This is One Thing, a column with tips on how to live.
When images of Khloé Kardashian’s huge greige pantry first circulated online in 2022, it was hard not to marvel at the endless shelves filled with bins, boxes, and turntables of Costco-level canned and jarred goods, many decanted from their original packaging. They inspired jealousy (I wish), scorn (She has all that money and still buys Newman’s Own?), and a really excellent essay explaining how home inventory management has become a fantasy of our times. “We know Khloé is a woman who doesn’t need to stockpile twenty boxes of instant rice,” wrote Kelly Pendergrast. “She may not even eat minute rice.”
Me? As a person who enjoys storing and organizing a large amount of food, even though, yes, the grocery store is right there, what I wondered about was food waste. It used to be that I’d stock too much food in the pantry, and then have a yearly-ish sad cleanout day where every expired can of kidney beans or jar of capers went in the trash. It was very wasteful! While I still stockpile food, I don’t throw out that much expired stuff anymore. (Though I worry that Khloé Kardashian[’s housekeeper] might!)
Here’s the tip that fixed this problem, a tip I think applies to people who plan ahead only moderately, too: When you get your haul of anchovy paste, harissa, and Amy’s lentil soup home from Kroger’s, or out of the box from Vitacost, before you even put it in the pantry, look for the expiration date and write it on the front. Stock your jars or cans so that you can see the dates. Use the older stuff first.
When I first started doing this, I put pieces of freezer tape—the type that I usually use to label Pyrexes of cooked food or chopped vegetables destined for the fridge—onto the cans and jars. Then I realized I could skip a step and just write the expiration date right on the front of the item with my black Sharpie, using whatever little bit of white space is available on the label. That’s a lot faster.
Now, my turntables of cans and boxes can be stocked with the products that have the nearest expiration dates on the outside. I’ll grab those when I need them and rotate the new ones to their place. Khloé Kardashian[’s housekeeper] wishes!
Twice or three times a year, or when I remember to do it, I scan the pantry for my little soldiers that are within six months or so of expiring, and have a come-to-Jesus with myself about whether we’re likely to actually use them in time. (Some things, like chickpeas, will always get used. Other things, like interesting sauces I buy on impulse at Trader Joe’s, maybe not.) I take the ones I’m not convinced about to a local food pantry.
I’ve had far fewer depressing pantry cleanouts since I started doing this. A bonus: Doing this serves as a little education in the waste-generating madness that is our system of food labeling. Some foods say “Best by”; some say “Sell by”; some just have a date with no qualification. So many things make no sense! But in my pantry/small personal grocery aisle, we do our best.
