Tip of the Day: Putting Away Groceries

     So, you just got home from running your errands for the week (time management post coming about this soon), you get the car unloaded and now that seemingly daunting task of putting away groceries. "Where do I even start?", you think. 
     Well first, take the groceries out of the bags so you can see what you have. If the person who packed your groceries did a good job, things of the like will be together. But if they didn't do such a good job, this gives you the chance to sort things out. Sort your items by refrigerator items, freezer items, dry goods, pre-packaged food, canned goods, cleaning supplies, paper products, etc. 
     Now let's put things away. Put away freezer items first so that you don't allow them time to start thawing. Follow this with refrigerator items so that they do not get a chance to warm either. Group all of the refrigerator items that you can do some preparing to together so that you can get those out in a few minutes when everything is put away to wash (be sure to dry them well so they will keep in the frig), cut, and package them up. 
     Now put away your dry goods and canned good. Now its time to repackage your pre-packaged food (granola bars, chips, pretzels, snack foods, etc.). Take an single serving foods out of the box of package and dump them into your grab and go basket or container. This way when you are heading out the door you can find what you want in one convenient place. I use a stainless steel canister set to do this. I have one for bars, one for fruit snacks, one for Taffy. Then your can take your chips and pretzels and package them in small resealable bags. Only do this if you are going to be using them soon or they will go stale. This is something that I haven't really started doing yet but I want to. 
     Now go ahead and put away your paper and cleaning products away as they are probably stored in another area of the house. 
     Now come back to the kitchen and pull out all of the food the you want to prepare. This could include fruit and vegetables that you want to wash and cut or it could be meet that you know you want cut or marinated a certain way for a meal that you planned for this week. (Post coming soon about preparing a weekly meal plan.) For example, I love grapes but if I just leave them in the bag I dont take the time to cut a bunch off and wash it so then they don't get eaten. So I take them out of the bag, wash them and take them all off the stem and put them into a resealable container. (I'm actually eating some of these grapes while I am writing this.) I also wash and cut any vegetables that I can into the size I want (whole carrots into sticks, celery into stalks, etc.) You can also put some of these into snack size resealable bags if you want to be able to grab them and go. (I may do a post about some of the containers that I use in the kitchen, if anyone is interested.) I have found that doing this helps me to eat more fruit and vegetables and my husband loves it too.
     There you go, you not only got your groceries put away but you got a head start on preparing your food for the week! It may take a little extra time to do the extra preparation but believe me, it's well worth it through the week. Hope you enjoyed getting OrganizedForReal!