We try our best to be as mindful and environmentally conscious as possible when it comes to our lifestyle habits. While we recognize no one is perfect and there’s always room to improve, an ongoing frustration of ours has been the amount of food we let go to waste in our home.
This problem likely becomes apparent for many when they first venture out into living on their own and spending their own money to stock their kitchens. Throwing food out with the trash is not only a let-down for your wallet, but for the impact it has on our environment, too.
Over the years, I’ve put a few practices into place and created a few routines that have helped Jeremy and I considerably cut down the amount of food we have to discard.
12 Simple Ways to Cut Down
on Food Waste
Plan your meals or take some time to meal prep.
While we don’t go all-out in prepping every meal for the week and portioning them out (kudos to those who do!), we do have a general idea of what we’ll be eating in the days ahead. I usually choose two or three meals to make, planning to eat the leftovers for lunch or on nights where I don’t cook. This will help you create a more focused grocery list so you’re not grabbing at anything that looks good in the moment and forgetting about it later in the week!
Use every bit of food.
There are a lot of parts of food (especially fruits and veggies) that people discard, thinking they’re not edible. The green parts of cauliflower? Chop them up and throw them in the soup or stew you’re making for added nutrition. The leftover stalks from the kale in your salad? Blend them up in your green smoothie. Use apples or other fruits that are on their last leg in a pie or a sweet bread. You can even do some amazing things with the leftover liquid in a can of chickpeas (it’s called aquafaba—here are some ideas)!
Keep an organized refrigerator, freezer, and pantry.
The main reason food goes bad in our home is simply because we’ve forgotten it’s there. So much of what we buy can quickly get pushed to the back of the shelf or disappear under a pile of other items, only to be discovered months past the expiration date. Take some time once a week to go through and quickly organize these areas, moving what needs to be used first up front and clearing out what no longer belongs.
Make sure you’re storing food properly to increase its shelf-life.
Storing food properly is a key way to ensure it lasts as long as possible. Keep crunchy veggies and leafy greens in the crisper drawers of your refrigerator, consider using muslin produce bags and cloths to keep food fresher longer, keep root veggies in a cool, dark, dry space (preferably on a produce shelf). If you’re unsure of the best way to store certain foods, a quick Google search will help you out!
Freeze food that’s about to go bad.
Just about everything can be frozen in order to give you more time to use it up. I frequently buy more bananas than I know we’ll eat before they go brown so I can chop up any that have ripened and store them in the freezer to use in smoothies later. The same can be said for other fruits and veggies. Sealed products that are freezer-friendly usually have a “Use or Freeze By” date printed on them. If you haven’t eaten all of the soup, casserole, or pasta you’ve made, many leftover meals like this will freeze well. We even frequently toss a bag of bread or bagels in the freezer if we haven’t used them up and they’re nearing their “Best By” dates! Just make sure items you store in the freezer are tightly sealed in freezer-proof bags and containers to prevent freezer burn.
Use other preserving methods.
Freezing isn’t the only way to lengthen food’s shelf life! More tomatoes than you know what to do with in the garden? Consider canning them (plain or as a sauce or salsa). Pickle leftover peppers, cucumbers, cabbage, or even carrots. Make some fruit leather or veggie chips by dehydrating leftover produce. Here are some of my favorite food preservation recipes!
Take inventory once per month.
I’m trying to get better at going through our fridge, freezer, and cabinets on a regular basis to take note of what we already have, check expiration dates, and reorganize as needed. Doing this really helps alert me to what needs to be used quickly, and keeps me from buying an item (usually spices) a second or third time over because I think we’re out (when really, it’s just been buried by other stuff).
Plan to have a “kitchen sink” meal once a week or so.
Round up everything you know you need to use right away and consider what you can throw together with those ingredients. These meals may be totally random and not something you’d normally put together, but that’s the fun of it! Soups, stews, and chili are a really easy way to go about this, but you can also consider tossing random ingredients into a pasta, a stir fry, a casserole, or an omelet. This allows you to get creative in the kitchen and shake things up while saving food from going bad.
Utilize meal, produce, or grocery delivery services.
If you feel as if you’re always over-purchasing and letting too much go to waste despite trying these methods, consider giving a meal delivery service, or a service that delivers fresh produce to your doorstep, a go! These are great options that give you just the right amount of product based on the number of people in your household, often saving you money (and the stress of going to the grocery). Plus, they encourage you to try foods and recipes you may have never eaten before! In addition, grocery delivery services will help you cut down on spending, since you’re not in physically in the store impulse-buying anything that looks good in the moment.
We love Misfits Market for fresh fruits and veggies and have enjoyed HelloFresh in the past for delicious, easy-to-make meals. We also utilize Shipt for grocery delivery.
- If you want to give Misfits Market a try, use our referral code to get 25% off your first order: COOKWME-FD9OSA!
- If you want to give Shipt a try, use THIS LINK to get $10 off your annual membership!
Go on quicker, smaller grocery trips throughout the week. *
While it’s a good feeling to be stocked up on every ingredient I think I’ll need for the next week or two of meals and snacks, I have learned that, without fail, there will be several dishes I planned on making that I don’t get to. We both have really busy schedules and often, by the time we get home for the night, we don’t feel like cooking and end up making something quick or eating out. So, I’ve started buying ingredients for just a few meals, with the intention of stopping by the store in the middle of the week if I need to. Shopping trips don’t feel as daunting this way, because I know I won’t be doing a huge grocery haul—I’ll be in and out for just a few items.
*Note: I wrote this before the coronavirus pandemic and Shelter in Place orders and this tip is NOT the best to follow during this time! Please limit your grocery trips for the foreseeable future and instead, rely on a detailed list to shop from when you do go and/or consider grocery delivery services!
Grow your own food!
Growing fruits and vegetables yourself is therapeutic and good for the environment, and doing so will very likely encourage you to waste less since you’re putting a labor of love into caring for and harvesting the plants. Recognizing the time and effort that goes into anything certainly causes us to have more appreciation for it, and the act of growing our own food is no different. You don’t need a lot of land or a super green thumb to get a season full of fresh tomatoes, greens, and more—a few pots on your porch and a little research are more than enough to get you started!
Donate excess food to those in need.
If your garden is producing more than you can keep up with, or you discover that you’re more stocked up than you realized on canned or packaged goods, consider donating the extra to those in need. Contact your city’s local food banks, schools, churches, and non-profits to see if they know of any individuals or organizations that are in need of access to food.
Compost what’s not edible.
For bits of food you’d rather not eat, like banana peels, produce that’s gone bad, and things like leftover coffee grounds and tea leaves, consider composting! If you have room in your yard for a compost bin or pile, great! And if not, there are other options, too. You can easily find smaller compost bins that fit on your countertop or in your freezer and, in many areas, places to drop off your saved-up compost (if you’re local, the Fort Wayne Farmer’s Market has a community bin set up each Saturday) and compost pick-up services (Fort Wayne friends, consider Ground Down)!
I’d love to hear how you keep food waste to a minimum, and hope you find these methods helpful!
xo, Aly