A disorganized fridge can rapidly become a big problem. A messy fridge can inevitably threaten your health and budget, from forgotten leftovers to missing ingredients. The amazing news is that you can aptly elude these complications by using just some 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. Heedfully take everything out of the refrigerator, ascertaining for expiration dates, mold, or other signs of spoiled food as you go. Take out anything that is past the expiration date or looks foul. For leftovers or food in plastic storage containers, if you’re not clearly sure how long it has been in there, throw it out. So far as it concerns your food, it’s correct to err on the side of caution.
With everything out of the fridge, take the time to clean its interiors thoroughly. Wash and dry all surfaces, enveloping inside drawers and bins, using hot, soapy water or a mild bleach solution. So by doing this, you will start up with 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. Though multiple 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 have got to have a system to keep track of when it was added to the fridge and when it will need to be thrown out.
One applicable recommendation is to use a dry-erase marker to write the dates of meals and takeout on the container. You could bring about 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 make sure 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, notably fruits, vegetables, and even small condiment jars, can be a headache. Think of using clear storage bins to group loose items together to prevent clutter and always make certain you have everything you’re searching for. Furthemore, try obtaining 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, over and above that, use a dry-erase marker on the bins and storage containers to keep track of the date things were gotten. 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 substances far easier.
Develop a System
As you get moving with replacing items, it’s important to develop a system for storing everything. This has two benefits: first, you will routinely know where things are, and second, it can make your food last longer and be safer. To cite an instance, consider that specific items should be kept in specific places.
Meat should consistently be kept on the lowest shelf to avoid dripping and contaminating other food. Aside from that, never store milk in the fridge door – it can spoil on the spot when exposed to warm air often times. You can, moreover, separate your fruits and vegetables and use trays for especially those messy items to prevent spills.
Plan Ahead
When your fridge is clean and organized, the vital thing you can work on is a plan to keep it that way. Even the most organized fridge will need to be properly cleaned, and old items are thrown out periodically. Think about creating a cleaning schedule to always make sure that your fridge stays organized. As a sample, you could single out a day of the week or month to go through everything, rotating and updating your fresh produce and wiping down fridge surfaces. By implementing this at regular times, you can avoid the dreaded deep-clean and purge of your fridge (and freezer), a job very few delight in.
By heeding these straightforward tips, you can keep your fridge clean and organized week after week with less hard work than you thought more likely!
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Originally Published on Nov 12, 2021
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