A disorganized fridge can immediately become a big problem. A messy fridge can, naturally, threaten your health and budget, from forgotten leftovers to missing ingredients. The excellent news is that you can properly steer away from these troubles by using a number of 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, taking note of expiration dates, mold, or other signs of spoiled food as you go. Discard anything that is past the expiration date or looks spoiled. For leftovers or food in plastic storage containers, if you’re not absolutely sure how long it has been in there, throw it out. With regard to your food, it’s good to err on the side of caution.
With everything out of the fridge, take the time to clean its interiors thoughtfully. Wash and dry all surfaces, involving inside drawers and bins, using hot, soapy water or a mild bleach solution. In so doing, you can 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. Even though some 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 entail 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 valuable pointer is to use a dry-erase marker to write the dates of meals and takeout on the container. You could undertake 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 safeguard 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, primarily fruits, vegetables, and even small condiment jars, can be difficult and burdensome. Evaluate using clear storage bins to group loose items together to prevent clutter and properly ensure you have everything you’re in search of. Having said that, take into consideration purchasing 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, furthermore, 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 easily spoiled products so much lighter.
Develop a System
As you start replacing items, it’s relevant to develop a system for storing everything. This has two benefits: first, you will consistently know where things are, and second, it can make your food last longer and be safer. By way of example, always keep in mind that certain items should always be kept in certain places.
Meat should continually be kept on the lowest shelf to avoid dripping and contaminating other food. In addition, never store milk in the fridge door – it can spoil rapidly when exposed to warm air quite often. You can similarly separate your fruits and vegetables and use trays for those quite messy items to prevent spills.
Plan Ahead
As soon as your fridge is clean and organized, the principal thing you can act on is to plan to keep it that way. Even the most organized fridge will need to be totally cleaned up, and old items thrown out from time to time. Examine about creating a cleaning schedule to safeguard that your fridge stays organized. For instance, 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 doing this on a regular basis, you can avoid the dreaded deep-clean and purge of your fridge (and freezer), a job very few enjoy.
By conforming to this manageable tips and guidance, you can keep your fridge clean and organized week after week with less troubles and effort than you thought quite possible!
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