about decluttering your kitchen, and I talk a lot about these exact issues and how they make decluttering so difficult. I talk about them from the perspective of the person who understands way too well what it’s like to be paralyzed by the guilt.
UPDATE: My newest book is now available! Available wherever books are sold, or learn more HERE. You might also want to check out The 5 Day Clutter Shakedown, a video course that walks you through my decluttering methods step-by-step.
I’m surprised that someone didn’t want the macaroni noodles for kid art projects. Seems like I got tons of macaroni art over the years.
This happens to me as well, though I admit not with any idea of donating. We have a huge family (11 of us) and we eat like starving horses. But sometimes things get lost in the back of the pantry, or we just don’t like something. Added to that is some food allergies and I’m diabetic so can’t be the noble mom who eats up what no one else will (if it is high carb and/or has dairy as dairy doesn’t agree with me.) Our library has that food for fines thing as well but I hardly ever remember to do it.
Ohhhh I hate when I go through my pantry and have to throw away food! I try so hard to shop with a budget conscious mentality, and it feels like such a huge waste to buy food at a good price and then TOSS IT!!
We don’t buy boxed mac and cheese, so I would toss the cheese packets and use the macaroni. Honestly, what part of it has expired? It’s just dehydrated macaroni.
Obviously, today, in 2022, I wouldn’t eat 2017’s macaroni, but I would totally eat 2021’s macaroni. I would do so cautiously until a family member said “Is there something weird about this macaroni?” Then I’d toss whatever was left.
But it isn’t a problem I routinely have with macaroni because we do eat it. And we eat enough of it to justify buying the big box at Sam’s (no Costco membership here). I do currently have a couple of cans of chickpeas in my pantry that might need to go…nope they’re good for another month. I guess I better make that hummus.
I’d just like to point out that I ate Kraft mac and cheese that expired in 2011 recently. Lived to tell about it.
Hahaha!! So glad you’re alive! I honestly think it was fine, but if we didn’t eat it in all that time, we weren’t going to eat it now.
We have eaten a lot of food that old — or older — and survived. It depends on the food and the appearance of the can/box/bottle. It’s really terrible to think of the wasted food that goes into the trash in this country because things are even one day past their expiration or best-by date. I used to work at a major food manufacturer and learned foods are generally safe to eat at least a year past their date — again looking at the package (and sometimes smelling). Same for OTC medicines — my doctor advised me you can safely use them up to one year beyond their exp. date; same for Rx if it’s something you use only occasionally. I know this can’t be “advertised” because of legal liability issues, but I’m 70 and haven’t died yet. And you can do lots more with mac’n’cheese besides just the ‘recipe’ on the box! (I’m so old I still call it “Kraft Dinner”.)
A local food pantry here will take expired dry and canned goods, because they don’t really expire by those dates. Dry stuff is fine unless it gets bugs, and canned goods can last years beyond their dates. The exception would be old pancake mix. That should be thrown out when it expires, because it can be dangerous otherwise. This pantry puts dried and canned food that’s past its Best Buy date on a special table for those who want it, and it always gets taken. That might be an option in your area. Check with the smaller pantries, maybe.
Also, you said the food you threw out could have fed a hungry child. The boxes you bought didn’t take food away from anybody else. If your library hadn’t had the campaign, it would have still been sitting in your pantry, and eventually you’d have thrown it out anyway. The idea that wasted food was kind of denied to somebody else is a belief in the same vein as sunk costs. And anyway, it prompted you to buy new and donate that, so it actually is going to feed somebody, right. 😉
I understand feeling bad about it. I feel bad when I waste food, and I’ve changed my shopping and cooking habits to minimize it. But it’s still going to happen because we’re human and we do things like that. Guilt’s not productive, so I try to do better where I can and let go of the idea that somebody’s going hungry because I found a bowl of slimy lettuce pushed into the back of my fridge.
Another option is composting expired food. If there aren’t any foil or plastic packets inside, the whole box could go in as it is. Or, empty out the boxes into the compost and recycle the packaging. I know it’s not a perfect solution but something good comes of it!
This has been a really helpful thought process for me when I clean out cupboards or my fridge. If something’s expired, I’ve switched from thinking “Is it still good?” to thinking “If we haven’t eaten it yet, and it’s even less appealing now that I know it’s past it’s date, we probably won’t eat it and I should get rid of it.”
With all due respect:
That isn’t an expiration date. It’s a “best by” date. These dates cause folks to believe food has become unsafe when in fact it simply reflects that spices may lose potency or flavors may not be as vibrant.
Working in the local food pantry required us to have a more complete understanding of the “best by” marketing technique.
Some research may produce interesting thoughts on this subject.
One resource that I have really relied upon when deciding whether to use or toss expired foods (that we would still use, if they weren’t bad) is http://www.stilltasty.com – they tell you whether the expiration is for safety or simply best quality, and what to look for, to know whether to toss something. The only trick is figuring out the “generic” name for some foods, when searching the website. 🙂
Some food pantries take expired food. I volunteered at one and part of my job was checking expiration dates on boxed cereal. If it was not expired or had expired less than 6 months ago, it went to clients. If it had expired more than 6 months ago, we emptied out the boxes into big bins, which were then sold to pig farmers.
I’m lucky enough (but really NOT lucky) that my neighbor has PIGS – and when it’s time to empty the fridge or pantry of all of the food discards – I put it all in a 5-gallon bucket (wrappers removed) and truck it over to the pigs! They could care less if it’s “over the hill” THEY LOVE IT!
This would be awesome!
Perfect timing for this one! I was looking to make some spaghetti the other night and I started pulling out cans of sauce – expired, expired, expired, expired… I figured I’d check the rest while I was in there – OMG – I have a counter FULL of canned food that is all expired! Could not believe I had that much expired food in there – and that was only the can shelf… will move on to the boxed stuff next!
When I declutter the pantry and check for expired food, I have to do so when my husband is not around. Otherwise, I hear “It’s still good! Why are you throwing it away?” Hubs, I love you but you don’t cook and I’m not eating that. And like you said, if we weren’t eating it before it expired. . .
My food past date often goes to our chickens. They will eat almost anything. I pray I never fall down in the yeard, because they would eat me.
My girlfriend’s chickens eat my exspired food and then sell me the best eggs. She’s down to one chicken. I’m gonna miss that chicken. I already miss her eggs. She’s not laying anymore. Sadly I’m still finding expired food.
My Aunt paid movers to bring ALL of her things across the country from California to Michigan. Including the food in her panrty(!) Then a year later (she grew up here and yet somehow she forgot that she hates winter?) she was getting ready to move back to Cali again. She brought over bags and bags and boxes of food for us from her pantry from California that she still had not yet eaten. Rice from 2015. Cans of beans from 2012. Cake mix from 2000. Oh dear. I know she’s had moth issues, I knew I didn’t want this stuff, we are lucky and can afford groceries – but omgoodness even so it was strangely hard to throw it all away! Like I was really beating myself up about how I should open everything and wash it out to recycle all the packaging and/or how I should throw the beans in my compost and how I could…should… but once she left I was thinking about moth eggs hiding under paper can labels and that did it for me. Out it all went. It would have taken me at least a solid day’s work to deal with all that my Project Brain was telling me to do but you know what? I’ve got better things to do with my time than fiddle around with garbage. I bet you do too.