A disorganized fridge can swiftly become a big problem. A messy fridge can, as a matter of fact, threaten your health and budget, from forgotten leftovers to missing ingredients. The best news is that you can suitably eliminate these potential risks by using proven simple organizational strategies. Keeping your fridge organized makes the most of your available space and keeps everything fresh and ready to eat.
Clean and Sort
The first step to organizing a fridge is cleaning and sorting all your items. Watchfully take everything out of the refrigerator, checking for expiration dates, mold, or other signs of spoiled food as you go. Discard anything that is past the expiration date or looks grubby. For leftovers or food in plastic storage containers, if you’re not firm about how long it has been in there, throw it out. Referring to your food, it’s better to err on the side of caution. With everything out of the fridge, take the time to clean its interiors meticulously. Wash and dry all surfaces, also including inside drawers and bins, making use of hot, soapy water or a mild bleach solution. That way, you will kick off to a clean fridge for your new organization system.
Label Everything
The next step to an organized fridge is to keep an inventory of how long your food has been there. While, indeed, countless pre-packaged foods will come with an expiration or sell-by date on them, for fruits and veggies or food that you bring home or that is leftover from meals, you need to develop a system to keep track of when it was added to the fridge and when it will need to be thrown out.
One helpful way is to use a dry-erase marker to write the dates of meals and takeout on the container. You could easily do the same thing for other perishables inside of your fridge. By noting both when you brought them home and when they need to be used, you can always see to it that you are using up the groceries you buy before they spoil and avoid eating leftovers that can make you sick.
Use Containers
Keeping loose items tidy in a fridge, basically fruits, vegetables, and even small condiment jars, can be tiring and difficult. Examine using clear storage bins to group loose items together to prevent clutter and make certain you have everything you want and are looking for. Equally, consider buying quality reusable food storage containers with tight-fitting lids. This can help you store food safely and reduce waste by reusing your containers often.
You can additionally use a dry-erase marker on the bins and storage containers to keep track of the date things were brought in. Using bins and storage containers in your fridge will free up space for more oversized items elsewhere and make tracking the expiration dates of perishable foods worry-free.
Develop a System
As you start replacing items, it’s pertinent to develop a system for storing everything. This has two benefits: first, you will certainly always know where things are, and second, it can make your food last longer and be safer. As a sample, take into consideration that particular items should be kept in certain places.
Meat should, each time, be kept on the lowest shelf to avoid dripping and contaminating other food. Then, never store milk in the fridge door – it can spoil instantly when exposed to warm air very often. You can likewise separate your fruits and vegetables and use trays for disorderly and messy items to prevent spills.
Plan Ahead
If your fridge is clean and organized, the crucial thing you can comply with is a plan to keep it that way. Even the most organized fridge will need to be scrubbed and cleaned up, and old items thrown out at times. Just think of creating a cleaning schedule to always properly ensure that your fridge stays organized. To show you an instance, you could select a day of the week or month to go through everything, rotating and updating your fresh produce and wiping down fridge surfaces. By endeavoring to do this at regular times, you can avoid the dreaded deep-clean and purge of your fridge (and freezer), a job very few like.
By implementing these simple and practical tips, you can keep your fridge clean and organized week after week with less exertion than you thought probable!
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Originally Published on Nov 12, 2021
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