Unpopular opinion: Canned food rotation is way harder than people admit

Lost power for 4 days after that ice storm in Kentucky last February. Went to grab my "emergency stash" and found half the cans were from 2019. Had to toss 12 cans of beans and 8 cans of soup. Now I slap a sticky note on the shelf with the month I bought everything. Makes it way easier to actually rotate instead of just hoarding. Anyone else find their pantry turns into a black hole too?

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keithbennett3mo ago

Oh man, "black hole" is exactly right. I literally found a can of creamed corn from 2016 last month, and I'm pretty sure it was a wedding gift. The sticky note trick is genius though, I've been doing the "new cans go in back" method and somehow my pantry still looks like a time capsule from a prepper's worst nightmare. What really got me was finding a can of chili that expired before the pandemic and realizing I'd bought it thinking "this is for emergencies." My emergency stash basically became a historical artifact collection. Now I just label everything with a fat sharpie the day I bring it home, otherwise it's just decorative food storage in there.

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kim.xena3mo ago

Totally agree with @keithbennett on the sharpie thing, that's basically my only saving grace now. I had a similar wake up call last year when I went to grab a can of soup and the bottom literally rusted through, yikes. The sticky note method is smart, I've been writing the month on top of the can with a fat marker so I see it every time I open the pantry. It's wild how fast stuff gets buried in there, like a time capsule you don't ask for. lmao

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