First In Last Out – How To Organize Food

Have you ever found old cans of food in the cupboards that have gone bad. Perhaps they sat there for months or even years while the new food that you added to the shelves was eaten first. This even happens in the refrigerator. Our first instinct–because it is the easiest thing to do–is to place new food at the front of a shelf and push the old food back to make room.

First In Last Out
When it comes to food storage this may be the easiest thing to do but it is certainly not the most efficient. As illustrated above, when food storage is kept in this way you will often end up finding food that has gone bad because it was lost at the back of a cabinet or refrigerator shelf. There is a common commercial food storage practice that can also be used to organize home food storage: first in last out. This means that the newest items go behind the older food items so that older food products get eaten first.

Get Organized
You can do this manually just by making the effort to place your newer food behind the older food in your cabinets and refrigerator. In the commercial food industry there are special storage racks that do this automatically–typically just with cans. A new can is placed on the back end of a rack. At the front of the rack you grab a can (which is always the oldest can because of the design of the rack) and another can rolls forward.

There are even versions of these storage racks that can be used for home food storage. Some are on the smaller side and hold up to 60 cans while some are much larger and can hold up to 400 cans or more. Like the commercial versions they are designed to “auto-rotate,” placing the oldest cans at the front of the rack even when new cans are added.

Save Money & Waste Less Food
Using a “first in last out” system to organize food is incredibly efficient because it means that you will waste much less food. Organizing food storage in this manner is also convenient and efficient because it saves you money. You will actually use all of the food that you buy and not have to replenish food as often because fewer things will go bad before you eat them. This is an important factor in today’s economy when saving every penny counts.

Meal Planning
Another good way to ensure that you save money and waste less food is to meal plan. When you plan your meals you will know exactly what to buy for the week and you will actually use the items. Buying food aimlessly can sometimes lead to buying things that you never end up using.

Learn more about food storage. Stop by Tom H. Ronson’s site where you can find out all about home food storage and what it can do for you.

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