Vintage Food Packaging

[Rallygirl]

I am pretty sure the world is ending! My hoarder MIL started cleaning her kitchen this afternoon. When I say hoarder, it is just like on television. I don't know what prompted this unexpected move, but she ordered a dumpster and it is now parked outside her back door.

I am excited not only to pitch crap out, but to see what we find tomorrow when I go to help. In 2010, we poked around a bit while she was gone for a weekend and we found spice tins from the 1950s and 1960s. There were piles of boxes and cans that are pre-UPC code. Tonight when we stopped by, I grabbed something from the "front" of the hoard and it was Rice-A-Roni that expired in 1987!

How exactly do I explain why I will want to keep packaging (sans contents) when we are encouraging her to throw almost everything out?

[Saroyan]

That's tough question.....maybe you can start a box for uh....recycling the card board!!

Any chance there are old toys buried somewhere????

[Rallygirl]

That's tough question.....maybe you can start a box for uh....recycling the card board!!

Any chance there are old toys buried somewhere????

We could use an entire truck for the card board. LOL
MIL might have few toys, but nothing that most folks here would want. She still buys Beanie Babies because she is sure they will make a comeback. And by "buy", I mean she has an entire wooden STORAGE SHED full of them.

My main concern is the kitchen, "food room" in the basement and the four chest freezers. I believe there is food in those freezers that is older than my husband. I just don't want her or us to ever die from food poisoning.

[Nostalgiabuff]

wow, sounds like my mom. she haords food like the great depression is coming. we always joke that when the zombie apocolypse comes we can eat at moms for a year without worrying about anything other than fod poisoning.

good luck with the cleanout

[HardyGirl]

With all the throwback packaging coming out these days, I tend to do the same thing. I've saved 2 Pepsi bottles and one can from the throwback editions. One Cap'n Crunch Peanut Butter cereal throwback box, and when I'm done w/ my throwback Doritos, I'm saving the packaging to that too. What can I say? It's the next best thing to a time machine when you have your vintage food packages and watching your vintage shows.

[UnderdogDJLSW]

^^ I have packaging I've kept from certain toys and certain cereal boxes, but things like the retro chip packages and all, if I get the urge to save, I satisfy it by taking a picture with my digital camera. Since there is no film to waste I take as many pictures and angles I would want of something and I am OK with that.

[Rallygirl]

Hair safely tucked under hat, boots on, gloves ready,....here I go! Wish me luck!

[Figuremod73]

Definately keep the old cereal boxes.

[kingdom warrior]

Horde nothing, Take a pic and throw it out. that is so unhealthy to keep stuff that has no value......boxes attract bugs.......

[JediJaida]

My mom has stuff in the pantry, mostly canned, that hasn't been eaten yet!

That kind of mentality goes back to the 1930's, when she was a kid and the Great Depression was still throttling the crap out of the world.

A lot of times, there wasn't enough to eat in the house, and in a house full of eight kids, her mother, plus all the pets, with only one adult working and the other only coming by once in a blue moon, it was difficult to say the least.

Although, we don't have anything from the 1980's still cluttering up the shelves. It's bad enough that we have stuff in the freezer that hasn't been eaten yet; we don't need boxed stuff that hasn't been devoured.

Did that person grow up back in the 30's and 40's? If so, that might be the answer to why she hoards food. As long as she had the physical presence of the food in her house, she could safely say that she wouldn't go hungry.

Of course, a lot of the food went bad, but logic rarely enters the picture with that kind of obsession.

[Rallygirl]

OMG! One very full dumpster; one kitchen emptied of expired food! Cupboards scrubbed and new food careful put in place. Ahhhhh,.....

As a compulsive neat freak, I have to say that this was the single most cathartic event of my entire life. There have never been enough things in my own house to pitch and toss like I did today. In all seriousness, I used three boxes of garbage bags ans still ran out.

I have a box of de-moused and emptied packaging sitting OUTSIDE my back door that now needs to be researched. More to come in a few days,...

[4NDR01D]

I look forward to seeing what you rescued.

[Saroyan]

That sounds like an epic event!! I don't think I've ever tossed out that much trash in one event- ever!

[Rallygirl]

For some reason (maybe nausea) I was not as intersted in the old packaging as I had imagined. But some of the more interesting finds,..

1. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ooze Flavored Gelatin
2. A four pack of specially boxed Jurassic Park Jello with dinosaur Jigglers cutters
3. Sue Bee canned chicken and dumplings with a metal "key" to open the can with an expiration date of (hang on) 1978
4. A few outlines of mice that had been flatten by falling cans
5. More pre-upc code items than you could shake a stick at

[livnxxxl]

Wowzers! That was a lot of stuff. You definitely had your work cut out for you there.

[MegoMark71]

holy crap 1978, you have done a good thing.

[Rallygirl]

Before I left Wednesday, I took all the new food and neatly organized it in MILs pantry. By the time I was done, with the exception of dairy, bread and meat, she easily could have been set for at least a year.

But, and you just knew there was one of those,....she called from the grocery store last night; she had locked her keys in the car. There she sat with TWO full shopping carts; easily $500 of food. Even though she could barely pay her property taxes Tuesday, she still has this insane need to buy, buy, buy and fill up the house. After growing up dirt poor, to her a full house means she must be rich

I know at her age, she will not change. She will probably die under piles of un-needed crap. Sigh,..