YES! Early elementary children are learning to read and can find those dates better than you. Like cleaning out their closet, this is a very healthy task to learn early. Let them fully participate in this process.

You don’t even need a game to play ahead of time. It is a real-life game. It takes a good conversation to learn the rules to follow. But, once they learn it, you will have fresh things in your fridge as long as they are at home. Also, this is a great time to help them understand the shelf life of food. (See our Shelf-Life Guide to print out and keep on the fridge.)

You don’t need to overthink this; you need consistency. Start by working together. It is a good time to pull out things and put them on the counter. It might be best to work in sections. You can also choose to wipe out the sections with a Clorox wipe or a rag with spray on it. But, if that feels too overwhelming, just work on CLEARing, not CLEANing, because your child is not to that stage yet, and you don’t have to do everything in one day. You can only eat an elephant one bite at a time.

I suggest doing this together each week on Trash Day Eve. It takes a few iterations and discussions about leftovers, meat, and produce. Condiments are a little easier as they have a date. Perhaps you want them to stick with things that have a prominent date for a while, and you handle the rest. However, don’t get lulled into thinking that you must always do this job. You can train them to do it and do it well. It just may take a few weeks or months to master the art.