It is easy to identify the blatant and wanton expenses in our lives ...buying the gourmet coffee when you could have made coffee at home, dining out multiple times per week, not shopping the sales. But, did you know that a great money pit is sitting unobtrusively in the middle of your own home?

A pantry that is unorganized and ignored can be a source of great waste in your family. Have you ever purchased cans of this or that only to find that you have the same things sitting on your pantry shelves rotting? You will never be able to find them if you don’t clean the pantry and take stock of what you have. Besides the financial benefits, it just feels good to organize your living space.

Cleaning the pantry can be likened to cleaning the closet. All of a sudden, there are so many more outfits to wear – items that you had long forgotten are brought to light. There were quite possibly some items with tags still on them. How could you have forgotten that adorable shirt that you just had to have? The same way that you forgot about the yeast you bought to bake brown bread, the tomato paste you bought to make homemade tomato sauce, and the cranberry sauce that you stocked up on during the Thanksgiving season. They were shoved to the back of your pantry and are now hidden by new items that have more relevance to your life now.

Follow these steps for a clean, well-organized pantry that you can’t wait to cook from!

1. Clear: Take everything off of the shelves – absolutely everything. Place everything on your tables and/or countertops. The main purpose is to be able to really see what you have – hang on to your hat. There may be some surprises!

2. Consider: Check expiration dates on everything – even canned goods expire. If you have spices that have been “camping out” in your pantry for a while, keep in mind that they lose their flavor when they get old – generally a few months after they are exposed to air. While old spices won’t make you sick, they start to taste bad or lose their flavor altogether, so it gets more difficult to judge amounts for recipes.

3. Clean: Clean the shelves of your pantry and scrub off the gritty old sugar, flour, and maple syrup that might be sticking to the shelves. Then, fill a bucket with hot water and soap and rinse the bottoms of jars that were sticking to those shelves. If you don’t want to touch it, chances are, you won’t want to cook with it!

4. Condense: Organize the food items that you want to keep by condensing like items and placing them in stackable plastic containers. All of those packages of pasta that you had spread out across the pantry ...place them in a pasta container. Put all of the baking items – baking powder, yeast, and baking soda ...in another container. Cake decorations, tubes of frosting, sprinkles, and birthday candles also go in their own container.

5. Classify: Label your containers (and if need be, put purchase dates on the items inside those containers) so that there is no need to open each container and dig to find your items. You may also organize items by cooking type or packaging type: all canned goods on one shelf, cereal boxes on another, and so on. Don’t forget to mark the expiration date of canned goods on the bottom of the can with a black permanent marker. Estimate the purchase date if necessary. If you think it may be older than one year, throw it out! Also, use the grocery store method of rotation by putting older items in the front and new items in the back, so that there is less waste by using items before they expire.

6. Cook! Now that you can see what you have, hopefully you will be inspired (and well-armed) to cook all of those recipes that you had planned on making. And if you need a bit more inspiration...

Take Palenque’s Pantry Challenge!

Cook from your pantry using only ingredients that you find there, before buying any more. Oh, it will be easy for the first few days – but inevitably it gets more difficult. Include your refrigerator and freezer in the challenge and clean those out as well. Make a commitment not to buy anything until you have used everything from your pantry. Get creative, and use the experience as a chance to try recipes that you normally wouldn’t try.

Set a definite time to end the challenge – whether it is seven days, ten days, two weeks – every family is different; depending on how large your pantry is, whether you stockpile perishables in supplemental freezers in the garage, and how many meals your family normally eats at home. After the time period has ended, either dump or donate the items that remain.

Remember those stuffed pimentos that you thought were a good idea last year? How about the canned fruit that you bought for that summer fruit salad that never happened? If the only issue is that you know you may never use them, then donate them to your local food bank. There are families out there – many in our own community – who desperately need what is collecting dust in your pantry. The Foothills Food Bank  (www.foothillsfoodbank.com; 480.488.1145) is always anxious for donations, especially lately as they have recently reported that they have experienced an “unprecedented need” for emergency food supplies and financial assistance during the economic downturn.

Turn your pantry into a source of wellness and inspiration in time for Spring. Remember to perform periodic maintenance on your pantry. You will be surprised by the multitude of benefits!