When your kids start leaving home you slowly begin to notice the small changes. There are fewer clothes to wash, more leftovers in the fridge, less noise. But when the last one leaves you really begin to notice things, things that no one tells you about.

We are down from doing laundry all day Saturday and a few loads during the week to only 3 loads a week. We need to clean the bathroom less often. There are fewer dishes to wash. The house is much quieter. We eat a little healthier, a little lighter and our meals are simpler. But the biggest change was something I noticed just last week. I had made a simple cake, we had eaten a couple pieces, some of the kids had come by and eaten some, and still 1/3 of the cake sat there long enough to grow mold. Then I got to looking around, 1/2 loaf of bread was turning green, a bagel had seen much better days and a couple oranges were beyond hope. What was happening!

There are just two of us living and eating in our house now and we need to do things very differently or our food budget is literally going in the garbage. We can’t take a loaf of homemade bread out of the freezer unless we plan on eating it right away. We have to plan on freezing bagels separately and make only desserts that can be halved or only make them when we have company. This may be too much work!

Everyone talks about getting used to being alone, the silence of the house, the basic changes we all go through as our kids leave home, but no one talks about the food! It’s nice to save a little on the grocery bill but how much am I saving if I throw half of it away! There should be some kind of hand book about becoming empty nesters, some kind of guide a how to of grocery shopping and food storage. There should be a support group of people who can help you figure out how not to throw away half your food! How about a meal plan for beginner empty nesters. How about a food service that delivers only what you can eat in a day or two.

Empty nesters unite! We can help each other! No more waste should be our creed….well at least we can help each other be aware.