Let's face it. Most of us cook a lot less in the summer. Who wants to heat up the house in the depth of the summer when there's a grill outside and so many yummy summer foods that require little to no stive time. That makes it an especially good time to do a bit of purging of your food stores.

An added bonus: This Saturday (May 10th) is the US Postal Service Food Drive. If you leave non-perishables by your mailbox, your mail carrier will collect and deliver them to a local food bank. Also, food banks tend to run very short during the summer months. The holidays with their infusion of food and cash are long past. And with kids out of school and not receiving subsidized breakfasts and lunches, the need is greater.

So, as part of your decluttering effort, go through those cabinets. Discard any cans that are misshapen or rusted. Anything that's been open for more than 6 months is likely no longer good, so that should be discarded as well. Be honest about what's left. If you aren't going to use those 5 cans of soup or the 3 bags of rice, donate them.

Separate out about a shelf's worth of food that you can use in the next 2 weeks. Make that shelf the starting point for your menu planning.

Reorganize whatever is left so that you know what you have and so that older foods are toward the front, more easily accessible. You want to use up oldest things first. Also,you might want to keep a general inventory of what you have to avoid duplications when you go grocery shopping. (Very few people need 3 partial bottles of soy sauce. Why buy a fourth because you can't find the first three?)

Who knows, maybe you'll even find some extra space to keep the food you'll can at the height of its flavor.