Remember when we mentioned that we were on a grocery shopping hiatus? The idea was to make a concerted effort to eat as much as possible that we already had in the fridge and the freezer so we didn’t have to worry about keeping things cold for the 6-ish hour delay between being out of our house and getting to move into our new one (which will hopefully still happen Monday afternoon assuming the bank stays on schedule with the transfer). Here’s what the fridge looked like just two weeks ago when we started:
And here’s what the fridge looks like now that it’s truck-loading day (after two weeks of eating some pretty “creative” meals to get rid of as much as possible):
Not too bad, right? Thanks to my borderline compulsive list making idea (detailed here), we managed to get down to just one carton of ice cream and one bag of edamame in the freezer and a few condiments along with a bit of bread, cheese, a few pickles, three yogurt cups and a few sticks of butter in the fridge. And we’ll probably eat the rest of the ice cream and those pickles today (no I’m not prego- promise). Thankfully everything else will easily slip into a small cooler that we’ll stick in the cold moving van so everything should travel really easily (as opposed to needing a bunch of larger coolers or hijacking John’s sister’s fridge for the day). Plus we saved some money by avoiding the grocery store. Most of all, we’re even more excited about moving into our new house now – because it means that we can go on a huge food shopping spree and eat normal meals again! Woot woot.
In my fridge the ice cream would have been the FIRST to go… not the last… that is impressive!
John’s an ice cream enthusiast (to say the least) so he has been rationing it like crazy. There’s just enough for us each to have a scoop tonight – so it probably won’t even make it into the cooler tomorrow morning!
xo,
s
GOOD LUCK MOVING!!! We attempted this when we moved, however we were too excited to move into our first home that we ate what we could and just packed it in reusable bags for the first load over to the new house! I can’t wait to hear how tomorrow goes and how excited you four are at being in your new HOME!! YAY!!!!!
Woo hoo a rare Sunday YHL post! Great work on the fridge. Good luck tomorrow with the double closing. Looking forward to witnessing your transition to the new home.
Good luck with the move!!! So excited to see the new place (and how you fix it up)!!
I’m impressed! Can’t wait to see the new house!
Keeping my fingers crossed for you . . . way to go with the fridge! Food is always one of the trickiest parts for me. Great job!
That’s amazing that you cleaned out so much just by EATING it. Good luck tomorrow!
Haha, I thought the same thing Liz did – we would’ve eaten the ice cream first. Anyway, good luck with the move and the closings!
Pickles & ice cream, eh!
Haha, too funny. No- I’m not preggers! Promise!
xo,
s
Mmm, what kind of ice cream do you have in there? hahaha
Chocolate something. I think it has marshmallows in it. It’s kind of “meh” which is why it was the last carton left. But it’s still better than eating sticks of butter or condiments…
xo,
s
WOW thats impressive!!
Very impressive! And yes I had to laugh when I saw pickles and ice cream…guess I wasn’t the only one to think about pregnancy cravings when I saw that. :) Good luck with your truck packing today! I can’t believe you’re posting in the middle of all the madness.
I cannot believe how quickly (reader’s time) your closing has come! It’s probably seemed like forever on your end!
Good luck and enjoy your first day in your new house!! So exciting!
Hoping we can get ours down so low, otherwise our neighbours will be getting the contents of our fridge/freezer. We will be having a couple of days (at least) without our stuff, so no taking any perishables.
I was thinking pregnancy too. Never been particularly fond of pickles though. My craving was for dried apricots.
Good luck moving. My hubby and I cannot wait to buy a house that we can do projects on together. In the meantime, we’re trying to fix up our condo for selling. Tried replacing a leaky toilet ourselves today (with your tutorial at hand). Unfortunately, we found out why it was leaking and it’s because the plastic ring at the base (around the flange) is cracked and rotting, but still very much attached to the PVC in the floor. Soooo…plugged it up and calling a plumber tomorrow. ::womp womp:: Better luck next time…
Great Job! Good luck today & tomorrow! (when do the computers get packed? lol)
At the last possible second of course! But then we still have my iPhone. Whew! Might go into withdrawal without that…
xo,
s
That’s pretty impressive. I probably would have given some stuff away, rather than eat strange ‘meals’. Good for you guys! Can’t wait to see the new house!!!
I’m so excited for your move tomorow!
Also, I’m headed to Richmond next weekend for a wedding. I’ve been reading your “Richmond Related” posts to get ideas if I have a bit of free time. Thanks for those!
Wow, you guys really are organized and disciplined! Have you arranged for your new fridge to be delivered tomorrow or Tuesday?
The new house’s appliances are conveying, so they’ll stay around for us (just like ours will stay with this house). We’ll probably eventually upgrade them to something more eco-friendly and updated after spending some time there, but only if there’s a sweet sale going on down the road.
xo,
s
If you guys lived here in Minneapolis, there’d be no need for a cooler. We got 20″ of snow yesterday (gorgeous) and it’s up to 8 degrees now.
Will be thinking of you all day tomorrow with fingers crossed for a speedy, seamless double transaction!
xox
Great job!!! Ha Ha I was going to comment on the first photo, about the ketchup. The bottle is the largest item in the fridge, on the first photo. ;-) THEN I saw how much you used out of it in the second photo. Ketchup, number one staple in our house too. I’m so excited for you kids, a new beginning. Jealous a bit, have to admit that. :-) I would LOVE to be moving into a new home. It is going to be such fun seeing the pictures of your new place, seeing your ideas on change. I can’t wait *well probably not as much as you can’t wait*. :-) Praying for D-Day to be MONDAY!!!! :-D
I know tomorrow will go well. I am so excited for you and can’t wait to see pictures from inside the new house. Good luck!
Great job! We did the same thing when we moved this summer…dinners sure get interesting with random food that’s in the fridge!
Are you going to tell us about some of those “creative” meals?
Eating through the food in the fridge is a good project for everyone! We have problems with food going bad, and having to throw things out.
Well, we’ve had everything from cereal to omelettes for dinner. And sometimes when there was only enough of one thing for one person we’d have the oddest mixed up meals (John might have a waffle with whipped cream while I eat two different kinds of soup with edamame).
xo,
s
Nice job cleaning out your fridge! We bought our house (and moved) in mid December too. But since we live in Minnesota, we didn’t have to worry about the food staying cold. The outdoors is like a giant freezer right now. :)
How in the world?! You guys must have been going out to eat sometimes!
We also had stuff in the pantry that we were eating (pasta, pancake mix, etc) and we forgot to snap a pic of the fridge initially (which had quite a bit of stuff to tide us over) so we actually didn’t eat out very often at all. We might have shared a sub once or twice for lunch while out running errands, but for the most part we just ate what we had!
xo,
s
That’s pretty good. Our closing was moved by a month and we able to move in a few days before closing due to that. Our lease was up and new tenets moving in so the seller allowed us to move into the house before the end of the month. But we have a chest freezer full (can’t pass on a good deal on meat. half a cow for less than $200) so we had to pack coolers full and plug the freezer in as soon as we got here.
That is some dedication!!! I tried doing that, just for financial issues, but it is hard! Plus, my parents buy meat by half a cow or pig, so we get part of those purchases.
Wow, impressive!
Not sure how often you guys are checking the blog now that it’s down to the last few moments before the move, so you may not see this until after – if you haven’t already seen this, it will either be a silly ‘warning’ for moving with Burger, or you can laugh over it when you’ve all settled in:
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/
(the first post should be ‘Dogs Don’t Understand Basic Concepts Like Moving’)
Good luck, and enjoy!
Can’t wait until the new house posts start popping up next week!
very impressive work on the fridge…. I just started reading your blog a week or two ago and I can’t wait to watch you move into this new house and make it yours. I recently moved myself and am getting inspired (and a little bit obsessive about catching up with all you’ve done so far!) :) good luck with the closing and moving!
The anticipation is overwhelming!!
Nicely done!
Thank you for a Sunday post. I was so excited to see it. You two are very inspiring in so many ways. I know everything will work out wonderfully tomorrow. Good luck and God bless.
This is a little off topic, but this post reminded that yesterday while I was shopping in my local Whole Foods supermarket, I noticed that Marmite in the sweeteners and spices section. Not sure if this is universal for the chain, but the next time your craving some, if there’s not some on the way from Australia, you might check there.
PS – Best of luck with the move and closing tomorrow!
So good to know! Apparently they sell it at World Market sometimes too. Yay! It’s catching on!
xo,
s
Yogurt with edamame stirred in for breakfast and lunch. Oh yes, and pickles! Here is hoping there are not glitches tomorrow. susan Getting snowed in here in the Ohio Valley.
Sorry not fridge related but I just wanted to say how excited I am for you both! My husband and I have just bought our very first house together and I cant wait to decorate it MY way!
Anyway, back to your fridge, well done! I would have cracked by now but the hubby could live off cereal and pizza delivery for weeks :P
I so wish I would have done this when we moved from Vegas to Denver, we had friends helping us move, so I boxed up SO MUCH FOOD and gave it to them!!
Can’t wait to see the new house!
Tomorrow is the big day! Yaye! I can’t wait to see empty house pics, and pics of the new place. I’m sure we’re all dying to see the new house. :)
Yaye! Hopefully your day goes smoothly!
That’s awesome! One less thing you have to worry about this week.
I have a 10 cubic foot fridge but I found that I am still wasting food so your original post inspired me to join your challenge in spirit – and I’m not even moving!
I am not on a quest to rid myself of the meat, ice cream or condiments but everything else is fair game.
The only thing I have allowed a shopping trip for is milk.
I haven’t been to the grocery store in over a week (except for the milk purchase) and I’m really enjoying the challenge!! Thanks for the inspiration!
Wahoo! You go girl. You can do it!
xo,
s
I’m all for compulsive list making! And I will help you eat that ice cream- yummy! Good luck with the move! So excited to see your new decorating adventures!
My friend has moved several times, and she always leaves a bottle of wine in the fridge for the new owners as a “welcome home” gift.
That’s so funny! We’re doing that too! The previous owner of this house left one for us four and a half years ago, so it seemed fitting to carry on that tradition (along with an envelope of all the manuals, paint colors and other house info with some toilet paper and paper towels). Here’s hoping the new owners have as much fun here as we have!
xoxo,
s
there is no way ice cream would have survived that long in my freezer!
Good luck tomorrow!
Good luck! and omg you totally beat me at the fridge game! I had a few salmon fillets and 4 bags of veggies left over… plus a giant bag of cheese. Luckily I pawned them off on a friend =)
Today I caught myself feeling sad about your current house and you guys saying goodbye tomorrow…
But then I got super excited and nervous about the closing and please someone tell me I’m not the only one having these feelings for houses that are not even mine!
Good luck tomorrow, guys!
Good luck trying to sleep tonight and with the closings and move tomorrow. Fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly. Assuming there will tweets/FB updates as the day progresses?!
Yes- there will definitely be tweets and facebook updates when we have internet access and aren’t in the moving van or the closing attorney’s office. Hoping all goes well and we have lots of good things to report!
xo,
s
It seems like I just read your post about house hunting and now it is done…you are moving! Is it odd that I’m feeling a bit sad and sentimental about this? ;) Good luck to the four of you tomorrow and I can’t wait to hear about your new adventures in home ownership!
Hope you enjoy your last night in your first home! Many wishes for a smooth move tomorrow!