Dots on Top

When my children were small and anxious to be of help, I came up with a way of rotating our food supply. I put colored self-adhesive dots on the top of each bottle or can—the same color for an entire year. Each year we change colors, and I post a chart in our storage area as well as inside a kitchen cupboard with a key showing what year each color represents. When the children were small, I could ask them to bring me a can or bottle with a green dot on it, for example. As they grew older, they would know to choose bottles and cans with a certain colored sticker on them.

This system helps us rotate foods without worrying that some items might be sitting in storage too long. Each year we try to rearrange our shelves, and the colored dots help us quickly pull older items to the front. This has been especially useful in rotating our home-canned fruits and vegetables.—Denise Cook, Richfield, Utah