Condiment Conundrum

I don’t feel like I buy a lot of condiments, but somehow my fridge shelves seem to be full of them nonetheless. When it’s something you don’t use very often like sambal oelek or mint jelly, it’s hard to keep track of when you opened them and exactly how long they’ve been there. While many of them don’t have expiry dates, I don’t relish (pun intended) the idea of using condiments that have been sitting there for years.
Recently, I came up with a new system using my beloved Sharpie. It’s pretty simple—when opening a new condiment, I mark on the top of the bottle with the month and year (e.g. May ‘11) so I have a simple way to keep track of when I bought and opened the new addition to the legion of condiments in my fridge. In fact, we even got a great reader tip on this topic as well.

If you like to keep track of how old your pillows are (dust mites do kind of freak me out), you can also employ the same system, marking the label of the pillow when you first begin using it.

If you really want to challenge yourself one week, try picking a different recipe each night that requires one of the less-frequently used condiments in your fridge. You’ll free up some space and surprise your family’s taste buds!

Do you have any kitchen organizing tips? I would love to hear them.