Crazy as it might sound, what's the best way to clean up a kitchen? Not have so much food lying around! Living in America we are the land of excess, over-eating and over-indulgence. Not adding to it seems almost un-American!
But a simple tip to staging a kitchen would be to actually just eat the food you have and not add to it until you have to. Seems weird to some. I have opened up refrigerators and seen so much food you couldn't stuff in another leftover. Cabinets so chalked full of half eaten bags of chips and cereal boxes that the food bank down the street would be over flowing had you only given half that food away.
When we moved across country of course we took very little food. A couple bags of flour, sugar, some basics, etc... but the refrigerator literally had only 1 gallon of milk from the local convenience store and a couple cans in the pantry.
Heading out to Sam's Club (oh I miss Costco!) to finally stock up after being in town for 24 hours my son says to me, "mom, why are we so poor?" ... I turned around in the car and said, "WHAT? Why would you say that?"
He replied, "Because we don't have any food". We had to laugh a little considering we were headed to the store just then to reassure him we were not on poverty's door step. But think of the implication that's relaying to him. No food in the house, even for one day, and we were considered poor.
I vowed personally to myself I would not be one of those families that crammed so many left overs in the fridge you forgot what you had and continued to buy more. We have done very well at the goal of eating what we have, saving leftovers for the next day's lunch and using up the food first before buying anymore. This got me thinking about how clean and neat my kitchen looked. Not "Sleeping with the Enemy" organized of course but clean enough to emit a well-staged kitchen.
We haven't left items in the fridge to get moldy before tossing them out. We have eaten the food we have. Made menu's to consume just what we purchase before buying more and it has actually left me with a more frugal and resourceful feeling.
The "take away" here is not just for yourself but your clients. If they are moving anyway, tell them to clean out their fridge well for the listing preparation, then consume only what you buy and don't buy more until you have eaten it all. It will save money, time looking for items, and maybe give your environmental bone a little tickle.
Just say'in!
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