Are you planning to move? There’s a lot to consider and plan before moving, which makes the whole experience quite scary and frustrating, yet exciting at the same time. It often requires a lot of money to move successfully without major hustles during any of the processes, from the moving truck hire to sourcing the necessary manpower. In most cases, you will be racing against time and probably be swamped with dozens of things that have to be done at the same moment. It is important to keep track of all the activities that have to be completed before the move. Of course, people move every day despite all these hustles. All you have to do is to plan diligently and perhaps create a checklist to help you keep in touch with the whole moving operation. Consider hiring same day movers NYC for a hassle-free moving experience.
Let’s Focus on Food!
One of the things that people commonly forget during the moving process is the food stocked in their house. Most people are left with a pantry full of food they had not planned to move with on the final day, food that can neither be consumed entirely or transported to the new home. As such, all this food often gets thrown away, thousands worth of food down the drain just like that! Without proper planning, it’s simply not feasible to travel with lots of food, more so if the food is perishable since it will probably go bad as moving trucks are not refrigerated.
Since many people face this challenge when moving, it’s important to plan and avoid throwing hard-earned cash down the gutter. Below, we are going to explore several ways that you can deal with food before moving. After all, the last thing you need is to strain your budget even more with food that will be thrown away on top of meeting all those moving expenses. Following these few suggestions will help you save loads of money and lower the stress of the entire moving process.
Dispose of all expired food items
When it comes to expired food, there is not much you can do. You cannot consume the food; neither can you give it away as a donation. Before moving out, you should make sure that all the expired food is moved from your pantry, fridge, or any other food storage area. You should look through all the food items and make sure they have not expired. Most food products have their expiry dates on the containers, so it’s relatively easy to spot food that has already expired or is about to expire. For food that doesn’t show expiry (e.g. food no longer in the original container), if you ‘feel’ like it’s been in storage for too long, then it probably has!
Disposal of food should be done in an environmentally friendly manner. This is mostly because most food containers are made of a material that takes time to decay. It is also smart to first empty all the food containers that you have and separate the food containers and the actual food as they are different materials. Food relatively decays easily, so it can be disposed of quite easily. The case is not the same though for most food containers.
Most food packaging is made of either plastic or metals, and these do not decay easily. Thus, if not disposed of well, they pose a threat to the natural environment. It is important to recycle these materials.
Make a list of all the food you have
To best decide how you are going to deal with all the food you have before moving, it is important first to have the actual idea of how much food you have. To do this, you will need to come up with an inventory of all the food items in your house. You will also need to go through every storage in the house: the pantry, the fridge, and the cupboards to make sure you do not miss any food item. List all the food items, all of them. The best way to do this is to classify the foods as you list them down. This will make it easier to deal with the list when you are deciding what to do with the food. You can separate the food into just two groups: perishables and non-perishables, or you can make a more comprehensive grouping.
To better organize what you have in the house, you can group your food into five categories namely: frozen food, canned food, boxed food, cooking and baking items, and glass contained food.
- Frozen food: these are frozen foods that are easily perishable, the list includes items like pizza, milk, and ice cream.
- Refrigerated food: this list includes items like vegetables, these items would go bad without refrigeration.
- Canned Foods: these are canned food items, which include meat and vegetable.
- Boxed food items: processed foods like cereals and crisps that do not need refrigeration.
- Cooking, grilling, and baking food items: this includes essential materials like flour and rice. Spices are also part of this category.
Once you have made the list and grouped the food items, it becomes easier to decide how you will deal with food based on the quantities you have. Organizing your food will also help you to prepare for its transportation equipment such as ice-boxes.
Donate & Feast
Throwing out perfectly consumable food is, in most cases, absurd. The main reason people cite for throwing food away is how difficult the process to donate food is. Unlike most items that can be easily donated, food charity has always been difficult due to cases of food poisoning. These days, charity organizations prefer sealed food items to prevent food poisoning. However, this means that you can easily get rid of all those tinned items and sealed packages.
You can also donate your food directly to the needy in your social circles, either from church, work, or the neighborhood. Since the perishables cannot be donated, it’s better someone enjoys them as cooked free meals rather than let them go to waste.
As we wind up, the point of saving food is to avoid spending, right? As such, it only makes sense to cut on any new food expenditures in the last weeks before moving. Eliminate all takeouts or dry food purchases and focus on getting creative with whatever is in your pantry or fridge. Your kids will probably grumble a bit, but, in the end, no food will be wasted!
