Doing a freezer inventory was daunting until I realized I could use the voice recorder app on my phone as I went through the freezer. This limits the time the freezer is open and I just transcribe the recording afterward. (a different app might even do this part for you).
this is so smart! I offered to pay one of my kids to do freezer inventory & cleanup. One did it for the pantry and fridge already which has been great. But the freezer is a giant black hole, sigh.
We just finished a week of "eating what is in the freezer" this evening. It really does feel good to gave a tidy freezer and know nothing went to waste.
Amen. Over the past week we went from having no plans to move cross-country to putting in an offer on a house. Part of the plan for the next six weeks is to put all of our Amazon subscriptions on hold and work through whatever inventory we have of all household, pantry and freezer items. If we need something that we would normally buy in bulk, we will pick up a small quantity instead.
We were having similar problems with frozen meats and my husband proposed that whoever makes supper should look at the next night’s menu and make sure that meat is in the fridge to thaw. That worked well to get through the bulk of the frozen meat inventory.
FWIW on the day of our last interstate move I was able to post our remaining frozen food on the Buy Nothing Facebook group and someone came and picked up all of it <3
Some of the comments remind me of the concept of a "depth year". Per AI "A depth year is a personal growth experiment where you commit to going "deeper, not wider" by completely halting the acquisition of new hobbies, possessions, or media.:
As for me, I had finally completed a freezer inventory. Now I need to work on my pantry inventory .... It's very hard for me to pass up sale items when I only get to certain stores once a month. I'm thinking of creating a "minimum inventory list" - do I feel comfortable keeping two jars of my favorite spaghetti sauce on hand? If so, then don't buy anymore than that. Etc.
My TBR pile got out of hand over the years: it's at 170 books now.
I read ~33 books/year normally, and I realized that reading 50/year is an achievable stretch goal. I recently discovered that getting the eBook and audiobook versions of whatever I'm reading from the library allows me to get through books faster while still enjoying them at a reasonable pace (i.e. not speed reading), simply because now they are accessible in all sorts of additional life contexts via the different formats!
So I set a new challenge for myself: "10 by 2030"!
To have a TBR of <=10 books by 2030. If I read 44 of my TBR books each year, plus allow myself 6 new ones, or 1 book every two months (There's no way I will be able to go 3.5 years without buying *any* books! I have to be realistic.), then I will reach my goal!
@Kenia - exciting! Yes, I totally agree that getting books in multiple formats can help with making them available. I tend not to listen to audiobooks, but being able to listen to music in the car has helped a lot with my big listening goals (like all the works of Mozart).
This makes me think about Shira Gill’s radical, shocking observation that she only owns one (great) pen at a time. Maybe you’ll get down to one halibut?
We are slowly working through the halibut. We had the lamb, and some of the strip steak this past week. Halibut next! (Though I'm not sure I could live with one great pen. I'd be worried it would go out - I still need a back-up ha ha!)
We call this Shop the pantry! It makes it a bit more fun to see what we can devise that uses up some of what we already own.
Doing a freezer inventory was daunting until I realized I could use the voice recorder app on my phone as I went through the freezer. This limits the time the freezer is open and I just transcribe the recording afterward. (a different app might even do this part for you).
love this idea.
this is so smart! I offered to pay one of my kids to do freezer inventory & cleanup. One did it for the pantry and fridge already which has been great. But the freezer is a giant black hole, sigh.
We just finished a week of "eating what is in the freezer" this evening. It really does feel good to gave a tidy freezer and know nothing went to waste.
I love this idea for the deep freeze and was in need of the motivation!
Amen. Over the past week we went from having no plans to move cross-country to putting in an offer on a house. Part of the plan for the next six weeks is to put all of our Amazon subscriptions on hold and work through whatever inventory we have of all household, pantry and freezer items. If we need something that we would normally buy in bulk, we will pick up a small quantity instead.
We were having similar problems with frozen meats and my husband proposed that whoever makes supper should look at the next night’s menu and make sure that meat is in the fridge to thaw. That worked well to get through the bulk of the frozen meat inventory.
Wow, that is going to be a big life change! And yes, having less stuff to throw out or move will be helpful.
FWIW on the day of our last interstate move I was able to post our remaining frozen food on the Buy Nothing Facebook group and someone came and picked up all of it <3
Some of the comments remind me of the concept of a "depth year". Per AI "A depth year is a personal growth experiment where you commit to going "deeper, not wider" by completely halting the acquisition of new hobbies, possessions, or media.:
As for me, I had finally completed a freezer inventory. Now I need to work on my pantry inventory .... It's very hard for me to pass up sale items when I only get to certain stores once a month. I'm thinking of creating a "minimum inventory list" - do I feel comfortable keeping two jars of my favorite spaghetti sauce on hand? If so, then don't buy anymore than that. Etc.
My TBR pile got out of hand over the years: it's at 170 books now.
I read ~33 books/year normally, and I realized that reading 50/year is an achievable stretch goal. I recently discovered that getting the eBook and audiobook versions of whatever I'm reading from the library allows me to get through books faster while still enjoying them at a reasonable pace (i.e. not speed reading), simply because now they are accessible in all sorts of additional life contexts via the different formats!
So I set a new challenge for myself: "10 by 2030"!
To have a TBR of <=10 books by 2030. If I read 44 of my TBR books each year, plus allow myself 6 new ones, or 1 book every two months (There's no way I will be able to go 3.5 years without buying *any* books! I have to be realistic.), then I will reach my goal!
@Kenia - exciting! Yes, I totally agree that getting books in multiple formats can help with making them available. I tend not to listen to audiobooks, but being able to listen to music in the car has helped a lot with my big listening goals (like all the works of Mozart).
This makes me think about Shira Gill’s radical, shocking observation that she only owns one (great) pen at a time. Maybe you’ll get down to one halibut?
We are slowly working through the halibut. We had the lamb, and some of the strip steak this past week. Halibut next! (Though I'm not sure I could live with one great pen. I'd be worried it would go out - I still need a back-up ha ha!)