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 One of the things that absolutely drives me CRAZY is when I clean out a cupboard or the refrigerator and find that there was something perfectly good that went to waste because it either got pushed back too far to notice or that I used it once and then it expired. How frustrating! Not to mention a waste of money.

The problem is that I often don’t remember when I opened something, which is really the important factor in knowing whether something is still fresh. The other factor is that food manufacturers print their expiration dates in small writing usually on the bottom or the back of an item so you have to hunt for it.

So I’m experimenting with a new method of keeping track of the freshness of items in my fridge and pantry, and I’d like to invite you to test this method along with me and let me know how it works for you.

I’ve created free printable food labels that allow you to slap a sticker on items when you buy them, so that when you use them, you can simply fill out the sticker with the expiration date and opened date. The labels are the size of a standard mailing label (30 to a page) and feature three lines you can fill out: Purchased date, Opened date and Expiration date.

There are lots of ways you can use this strategy for labelling your food items. You can, by default, slap a sticker on every item that enters your kitchen and fill out the expiration date immediately so that it’s always in an easy-to-read and prominent spot or you can simply use a sticker when you open something.

I’m personally going to use them on all items that enter my kitchen. I’ll just have a couple of pages of labels on my fridge with a magnet and peel them off one by one and stick them on as I put groceries away. For perishable items, especially items in my fridge and freezer, I’ll fill out the expiration date right away.

The benefits of using stickers like this:

1. You always have the important freshness information up front on your item. You don’t have to hunt for the expiration date later.

2. The labels are uniform, making your refrigerator more organized. You could even sort items in your fridge by expiration date really easily so that, for example, the top shelf on the right is the stuff expiring sooner so you can be sure to use it up.

3. The labels keep track of more than just the expiration date, but also the “opened date” so you can make sure that the spaghetti sauce you opened five days ago gets used within the 7-day suggested window even if you don’t remember exactly when you opened it or if someone else opened it.

These labels are designed to be used with standard address labels (the kind that are 30 to a page) and measure 1” x 2-5/8”. Don’t worry…when you download the labels you will also receive a “readme” file that lays out all the particulars about which labels are compatible with the download.

All you need to do is load up a few pages of blank labels in your printer, open the Word file, and print! I suggest printing a couple of pages at a time so you always have some labels ready to go.

So if you want to try this experiment with me, right-click here to download the free printable food expiration labels and then select, “Save Target As” and save to a folder or your desktop.

Then, please leave your comments at the bottom of this post so we can compare notes on how well it worked!

Technorati Tags: free printables, printable labels, food expiration, food labels, home organization, organizing tips

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