12 Pantry Restocking Do’s and Don’ts to Keep Your Food Fresh Longer

Do you ever feel like you are fighting a losing battle with your food storage?

You keep buying food randomly while you are at the grocery store. You put it in your pantry in hopes that you’ll have extra food around if you need it.

And it just sits there, occasionally being used but mostly going bad before you eat it.

If this is you, I’m here to help. A big part of managing a proper food storage is knowing how to restock and rotate your food properly as well.

So once you buy your food and it’s in your pantry, you can’t just forget about it.

You have to know what’s there and how to work it in to your regular meals so it doesn’t go bad.

To help you get a handle on this, here are some pantry restocking/rotation do’s and don’ts for your food storage.

12 Pantry Restocking Do’s and Don’ts

Restocking Do’s

1. First in/ First out– When you get home from the store, put your new stock in back. Then when you use your storage, grab from the front. This will help you use the oldest items first in your storage.
2. Label purchase dates-Write the day you purchased items on the package in sharpie marker.
3. Use your food storage weekly– Practice using the food you store weekly so you’ll be prepared later. You don’t want to store food you don’t know how to use later.
4. Repackage food if necessary-Package big items in smaller packages to use sooner. Repackage food in air tight containers if needed.
5. Buy slanted shelving-Slanted shelving can help you rotate canned goods easily. You can shelves at the store or make them on your own.
6. Label shelving-For large storage areas, it helps to label your shelving or plastic bins to find things easily.

Restocking Don’ts

1. Store things you don’t like-If your family won’t eat something now, they really aren’t going to like it in an emergency. So only store what you’ll eat, even if it a popular storage item with others.
2. Forget to update inventory-Change inventory numbers as needed to keep an accurate account of the food in your pantry.
3. Forget spices/condiments-Store spices and condiments your family uses most often to make food during an emergency that tastes as normal as possible.
4. Rely on the expiration date-Most of the time you can use food past it’s expiration date. Just check and see if it looks spoiled before serving.
5. Keep spoiled/bulging food-If food starts to smell or the container is bulging, throw it away immediately.
6. Rely on modern appliances-Learn how to cook on a fire or wood stove in case of emergency.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with food storage, so don’t let it get away from you.

Hopefully, these tips will help you have food in your pantry you can eat in emergencies or just when you can’t go to the grocery store.

If you would like more help learning how to stock your pantry properly, you can join our FREE Stock My Pantry Challenge and gather a week’s worth of food for your family with awesome tips along the way. Sign up for the challenge here —> 7 Day Stock My Pantry FREE Challenge.

You spent money & time on your food storage. Don’t let it go bad from neglect!

You got this!

Do you have any tips to add to this list? Please let us know in the comments below. And if you found this post helpful, please share. Thanks!