Zero Waste Week – Day 1 Challenge: Eat Me First Shelf
Happy Monday and more importantly; happy Zero Waste Week! Today it all kicks off; with an idea I have been a fan of. since I first heard of it on Lifehacker, the “eat me first” shelf.
The Challenge: Create an “Eat Me First” Shelf
If out of sight is out of mind; layout is a clear and present concern when it comes to food expiry. Today, we want to do something about that. One tried, tested and true way of achieving this, is to structure the fridge in a way that puts the food that most needs using both front and centre. This is the “eat me first” shelf.
By creating specific space for food more prone to waste with a clearly defined concept (eat me first); you encourage a different approach to food consumption in your home.
Today’s challenge is to do just that!
Challenge: Head to the fridge and dedicate space for the food that needs using first
Why not give it a go? You can head over to ZWW for more in-depth info on how to kick off; however, the starting point is simple enough.
One Thing Though…
The best advice I can give is to be realistic with expectations of your shelf and its purpose.
A great thing about the EMF shelf is that it is useful on multiple levels. Whilst you would hope that it is an immediate success, it might not be and that’s OK. Sometimes, it can take a little while for new grazing habits to set in and the adoption rate might not be what you’d want but don’t let that get you down. If that’s the case, keep using it yourself; the shelf is still useful for your own grazing, meal planning and noticing patterns in how food is (and is not) used in your refrigerator. After all, being aware is just as useful to eliminating food waste as being practical.
Do what you can and then what you do, will do.
The Busy Papa
Also known as Aaron, The Busy Papa focuses on lifestyle, parenting and personal wellbeing content. He has two decades experience in creative writing (including several published poems) and strongly dislikes (though tolerates) tomatoes.
I totally agree, to make sure you don’t set expectations too high. Remembering that every bit of food saved counts is really important. Talking to others in the house about what it is all about. It will be hard to get everyone on board straight away. I know from bitter experience! I’ve done this for a friend and it wasn’t long before my shelf was packed full of new stuff and my label was languishing on the floor. So, yes, you may have to try it, talk about and then gently try again (and maybe even again!) – protect your “shelf-esteem”, pat yourself down, clean up your label, and keep trying. Rest assured, it is worth the gentle coaxing as it is a surefire way to reduce waste. Good luck with your Eat Me First to you and your readers.
Thank you very much! 🙂
We look each day and see what needs using up first, then we plan our dinner around this. I find it much easier to shop for one week at a time and keep the rest of our supplies quite minimal to ensure we always use all our food each week. Luckily if we do have a little oversight and some waste, we grow our own veg and add the food to our composting bin, so it never really feels totally wasted 🙂
That’s awesome! You’re doing amazingly.
The eat me first shelf is a great idea – I never though about it. I use an Oddox delivery box which makes meal planning hard but I work around this. I actually enjoy getting creative with bits and pieces of food that needs to be used up.
I’ve never used Oddox before. Since this message though FB and Twitter have filled with adverts for it, which is funny… sort of 😀