An organized kitchen for easy meal planning!

22 April, 2019

Giving your pantry, fridge, and freezer a deep clean has several advantages! Of course, we all like having a clean and tidy kitchen, but a deep clean offers many other benefits. For example, it helps to:
  • Reduce the proliferation of microorganisms, especially in the refrigerator.
  • Limit insect invasion of our food (ants and mealworms).
  • Better understand our food inventory and avoid duplicate purchases.
  • Limit waste by putting forgotten foods on the menu.

A well-managed food inventory can significantly reduce your grocery budget, but most importantly, it makes meal planning easier for you. This way, it will be even simpler to cook, as you'll have all the basic ingredients on hand for quick recipes.

To help you keep your inventory up to date, download our food storage tip sheets and discover our magnetic and dry-erase freezer inventory!

Cleaning your pantry and fridge in 4 steps

How to perform a complete food clean-up that impacts efficient meal and snack planning? By following these four steps!  
  • Empty
Start by emptying the contents of the pantry, fridge, and freezer. This step will allow you to group foods together and then store them more optimally. You will also be better able to carry out an effective inventory rotation. This is also the time to reflect on the foods consumed at home. How many boxes of cereal, crackers, or packaged goods do you have in general? They can be practical for lunches but are generally over-packaged and more expensive than homemade snacks or fresh produce. The idea is not to eliminate everything, but to review the frequency of purchase or consumption. Two types of cereal per week are usually sufficient, as well as one type of cracker and one packaged snack each week. Fresh or homemade foods should be prioritized.  
  • Clean, discard, replace

Once everything is emptied, it's time to clean. The MAPAQ suggests finishing the cleaning with a bleach sanitization, especially for the fridge. Furthermore, which foods are still good and which ones should be thrown away?

Regarding expiration dates

Is it necessary to throw away food as soon as it passes its expiration date? Since each answer differs depending on the food, feel free to consult our Food Storage Guide, to download and keep carefully in your family organization binder!

Finally, as there is nothing more frustrating than running out of brown sugar or oat flakes when you had planned to make muffins during the baby's nap, make sure to replace foods as soon as they are finished to avoid these situations. To do this, use the "To add to grocery list" section of our weekly planner, or write it directly on your notepad! This way, you will be sure not to forget it during your next trip to the grocery store.

  • Organize by sections
Now it's time to organize. To facilitate meal preparation or children's autonomy, organizing by sections can be very useful. The main storage sections are baking (flours, sugar, flakes and bran, baking powder, etc.), pantry staples (canned goods, rice, pasta, etc.), breakfast foods (nut butters, granola, cereals, etc.), snacks (dried fruits, purees, dry cereals, crackers, etc.), spices, and oils and vinegars. If you have oils used less often, such as camelina or sesame oil, they would be better stored in the fridge. Make sure that sections used by children are within easy reach so they can help themselves autonomously. Don't hesitate to use Les Belles Combines' storage labels to identify everything!  
  • Put forgotten foods on the menu

Everything is organized, now it's time to rotate stock. Too much coconut milk? Plan a Thai recipe and put it on the menu. Two boxes of All-Bran? Make a double batch of bran muffins. It's a great idea to buy foods on sale, but it's not necessary to have a large inventory of every food. Big sales come around a few times a year, and foods don't last forever. The goal is to have a good variety, but to manage the inventory turnover to avoid waste. After all, often when there are too many choices, we don't know what to eat!

So, ready for a deep clean?