Al Roker is ready to ditch the clutter in 2023.
Like many of us, the TODAY weatherman decided to kick off the new year by tackling an organizing project at home, and it looks like he took his job pretty seriously.
This week, Al shared a photo of his newly organized kitchen pantry and revealed what inspired him to take on the project.
"This morning, with a nudge from @debrobertsabc I got up early and went through our pantry to reduce clutter and get rid of expired cans and bottles," he wrote on Instagram.
Al, who will return to TODAY this Friday after facing medical issues over the last few weeks, didn't share a before photo, but he did post a side-by-side look at the results, and his decluttering game is pretty on point, if you ask us.
One side of the spacious pantry features six shelves filled with everything from condiments and oils to sauces and soups. Meanwhile, the other side was stocked with teas/coffees, snacks, peanut butter and more.
To keep things tidy, Al pulled out plenty of organizing tricks like shelf risers, tiered shelving units and clear/labeled containers for foods like cereal and rice.
You never know what you're going to find when you organize a pantry, and Al quickly discovered some foods that were long past their expiration date.
"Not proud but more than a few were dated 2019!!" he wrote in the caption.
As it turns out, he's not alone, and many of the weatherman's followers chimed in in the comments section to share their own organizing stories.
“2019 is basically fresh compared to our spice drawer,” NBC News correspondent Jacob Soboroff replied.
"I did the same in Dec and found plenty of cans and such that expired in 2019 as well😵💫 and spices and bread crumbs that smelled like cardboard," commented Food Network personality Sunny Anderson.
One of Al's followers had food that was almost a decade old in their pantry. "I found a can from 2014!" they wrote. Another commented, "Omg! Two 2019’s and a 2015! #embarrassed."
Many people could totally relate to Al's clutter conundrum and one of his followers even said they wished their husband would listen to their organizing requests. "Can @debrobertsabc call my husband and nudge him😂," they wrote.
Expiration dates can be quite confusing, so if you're planning to your own pantry purge this month, you might want to think twice before you throw something out.
In October, TODAY spoke with Susan Mayne, Director, FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, about some best practices for handling those confusing expiration dates.
“A product can be beyond the ‘best if used by’ date and still be safe and of appropriate quality for consumers to use,” she said, adding that many labels only refer to the peak freshness of a product.
So, long story short, it doesn't necessarily mean that something is dangerous to eat just because it has passed its "best by" date.
“It really means that this is a quality date and not anything that you can’t consume a product after that. And knowing when a product is at its best quality, it’s not really an exact science,” she said.
As a good backup, Mayne suggests looking at a food's consistency, texture or smell before eating it.