A disordered fridge can soon turn into a huge problem. From disregarded leftovers to missing ingredients, an unorganized fridge can pose a risk to your health and budget. The great news is that you can favorably avoid these problems by using a few simple organizational strategies. By keeping your fridge organized, you can utilize your available space and keep everything fresh and ready to eat.
Clean and Sort
The first step to organizing a fridge is to clean and sort all of your fridge items. Get everything out of the refrigerator, checking on expiration dates, mold, or other signs of spoiled food as you go. Eliminate anything that is past the expiration date or looks disgusting. For leftovers or food in plastic storage containers, if you’re not certain how long it has been in there, throw it out. When it comes to your food, it’s best to err on the side of caution.
With everything out of the fridge, take time to deep-clean your fridge’s interiors. Making use of hot, soapy water or a mild bleach solution, wide down and dry all surfaces, including inside drawers and bins. Thus, you will begin with a clean fridge for your new organization system.
Label Everything
The next move to an organized fridge is to maintain a list of how long your food has been there. Although countless pre-packaged foods will be accompanied with an expiration or sell-by date on them, for fruits and veggies or food that you take home or that is leftover from meals, you will need to have a system to keep track of when it was added to the fridge and when it will have to be thrown out.
One helpful pointer is to utilize a dry-erase marker to write the dates of meals and takeout on the container. You could accomplish the same thing for other perishables, using the inside of your fridge. By marking both when you brought them home and when they need to be used, you can better see to it that you are using up the groceries you buy before they spoil and avoid eating leftovers that can make you unwell.
Use Containers
Retaining and keeping loose items organized in a fridge can be difficult, particularly things like fruits, vegetables, and even small condiment jars. To evade clutter and be certain that you have everything you’re looking for at hand, think of taking advantage of clear storage bins to group loose items together. Take into account investing in some quality reusable food storage containers with tight-fitting lids. This can aid you when storing food safely and lessen waste by reusing your containers time and again.
You can likewise make use of a dry-erase marker on the bins and storage containers to keep track of the dates things were acquired. Having bins and storage containers in your fridge will clear space for larger items elsewhere and more simply track expiration dates of perishable items.
Develop a System
As you start replacing items, it’s essential to develop a system for storing everything. This has two benefits: first, that you will always easily be aware where things are, and second, that it can make your food last longer and make it safer. For instance, take notice that certain items should be kept in certain places.
Meat should always be kept on the lowest shelf to abstain from dripping and contaminating other food. Also, take note, never store milk in the fridge door – it can spoil quickly whenever it is frequently exposed to warm air. You can moreover separate your fruits and vegetables, and utilize trays for chaotic, messy items to stop spills.
Plan Ahead
When your fridge is clean and organized, the most significant thing you can do is to make a plan to keep it that way. Even the most organized fridge will need to be cleaned, and old items are thrown out occasionally. Think about developing a cleaning schedule to make it a point that your fridge stays organized. For example, you could choose a day of the week or month to go through everything, rotating and updating your fresh produce, and wiping down fridge surfaces. By doing this consistently, you can avoid the horrendous deep-clean and purge of your fridge (and freezer), a job very few like.
By observing these effortless guides, you can keep your fridge clean and organized week after week with less effort than you thought possible!
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