You don’t have to be parents to have a problem with remembering what you have in the freezer. How many times have you carefully packed some leftovers and put them in the freezer, neatly labelled with what it is and when you put it in there, only to come back 6 months later and not recognize it. Storing leftovers is a great idea, but remembering to use them is always a challenge.

Enter the simple solution. Remind yourself when to use your leftovers. If you don’t already have an online calendar, get one. Google Calendar is my favorite but there are plenty of other choices (online calendars). Once you have that its a breeze to keep track of your leftovers.

After you pack your leftover dinner and put it into the freezer, log into your calendar, go a couple of weeks into the future and set up a reminder to use your freezer supplies for dinner. Most online calendars have the ability to send you an email reminder, so set it your “appointment” for dinner time and then set the reminder for 2 hours before. That should give you plenty of time to defrost it. You can also set it to remind you the day before so you can move them to the fridge to defrosting.

This way you can use your leftovers in a timely manner and not have to worry about cooking dinner every night.