Earlier this week we had our pre-moving consultation, where a representative from the packing/moving company came to our house to make note of our items that will be moved.
During this consultation, the woman mentioned that the moving company "will not pack or move any opened food items, any liquids of any kind, flour, sugar, rice, etc."
Crap. Crappity crap crap.
Our pantry currently looks like this:
You better believe the shelves behind the swivel shelves are all full too...yes I have a problem.
And our deep freezer currently looks like this:
Lots 'o Food piled in there.
This doesn't even take into consideration the full fridge and regular freezer! Apparently, I have a serious problem with overbuying food, and yet, somehow, I still always feel like "there's no food in the house" unless I've gone to the grocery store that week. Maybe my problem is that I buy useless food.
Either way, it's officially time for Operation: Pantry & Freezer Clean Out. The packers come on December 6th, which means I have less than a month to use up stuff.
I'm morally opposed to throwing out perfectly good food so I'm using up as much as I can and then either donating it to a food pantry or taking it with us and using up valuable space in our cars. More likely the latter, since I'm cheap and I hate the idea of not using food that I paid good money for!
I'm probably still going to go the grocery store once a week, but I'm going to try reeeeeeally hard to limit my purchases to things like milk, eggs, bread and fresh fruit & veggies to supplement our pantry meals.
I'm also planning on baking up a storm to use up all the baking supplies I have. (Remind me again why I JUST replenished my huge-ass flour container? Sometimes I'm really smart.)
So if you're my friend and/or coworker, be prepared for me to probably pawn off huge amounts of baked goods on you.
Or maybe I'll just take care of them myself. It is practically the holiday season, right?!? Gaining weight is a natural part of the season! ;-)
If I was a good blogger I would have already made several example freezer/pantry clean-out meals and have pictures and recipes to share with you, instead of just rambling on about what I'm planning on making.
But I'm not a good blogger. So you'll have to wait and see what creations I come up with. :)
Just so you know, everytime I have moved they have moved my flour/sugars and other baking supplies that weren't liquid....the packers didn't even question it! I am pretty sure that Danielle had the same experience but times as well. Just as long as the flour is in a closed container with a lid that shuts tight they will throw that crap in there with out questions! I didn't have a problem with them moving stuff like Crisco except for overseas. So don't sweat using up all your varying flours (I personally have 4 different types of flour). Also, they said they wouldn't move any liquid shower gels/lotions or light bulbs and yet everytime they have packed that stuff as well. I think the pre-inspection people are telling you by the book rules but the little packers guys that come are just interested in packing your stuff as quickly as they can and don't really care what it is that they are packing!
ReplyDeleteCan I just say I love your pantry?? That's awesome! Good luck in getting everything used up and packed away!
ReplyDeleteDitto on Angie's comment...both times we had almost everything moved (including alcohol from VA to CA) so Like Ang said take what they say with a grain of salt but still follow your just don't put too much into using everything. For example...I unpacked a half used box of cereal and a bottle of EVOO that didn't even equal a Tbsp!
ReplyDeleteOh and bribery is also helpful...buy them a pizza, give them some of your backed goods and lots of drinks and you would be amazed what they will do for you!
ReplyDeleteWe just had the movers end of October for our overseas move to the US and I know what you are talking about. I freaked out and perfectly separated liquids and stuff and in the end I realized that they actually took part of them. Good luck though - moving is not fun at all! I am looking forward to getting settled in the States. My husband will be stationed at Ft. Drum / NY. However, I will live 2,5 hours south and work at Beech-Nut in Amsterdam, NY.
ReplyDelete