I used to have food pile up in my refrigerator that might have been fresh enough to eat — or it might not have.  I wasn’t ever quite sure, because once it was more than a day or two old, I couldn’t remember if it was three days old or three weeks old.  So it would end up getting thrown away, even though some of it may have still been edible.

Finally, I decided this was ridiculous, and stashed a Sharpie in the kitchen drawer.  When I open something — a jar of spaghetti sauce, a container of yogurt, whatever — I can use the Sharpie to write a date on the container.  Then I can tell at a glance how old something is.

Leftovers are a bit trickier.  I haven’t managed to find a one-step process.  I tried a grease pencil.  That probably would have worked very nicely on glass leftover containers (which I should probably be using, but which are both expensive and readily breakable), but they’re pretty mediocre on plastic.  What does work is Sharpie on a little piece of masking tape, but then you have to tear off the masking tape, stick it on, label it, and peel it off to throw it away when you don’t need it any more.  Ultimately not really a big deal, but enough to make me less likely to remember to do it every time.

For leftovers, it works better for us to have a “leftover” night once a week (I’ve discovered that this works nicely for errand day when I don’t want to have to come home and cook at the last minute) and clear them all out then.  That way I know that none of the leftovers are more than a week old.

A Sharpie in the kitchen works for me.