old things in cupboards

meritaten

I worked as a shelf stacker many moons ago so putting new at the back and old to the front is second nature to me.
my mum and my dear departed MIL however, would put everthing in front. I remember there being a sugar shortage back in the mid seventies and mum saying she had lots of sugar (about a dozen packets i think) but was astounded to find that the ones at the back were rock hard! you couldve built houses with them! we became accustomed to being asked one lump or two and mum wielding a chisel and a hammer and chipping lumps off! (as you can guess I found it hysterically funny - mum has no sense of humour and didnt!).

Sue14

toddles* wrote: »

She is really adament though that its all still good stuff and she will eat it all eventually.

The first Christmas after my sister got married in 1974, she bought a hamper and gave a tinned mince pie out of it to my parents, it wasn't opened and it became a family joke that it was still in the larder years later, with my dad insisting that it was still ok and he would eat it one day! I finally managed to bin it at the end of last year, when my dad was in hospital and we were giving his house a good clean for him, as the tin had become quite rusty, and I was worried about his health if he did actually eat it!

LillythePink

Mmmm - I have found the odd out of date thing by a few years - usually baking stuff when I go through a phase of baking cakes! I usually find it all when I move house!

My mother is bad for this as well, she buys loads of tinned stuff when she goes away on holiday to france which lasts her until the next time she goes - they have cupboards full of food, but still go shopping every week as well!

She tried to give me some Baileys last christmas - it was two years out of date and said that it would be ok to drink!

meritaten

when MIL was ill me and OH gave the kitchen a good clear out! not only did we find years out of date food - we found years out of date medicines (half taken), nearly two hundred pounds in money in the most unlikely places (she stashed money everywhere!) some of it in withdrawn notes and coins!

ChocClare

On the other hand my father swears blind that the best Christmas pudding he ever tasted was one my grandmother cooked (at his request) on his birthday, which she had found fallen behind a shelf while clearing out the pantry. Her pantry faced north and had a tin mesh window and was FREEZING all the year round, so maybe that helped, as did the vast quantity of brandy the pudding doubtless contained, but she remembered very well that she had been short one pudding FIVE YEARS PREVIOUSLY :eek:. She used always to make five puddings in November, four for Christmas and one for my father's birthday at the end of May. He had complained bitterly on that particular birthday that she had forgotten him. Five years later, it was apparently worth the wait. She was going to chuck it out, but he insisted. And as he's still here thirty years later, presumably it can't have been that bad!

MrsE_2

Linda32 wrote: »

I buy as much as we need for the week.

I rotate everything, tins too.

But no way do I buy for the week.

My cupboards still look full the day before shopping day.

Firstly I will pick up non perishables (that I buy anyway) if I see them on offer, knowing I will need them one day.

Secondly being a cook-book addict they always require a spoon of this, a dash of that, so you build up a big store cupboard.

Primrose

Our drinks cabinet is like this too - with lots of barely used bottles of spirits and licqueurs brought back from Duty Free on holidays or received as Christmas presents. Since we're not huge consumers of spirits, some of them have probably been in there for about 20 years. Still, at least alcohol keeps and doesn't have a Use By date of them.
My parents were virtually tee total, apart from a thimblefull of sherry taken at Christmas. I think they probably managed to eke out a sherry bottle for about ten years!

zippychick

Hi Toddles

I've merged this with an older thread on old items in kitchen cupboards

Thanks
Zip