A disorganized fridge can hastily become a big problem. A messy fridge can unavoidably threaten your health and budget, from forgotten leftovers to missing ingredients. The amazing news is that you can readily elude these risks by implementing some practical and 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. Properly remove everything out of the refrigerator, considering expiration dates, mold, or other signs of spoiled food as you go. Take out anything that is past the expiration date or looks somewhat gross. 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 right to err on the side of caution.
With everything out of the fridge, take the time to clean its interiors deliberately. Wash and dry all surfaces, plus those inside drawers and bins, using hot, soapy water or a mild bleach solution. In this connection, you can start 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 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 useful recommendation is to use a dry-erase marker to write the dates of meals and takeout on the container. You could certainly do the same thing for other perishables inside of your fridge. By attentively 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 want. Furthermore, try buying quality reusable food storage containers with tight-fitting lids. This can help you store food safely and reduce waste by reusing your containers frequently and repeatedly.
You can furthermore 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 merchandise so much simpler.
Develop a System
As you get moving and replacing items, it’s really important to develop a system for storing everything. This has two benefits: first, you will constantly know where things are, and second, it can make your food last longer and be safer. Specifically, keep in mind that some specific items should be kept in certain places.
Meat should always intervals be kept on the lowest shelf to avoid dripping and contaminating other food. Besides that, never store milk in the fridge door – it can spoil easily when exposed to warm air so many times. You can additionally separate your fruits and vegetables and use trays for all messy items to prevent spills.
Plan Ahead
In case your fridge is clean and organized, the paramount thing you can actualize is to plan to keep it that way. Even the most organized fridge will need to be properly cleaned, and old items thrown out every now and then. Reckon creating a cleaning schedule to always make sure that your fridge stays organized. For 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 doing this routinely, you can avoid the dreaded deep-clean and purge of your fridge (and freezer), a job very few actually like doing.
By heeding these straightforward tips, you can keep your fridge clean and organized week after week with less stress and effort than you thought possible!
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