Spring Cleaning Continued

Part of the diet vigil includes knowing what is going into my mouth at all times. I have already cleaned out the sodium laden canned goods and sugar based products to be on this diet. The other day, I wrote about dumping old lipstick. Today, let’s focus on the really scary stuff—the things in the kitchen.

Be honest, when did you last go into the cupboards and dump old spices? The refrigerator and dump barbeque sauce or mayonnaise?

Within my tradition of January and June cleaning, I need to attack the stuff normally ignored—the pricey items we buy for one purpose leave to sit for years in the cupboard. At $3.95 to $9.00 a bottle, spices are held in protective custody to be utilized when and if another recipe calls for it, which by-the-way usually doesn’t happen within the same year.

Let’s talk pumpkin spice. Have some? When did it get purchased? And when was the last time you used it? Exactly, I don’t remember either. I look at spice jar after spice jar unsure as to its age, my eyeballs skewed trying to read the tiny use-by-date stamped on the jar.

Take a look in my spice rack. Allspice used it last spring for a carrot cake recipe. Dump. Arrowroot—Chinese food last week. Friday taco night used Cayenne pepper and Chile powder. Cinnamon, cloves and ginger in all the Christmas desserts. Caraway seeds went into Irish Soda bread made special for Pastor Murphy in September. Ground coriander…hmmm…coriander. I’m not sure what recipe used coriander. Uh. Dump. And so on…

Now when I say dump, I mean take the contents of the spice jar and dump the contents, carefully clean the jar keeping the label pristine, then when you need the spice buy it in bulk or loose—twice a year—January and June. Health food stores, herb shops, Mexican groceries, Chinese stores and farmer markets sell spices in plastic packages or bulk at a fraction of the price of those bottled spices.

You can purchase fresh herbs like thyme, dill, and bay leaf in your grocery store. Fresh is good tasting and good health. If you are feeling particularly farmer-like you can pick up an herb-dish-garden at the local nursery or hardware store. My cousin Thia grows her own salsa garden—tomatoes, tomatillos, peppers, onions, cilantro, and garlic. Thia comes from Minnesota which explains her cultivation obsession.

Next walk over to that refrigerator. Take a look at those condiment jars. What do you think grows in them after a month or two? When my husband’s best friend, Spyros lived with us, he purchased different sauces and toppings every week. He liked to experiment with flavor. After a few months I couldn’t figure out what was old and what was new. To solve the problem, I dated the bottles as to the month they were opened then threw away anything over six months old.

I now toss anything over one month old. Mayonnaise-based products are dumped after one week. I’m afraid of food poisoning.

Food, like makeup or anything else for that matter, should be purchased as you need it, stored sealed, then dumped in a reasonable length of time after it’s been opened. This is simple common sense my foremothers taught me.

Happy Spring Cleaning!

January Spring Cleaning

Every January and June, I have a ritual that could be called spring cleaning. I throw away make-up, cleaners, paints, and other stuff that can go-south after a while. Why those two months? Well January is a down month. It’s after Christmas. I’m too broke to go anywhere and the weather is usually pretty awful. June is six months later and my birthday. To me, this makes sense.

It started in my teens. I watched some daytime show after school. A doctor told the audience about the bacteria, germs, and crawly things that grow on your eye liner and icky things that happen to the makeup and powder. Six months was the limit on those items according to the forgotten doc.

I’m not a big make-up user—foundation, lipstick, highlighters, powder, and occasional use of perfume. I care that the items are fresh and relatively bug free. My extra cosmetics are kept in the refrigerator. Only the current products are in my bathroom cabinets and purse. Every six months the old stuff gets tossed then I replenish my shelves.

The same logic gets applied to hair brushes, hair spray, shampoos, conditioners, cleaning products, paints, and so on. It may seem like a waste of money but really this is economical. First, I only buy products that I will use over a six month period. I know women with forty tubes of lipstick. I have three—two different colors in the bath and one in my purse.

I also know what kind and shade of foundation I use and how often. I use a bottle of makeup every forty-five days or four bottles per six month period. So I go online look for the best price and buy four bottles of my favorite brand. One goes in the bath and the rest in the refrigerator. I actually save about $6 a bottle that way. Nail polish is the same. I bring my polish to the beauty shop, when I have the luxury to go, because I want the freshest products on my hands and toes.

Since I have been on this crazy diet, I have been reading articles, books, and magazines about the raw food experience. One lady has given up shampoo altogether to lessen the amount of chemicals in her life. I currently keep two different shampoos and conditioners in the bath. She is using baking soda to wash her hair followed by a white vinegar rinse. Although skeptical at first, she swears her hair texture has improved plus she is saving a fortune in hair products. I like the idea but I haven’t figured out how to store baking soda in the shower. Somehow it is going to get soggy don’t you think?

Everything has a shelf life except maybe plastic. So it makes sense to me to keep products in my home that are at the peak of their usefulness. By dumping old products and starting fresh there is a time to understand the value of things around me and the need to use what I purchase—limit my waste or as in the current vernacular, my carbon footprint.

Does anyone know the shelf life of shoe polish?