Things I Learned From Cleaning Out My Kitchen Cupboards

Well, here they are.  All dressed up and waiting for me to prepare something.  These are only the bottom cupboards, the ones that made my eyes hurt before I cleaned them out.  Since I don't wish to cause you any pain, I won't bother you with the before photos.  Trust me when I say it wasn't pretty.  The top right half was filled mostly with cereals.  The top left holds small appliances and such (stuff I don't need every day).  Yes, there is a middle up above the refrigerator.  That's where we keep our cookbooks.  There are twenty-seven of them, a collection of his and hers from over the years.  As I said, my husband likes to cook and he is quite good at it.  I've noticed, over the past year, our cupboards have transformed.  There are more whole wheat, whole grains, low sugar, 100 calorie, healthier products than there once were.
   Yesterday, when I began cleaning, I filled one of those large stretchy kitchen trash bags with things that had expired or things that weren't ever going to be used.  Today, I filled two more bags.
   In the process of doing this, I learned a few things.  One, spices do have expiration dates.  Well, most of them do.  Its funny, but when I mentioned to my husband that I was getting rid of old spices that had expired, he replied, "Don't forget.  We have to replace them."  I just smiled.  We don't need to replenish our stock in spices until we actually need them.  Otherwise, we become spice hoarders.  I mean, we had spices everywhere...in the cupboards, on the counter.  Tell me.  Why do we need five bottles of vanilla extract?  We don't.  We just need the foresight to inventory what we do have so, in the future, we don't over populate the cupboards with unnecessary items that only serve a purpose to deplete our wallet.  After all, we all know spices aren't cheap.  That spice inventory will be my next mission.  
  Two, if we aren't using it, why is it even in the cabinet?  I threw away three or four tubs of cake frosting today.  I can't remember the last time I baked a cake.  I rarely make desserts, but when I do, I either make trifle or dark chocolate brownies.  And my husband always makes his cookies from scratch.   Ah, now I understand the five bottles of vanilla extract.  The proverbial light goes on over my head.  I hope its at least energy smart (speaking of wallet depleting items).  : )
   Three, I need to do this more often.  In devoting the time to actually cleaning out our cupboards, I realized just how must we actually have.  It was just buried.  I can now imagine future meals with items I have discovered.  Instead of going out and buying cans of this and packages of that, I will use what I have first.  Of course, fresh is always best, but now I know what I have on hand.  It feels like I have found a map to what's in my kitchen cupboard.  You know what?  Its full of treasures.  When is the last time you checked yours?