First bag

Well, not a bag, actually, more of a bin.

Tonight is bin night, and my wheelie bin is stuffed with most of the former contents of my pantry.
I stocked up on garbage bags yesterday, and today was the first day of my 40 Bags in 40 Days project.

I knew this would be the hardest clean-up job of all, and I've done it! Throwing out food, even if it's way out of date, is sooo hard. I felt really guilty.

Never mind that there were packets and jars that were YEARS out of date, it still felt wrong. Tinned food doesn't seem to have use-by dates, but if I couldn't remember buying it, I chucked it.

There were some interesting finds - several packets of tea bags (I never drink tea) bought for visitors, or more likely, to dye fabric. Two bottles of apple cider vinegar - I hate the stuff! Four jars of honey in various stages of sugariness. Yes, I know it keeps forever, but still...

And literally dozens of packets and jars of spice and herbs, some of which I know for certain were ten years old! Still have to wash all the empty jars and refill them.

Not one, but two defunct food processors were lurking in the bottom of the cupboard, along with some empty coffee tins that I couldn't bear to throw out. All gone now.

Here's my eerily bare pantry. At least I know what's in it now!

I'm not going to bore you with a blow-by-blow account of each day's decluttering, but maybe a weekly update, to keep myself on track. I think it's going to take more that 40 days....