"Its ALIVE!!!"

The past several years I have been arguing with my mom over the amount of food that is lying wasted on our counters and especially in our fridge..in fact at one point we had two full fridges of food (why may you ask? hmmm I will never know) Having food is definitely taken for granted in these parts of the world and so the idea of throwing away food doesn't come naturally to my mom (or grandma for that matter). Me on the other hand can't stand food that has been sitting for what could have been years even if it is in preservatives and is in a fridge (or freezer, as my mom has kept Indian sweets from my grad party which was in JUNE!!!) My philosophy: Left overs and anything homemade should not be kept longer than 2-3 days (1 day if its restaurant). Food has expiration dates for a reason....its not good after a certain time in which one must chuck it. I don't care if there isn't any mold or if it still smells fresh, once the date has arrive and gone its tossed (i think i get that from my days working in the food business). So with this in mind I went about one of the grossest, and smelliest jobs i have ever worked on...the FRIDGE!!! (well and the cabinets too). Now mom if you are reading this, don't freak out, i didn't touch any of the Indian food stuff and the Indian cupboards...just everything else. I have to say i thought the earliest stuff found would be around '07 or even '06 however i found food dating back to '05 and '04. I found medicine from '96 all the way in the back of the medicine cabinet and two gummy bear vitamin bottles which were the loveliest color of...black! 6 hours of breathing "moldy fumes" and 5 bags of trash later I had made some progress...counter and cabinets cleaned and arranged and the fridge section cleaned...it actually looks like there isn't any food in the house (oh but there is food). I still haven't taken care of the freezer yet but i have my reservations as grandma has her special herbs which look questionable to me so hopefully there never is a warrant to search our house..(don't worry its NOT what you think!). This experience of cleaning the kitchen was interesting as now with all the food gone, there is more incentive to eat what is in the cupboards before venturing out to get more food or ordering out (which we haven't done much in the last couple of weeks). Well now that the kitchen is all cleared out there is only one thing to do....grocery shopping!!!