As the end of the academic year approaches, it’s time to start thinking about moving out. Whether you’re in a college dorm or off-campus housing, you’ll need to start packing and hauling your things off for the summer. Besides all your personal belongings, you’ll also need to clear out your kitchen: whether that’s your mini fridge or pantry. It can be tempting to just trash all of your ingredients, groceries, and snacks — but that’s definitely not sustainable. In fact, a 2026 study showed that food waste makes up 33% of the total waste produced in higher education institutions. This amounts to a total of 22 million pounds of food per year. Here’s how to clean out your kitchen to help lower these numbers and minimize food waste.
Take inventory.
The first step of cleaning your kitchen out should be taking stock of what you have. The earlier you do this, the better. If you wait until the last minute to clean out your cabinets and fridge, you’re left with less time to sustainably distribute your food products. Get a head start on moving out and start going through your food stock as soon as possible.
Check to see what food is still edible. This includes foods that are unopened, or anything that’s opened but is still good and not past its expiration date. Make sure you separate what is expired or not edible and toss it in the trash. The goal is always to reduce food waste, but if the food is unsafe to eat, there’s no choice but to throw it away. Once you have a clear picture of what food products you’re working with, it’ll make your next steps easier.
Sharing is caring.
Have any snacks or ingredients that you know you’re not going to get around to eating? Any extra bags of chips or still full condiment bottles? Consider asking your roommates, neighbors, or friends if they would want them. The easiest way to avoid food is waste by passing on your unwanted goods to people who will get use out of them.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane emissions from landfilled food waste are increasing. Methane emissions are a significant contributor to global warming, air pollution, and rising sea levels. The greenhouse gas emissions that occur due to wasted food ending up in landfills is equivalent to the amount produced by more than 50 million gas-powered vehicles. By opting to hand over your unwanted food to a friend instead of throwing it in the trash, you’re doing your part to help reduce methane emissions from landfills.
Use up your ingredients.
If you have a few days until move out, now is your opportunity to get creative with your remaining ingredients. Instead of ordering takeout or going to the dining hall, try your best to use up the last of your food. Whether that’s heating up frozen meals or making a concoction with your last edible ingredients, using up what you have left is a sustainable way to make sure your food doesn’t go to waste.
College move out is the perfect excuse to make a kitchen sink meal: a dish that combines a wide variety of ingredients with the purpose of using them all up before they go bad. Kitchen sink meals are meant to minimize food waste — and the great thing about them is that you can use any ingredients you have available.
TikToker Erin Maire gained popularity for her weekly kitchen sink sandwiches, where she puts together about-to-expire ingredients into a sandwich to create surprising flavor combinations. You would never think to put kiwi, pomegranates, and honey dijon potato chips into a sandwich, but Erin proves that even the most unlikely of pairings can taste good. If you’re left with random leftover produce and condiments, try making your own kitchen sink sandwich, bowl, or salad: you never know what delicious combination you’ll discover.
Don’t purge.
You don’t need to get rid of everything. If there’s room in your luggage, consider bringing back snacks, unfinished ingredients, and condiments for the summer. It can be tempting to just want to purge your entire kitchen and throw out all of your unfinished items, but this only contributes to the issue of food waste. The EPA has found that when food is unnecessarily wasted, you’re also wasting the water, fertilizers, and energy it took to make it as well. Think about that the next time you consider throwing out a half empty bottle of ketchup or an unfinished box of pasta.
Donate to your school’s food pantry or local food bank.
For all of your food products that you can’t find a purpose for or a friend to pass them onto, consider donating to your college’s food pantry. According to the Government Accountability Office, 23% of college students faced food insecurity in 2020 — that’s 3.8 million students across the country. If you have anything that’s non-perishable and unopened, your school’s food pantry will most likely accept it — and you’d be helping out some fellow college students. Some common accepted items include grains (boxes of pasta, bags of rice, and cereal), canned goods (soup, beans, vegetables, fruit, and sauce), and snacks (pretzels, granola bars, and nuts).
If your college doesn’t have a food pantry, or you have enough items to make another donation, consider local food pantries/banks in your community. Websites such as foodfinder.us can help you locate food pantries and banks near your college that you can donate to.