What Happens After Grocery Shopping?

Maristella Bertram
Nov 1 · 5 min read
Professional Organizer explains grocery organization
Professional Organizer explains grocery organization

What do you do when you come home from the grocery store? Do you place the plastic bags in the fridge just as they are in order to avoid dealing with them? You might find the lightbulbs and toilet paper you bought inside the fridge tomorrow morning….

I confess I detest going to the grocery store. It is not necessarily the process of buying. It is the process that follows when all that stuff comes home. It takes me a lot longer to organize what I bring from the store than the whole trip to go buy it. Yet, I do it every single time because that hour devoted to the process pays off in many ways during the week. It helps me save time while cooking, allows me to plan varied, healthy meals, looks delicious and inviting (so family members get interested in the healthy cooking), and makes it joyful to cook when everything is organized, fresh, clean and accessible.

Don’t you go insane when you hear the dreaded daily question: What’s for dinner? (Ok, at least admit you roll your eyes at your kids!) What if I told you that the horrendous hour after grocery shopping might be key to spare you the feeling you get when you hear that question?

Here are eight steps to help you stay on top of your game.

  1. Plan your menus for each day of the week

Schedule an hour to plan your menus for the entire week. Make this a commitment and calendar this hour on the same day, at the same time every week. Make the list of ingredients for each dish with specific quantities, according to the amount you plan to prepare. Having specific quantities help you save money by not overbuying and not wasting product.

If you follow the process described in my blog “Functional Storage Space That Looks Great Inside and Out” to organize the kitchen cabinet, planning your weekly menus can be a breeze. Pull out those index cards and mix and match your dishes to get complete meals. All the information you need to prepare your grocery list will be there. Leave those index cards out, group them by meal and date of the week, and you’ll be ready to go when you start cooking.

2. Calendar your shopping trip

Plan on going grocery shopping the same day of the week and mark your calendar. If this is incorporated into your routine, it would become a habit and will be less of a dread. Having your grocery shopping also allows you to block the time needed to properly deal with the groceries when coming home from the store.

3. Invest in the right containers for your freezer and your refrigerator

Select containers that are similar in size and shape, so they stack well in the fridge and freezer. Avoid round containers because these don’t use the space efficiently. Stay with a line that serve for both for fridge and freezer, so you only buy one type. Select a system that is microwave safe, dishwasher safe, and BPA free. I personally love the TellFresh line from The Container Store.

4. Wash and prepare your produce

Remove all packaging. Remove stems and other non-edible parts and cut up the fruits and vegetables up to the point where it won’t affect freshness for the days until it will be used. By washing and repacking in sealed containers, many things stay fresh longer. Also, your fridge and pantry will look spectacular. Having everything washed, cut, and ready to go, will make everything meal prep easier and more pleasant. This is efficiency at its best! You will be ready for your Mise en Place in a flash!

Another great advantage of following this routine is having healthy snacks very accessible. When we are hungry, we eat what is available. If we have ready-made fruit packs or cut up veggies to munch on, the chances on having healthier snacks increase.

5. Remove most of the packing from your frozen products

You save a lot of space in the freezer and fridge when you remove your frozen items from the packaging and re-group them in designated freezer containers or use your freezer door compartments. Frozen fruits and vegetables in bags, for example, don’t stack well, and once bags are opened, products don’t preserve their freshness the same way. That is not very inspiring.

6. Maximize the space and organization of your fridge by including bins

Typically, the fridge comes equipped with a couple of drawers to keep special items at slightly different temperatures. There are bins you can incorporate into the fridge to create compartments and separate the various categories of products. Not only will the fridge look fantastic, but things will be easier to find — and it also will be much easier to monitor what’s there, what we need to buy more of, and what has expired. The design of some fridges allows for the drawers to be substituted with some of these bins to create even more space.

7. Label!

Don’t skip the labeling part. In order to maintain the freshness of your fridge and freezer products, you need to know their expiration date or at least when they were bought. I know labels can get problematic, and the process could be a tedious one, but all these problems are solved with the Label Once labels! These are sold on Amazon. You write on them with any sharpie or marker and erase with any eraser. Once applied to a container, these labels stay put, even in the dishwasher. No more excuses! It is simpler to label and relabel now.

8. Treat your pantry with the same respect and care

Use transparent or translucent air-tight containers for dry goods like flour, sugar, rice, pasta, dry beans, chips, cookies, crackers, and cereal. This way products stay fresh longer and you’ll know how much product is left. These containers stack well and give your pantry the Pinterest look you dream of. Bags and opened boxes do not look appealing and do not stack well, they can spill, and the product inside can easily get contaminated.

For all other kind of products that don’t need to be transferred to containers, use baskets or bins to create clusters of product categories and separate food groups.

Have a system for condiments, whether a section inside the pantry or a designated cabinet next to the stove. Another alternative for condiments is to use the Elfa Spice Rack. This tool makes excellent use of the much-neglected vertical space of the pantry door.

An organized kitchen reduces food waste, and promotes cleanliness, joyful cooking, and a healthier lifestyle. Get in the habit of organizing your groceries after going to the store and see your productivity, efficiency and joy in the kitchen exponentially grow.

What’s for dinner?

Maristella Bertram, MBA, CPO, owner of My Space Reclaimed, LLC, is a Board-Certified Professional Organizer, Redesigner and Stager.

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