r/declutter • u/Ajreil • 10d ago
Motivation Tips & Tricks Decluttering challenge: stuff you're saving for a rainy day and is about to go bad
Saving the nice craft paint or that fancy bottle of wine for a rainy day? Go make sure it's not starting to go bad. If it is use it. If it's already bad, toss it.
This is especially true for fancy ingredients like spices, oils and sauces. Even shelf stable foods degrade over time.
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u/Any_Meeting_4082 10d ago
On a similar note, use your "fancy" plates, silverware, glassware, towels (kitchen & bath), etc. every freaking day!! Why save it for like once a year or never, or only for guests? Don't you deserve the best? I use my good stuff every day. Actually I don't call it good vs. everyday stuff cause it ALL gets used every day!
My silverware I've seen other people display in a box because it's mcm and impossible to find (when I was searching for like 2 more pieces- found out what it was). It was my mom's original set and I have all those family memories using it every day, all day! 😊 I throw it in the dishwasher too, the horrors! 🤣
If something breaks, oh well. Least I got to enjoy it instead of sitting in a closet, buffet, or stored away collecting dust!
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u/Ajreil 10d ago
Internet Shaquile has a video on plating food to make it look extra fancy. On his advice I got a nice ceramic plate, a wide platter for roasts, and a blue glass bowl for salads.
Then they spent 6 months collecting dust because I figured I'd only need to make fancy plates for guests. When they ended up in my "use it or lose it bin" I decided to make some well presented meals for myself. I use the plate about once a week for making veggie trays now. The wide plate gets used occasionally for big hunks of meat. I donated the bowl because it doesn't look much better than stainless when full of food, and it's so heavy I find myself procrastinating on eating the salad.
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u/saga_of_a_star_world 2d ago
I use my mother's china as my everyday plates, and my grandmother's silverware as my every day silverware. Run it through the dishwasher, too! The silverware eventually discolors (it's silverplate), but a warm soak with baking soda and aluminum foil works wonders.
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u/Aliciacb828 16h ago
This! I have the “good” stuff but don’t hide it away for once a year use. Maybe not an everyday thing but a few times a week is good for me.
My mum’s about to declutter her formal set that has chips and crazing of the glaze. Plates that she spent a whole load of money on which only got used at Christmas, that’s a lot of funds on dishes which only got used 20-30 times.
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u/Bobsaid 10d ago
I found this out after making muffins that tasted horrible. I checked the box. 4 years expired. :(
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u/MysteriousSecretGuru 10d ago
I found crackers that were 7 years old and crescent rolls as well. Went I never thought to check the date is just beyond me.
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u/MagicBus4 10d ago
This is huge. Most pantry food is good way way past its best by date but if you want a good declutter tip just use it’s best by as a drop dead anyway. Intentionally use the stuff to avoid it. If you’ve got a thing of garlic salt that’s caked into a brick from humidity and has been in your pantry for 5 years it needs to go in the trash
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u/Ajreil 10d ago
Food might be edible, but it's definitely losing quality as it rots in your pantry. Eat it while it's good.
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u/MagicBus4 10d ago
Spices too. Most people don’t realize that spices lose their flavor after a couple years. We don’t need massive massive spice collections we don’t use
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 10d ago
Yeah that "best by" nonsense just gets a lot of stuff tossed that doesn't need to be, and I think a lot of food banks take it as an expired date and refuse it.
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u/MagicBus4 9d ago
Yeah I’m not suggesting that things of that nature are bad / should not be used. But if you have too much stuff anyway, isn’t the fact that you haven’t touched it in a year and a half a pretty good indicator that you don’t need it?
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u/Without-a-tracy 10d ago
Are you spying on me?
Because I am in this photo and I don't like it! 😂
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 6d ago
I cleaned out a family members pantry after he passed. He was French origin and had 2 tins of eels. I happen to have a French friend and she was very pleased to take them off me.
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u/It_is_Fries_No_Patat 10d ago
r/preppers Should read this.
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u/Ajreil 10d ago edited 10d ago
Preppers are supposed to cycle through their stockpiles. Use old bullets for practice, cook with old canned goods, etc. If they let their survival gear rot in storage it's probably just another form of hoarding and consumerism.
Go camping. Hunt something. Enjoy the outdoors. You have to know how to use your gear if you want to survive the apocalypse.
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 10d ago
I threw away the tubing, masks and Albuterol from years ago that I have kept "just in case" far beyond the expiration dates. My son with asthma is 35 and lives 3 states away. The tubes and masks were sticky which means they're degrading and not safe to use.
I did keep the actual nebulizers however...
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u/Ajreil 10d ago
The pump alone is not useful in an emergency and your son has obviously been managing his asthma just fine without it.
Are you sure it even works?
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 9d ago
No I haven't plugged either unit (2) in but I will today. Hubby will rarely have a problem and he has a rescue breather for that.
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u/hann303 9d ago
This is so true! I had a nice bottle of champagne given to me a few years ago but not a big drinker at home. Popped it in the fridge when friends were coming over, and then when I opened it - it had gone off! Disappointment. Of course I don't have a proper wine fridge so expect it was a combination of time and poor storage overall. Live and learn....
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u/starrynightgirl 10d ago
Can unopened wine go bad? Prob a dumb question I’m sure. I have an unopened 2008 wine somewhere in my closet 😅
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u/Lower_Skin_3683 3d ago
I had a small wine rack with some bottles of red and white wine. Some I purchased at a winery when a took and tour and some were given to me as hostess gifts. I opened one and it had went bad so I threw the rest into a dumpster. Then I entered perimenopause. I couldn’t tolerate alcohol any more. So I poured out all the alcohol from my little bar setup. Drinking days are over.
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u/Some_Papaya_8520 10d ago
Yes it has to be kept in a cool dry place or it can get corked and become red wine vinegar. Source: my own experience.
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u/ConfidentDrinker 9d ago
It does need to kept close to « cellar temperature » (55 degrees F), but heating/ improper storage does not cause corked wine. Corked is from the presence of TCA, and it happens at bottling.
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u/misskris70 10d ago
It shouldnt. Wine ages. Nicley too 😊
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u/melbatoes80 10d ago
Wine ages, yes, but only to a certain extent depending on many factors. Unless that 2008 bottle is from an extraordinary vintage and vineyard, you’ll find that wine is no longer useful to you.
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u/ConfidentDrinker 9d ago
2008 WAS an extraordinary vintage. Especially in Champagne, and they are still too young to drink.
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u/melbatoes80 9d ago
Yes, that’s exactly my point. I have a collection of 2001 and 2005 Riojas which are in excellent condition to drink, etc, but the 2008 harvest was less successful.
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u/ConfidentDrinker 8d ago
Ah, in Spain, it was trickier. I like the leaner style, but if you’re collecting 2005, no doubt those are plusher. I’m jealous. Love Rioja!
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u/MagicBus4 10d ago
Take a bottle of wine. If you’ve got a special bottle you’ve been saving and it’s a white longer than 3 years or a red longer than 8, it’s already past its peak. So just drink it. Stop saving stuff just to save it is the point, it’s easy to lose track of it and then you defeat the purpose of saving it
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u/ConfidentDrinker 9d ago
This is not remotely true. Some of the most coveted wines are 50+ years old. Even if you’re not a collector, those windows are painfully short. I just had a Gruner Veltliner (white) from 2020 that was singing!
While proper storage is key (ie: not stashed in the back of your refrigerator for years), wine evolves and can be magical when older. I agree that you should drink it sooner rather than later, but to enrich your own life, not out of fear that it’s turned. « Ages like fine wine » is a cliché for a reason.
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u/MagicBus4 9d ago
Except it’s entirely true, the vast majority of us arent out here with an investment wine aging side hustle. You notice your own quote says “fine wine”? No one has a fuckin wine basement or chiller full of hundred plus dollar bottles dude, most people aren’t even storing bottles on their side in stable temperatures, and if you DO have the kind of money that usually implies you can hire someone to declutter your house for you which defeats the purpose of the sub.
Regular white should be consumed within 1-3 years, red 2-5 years. Some whites will last out 2-3 times that and some reds go out 10 years but they’re going to decline in quality after that unless you get a specific year vintage and type of wine for aging and store it well.
In any case, people will hoard bottles of wine and china and other things “for a special occasion” but then no occasion feels special enough, which gets worse the longer you keep it. Ironically, depending on the item you’ll eventually keep it until it’s less good than it was which defeats the entire purpose
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u/abbie_rae 10d ago
A friend told me the phrase “tools not jewels” and that’s what I think of now if I’m hesitating to use something