Sorting Out the Food Stash - Part Two

Another closed door - another food stash, this time in the little spare bedroom ... in the wardrobe.

A shelf full of food ... well I mean who uses wardrobes for clothes these days 🤣

It seemed a good idea to have a stash of food here at the Van ready for lockdown, less trips out, less shopping, less risk.  Then came the total closure of the caravan park and I had to set off back to Wales, taking just what I could fit in my small car.  

Most of the stash stayed here, all the tins, jars and packets and the special offers I had bought to see me out through the Summer.  Just the shorter dated and fresh food items and the contents of the fridge were piled into my little Fiat, along with Suky, the plants and some clothes.

Also in the small spare bedroom was a box of food that I had brought from home at the start of the season back in February, and had never gotten around to unpacking, not that there was space for it in any of the cupboards.  I sort of saw it as back up foods for refilling the cupboard as I ate my way through the things in it.

Finally on the bed was the food that I had just brought with me when the park opened a couple of weeks ago.  So much food in so many places.  I just had to get stuck in and make sense of it all.

With all the foods taken from their respective places and like placed with like I then started to put things in date order.  So the tins were stacked with the 2022 being at the very bottom of the towers, then 2021 etc etc.

Taking away the tiered 'steps' meant that I could use the tins built in ridges to safely stack them up to four high at the very back, making full use of the height of cupboard.  Coming forward in front of the highest stack when I had more than four of something.  I seem to have a lot of chickpeas and tinned tomatoes, but then I use a lot so it's no problem.

I have tried to do this with the four types of food I use the most, making full use of the height of the cupboard at the back and dropping forward nearer the front.  So one line of chickpeas, one of tinned tomatoes, one of tinned beans (of many descriptions ... baked, butter, mixed) and potatoes and one of tinned lentils.

Once the four lines of tins were in place I had a narrow gap down the middle, just wide enough for those little jars of red or green pesto that are so handy to have in for those nights when brain freeze dictates a simple supper of pesto and pasta.  So all the narrow jars I had were lined up in this small space and now absolutely no space is wasted.

Then the basket was filled with all the little odds and sods that just clutter up food cupboards, meaning I can easily lift it out of the way to reach the serious stuff.

The bottom shelf may at first glance just look messy again but it is now all logical, with all my Almond milks moved in here from the pan cupboard and lined up in date order, the nut butters are stacked with the longest dates at the bottom etc etc ...  And more importantly, now that I have looked through everything I know what is where, what needs using up and I know for sure that I do not need to go shopping for anything other than fresh foods.  Also lined up in here are my jars of baking supplies, flour, sugar, ground almonds etc, it's always safer to have things in jars rather than packets in the caravan.

The jars that were hard to stack in the cupboard were put into the box in the bedroom, with the few Deliciously Ella treats left over from my birthday shopping splurge on top.

And in the wardrobe (this will never be needed for clothes), I have the extra things that I really don't need to use for a while.  

The rice, pasta, oats etc  to refill the jars on the shelf in the kitchen ... along with my coffee stash.  I have not gone mad on coffee, I bought these a long time ago when Nescafe my coffee of choice was on offer at £5 instead of it's usual £7.49 for the largest jar.  It meant I saved almost £10 every time I bought four jars ... so I did every time I went shopping until the offer ran out  🤣🤣

Hopefully just as I use the last of it the offer will be back ... fingers crossed!

So that's it the food sorted, no shopping needed this week as I have a bit of fresh stuff in the fridge and a packet of bread rolls in the freezer for quick lunches.

For Lee

The little bin inside the under-sink cupboard.

The caravan park's bins.  

Our trellis attached over the concrete wall hides the worst of it from view, and no we have had no problems with any smells even in the hottest of weather.

Something that has proved REALLY useful and that your parents might find handy, is this little hook over the cupboard door towel rail for the kitchen.  This is the hardest working door in the Van ... bin on the inside and towel rail on the outside 😃

Sue xx