A disorganized fridge can immediately become a big problem. A messy fridge can, indeed, gravely threaten your health and budget, from forgotten leftovers to missing ingredients. The good news is that you can smoothly sidestep these potential risks by applying these proven yet 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. Attentively take everything out of the refrigerator, studying for expiration dates, mold, or other signs of spoiled food as you go. Remove anything that is past the expiration date or looks unpleasant. For leftovers or food in plastic storage containers, if you’re not obviously sure how long it has been in there, throw it out. As regards your food, it’s so much more preferable to err on the side of caution.
With everything out of the fridge, take the time to clean its interiors earnestly. Wash and dry all surfaces, including inside drawers and bins, using hot, soapy water or a mild bleach solution. In this sense, you will get started 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. Conceding that majority of 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’ll 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 very helpful tip is to use a dry-erase marker to write the dates of meals and takeout on the container. You could endeavor to do the same thing for other perishables inside of your fridge. By carefully noting both when you brought them home and when they need to be used, you can establish 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, like fruits, vegetables, and even small condiment jars, can be really difficult. Look into using clear storage bins to group loose items together to prevent clutter and completely make sure you have everything you’re actually looking for. Also, try to obain quality reusable food storage containers with tight-fitting lids. This can help you store food safely and reduce waste by reusing your containers over and over again.
You can additionally use a dry-erase marker on the bins and storage containers to keep track of the date things were procured. 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 items so much simpler.
Develop a System
As you initiate replacing items, it’s very important to develop a system for storing everything. This has two benefits: first, you will habitually know where things are, and second, it can make your food last longer and be safer. For instance, take note that specific items should definitely be kept in certain places.
Meat should always be kept on the lowest shelf to avoid dripping and contaminating other food. On the other hand, never store milk in the fridge door – it can spoil as quickly as possible when exposed to warm air rather often. You can, at the same time, separate your fruits and vegetables and use trays for these messy items to prevent spills.
Plan Ahead
Last but not the least, when your fridge is clean and organized, the core thing you can accomplish is to plan to keep it that way. Even the most organized fridge will need to be attentively cleaned, and old items thrown out often. Ponder on creating a cleaning schedule to establish that your fridge stays organized. For example, you could settle on a day of the week or month to go through everything, rotating and updating your fresh produce and wiping down fridge surfaces. By putting into effect this routine consistently, you can avoid the dreaded deep-clean and purge of your fridge (and freezer), a job very few truly enjoy doing.
By implementing these convenient tips and tricks, you can keep your fridge clean and organized week after week with less effort and stress than you thought plausible!
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