![]() ![]() ![]() When restocking your fridge, place newer items behind older ones you can also order them by expiration or best-by date. Do as many restaurants do and implement the "first in, first out" (FIFO) rule to ensure that perishable items are used before they expire. Keeping your fridge organized also means knowing what’s pushing the perishability limit. ![]() When cleaning your fridge, avoid harsh chemical solvents and use hot, soapy water to thoroughly clean every surface inside. Meanwhile, moldy food left in the fridge will produce spores and spread to other foods, hastening their decay. From a sanitation perspective, cleaning your fridge regularly decreases the potential for ingesting illness-causing bacteria, some of which still proliferate at fridge temperatures. Keeping a clean fridge will help you avoid food waste while freeing up space for fresh refrigerated items. Consider setting a reminder on your phone to clean out your fridge every two to three months, which has myriad benefits. (Remember, eggplants are better kept on a cool, dark countertop than at typical fridge temperatures.) Ethylene producers like apples and avocados, which prefer slightly lower humidity than many vegetables, still release ethylene at fridge temperatures, so store them separately from leafy greens, which prefer higher humidity and will wilt faster in the presence of ethylene. Generally speaking, fruits and vegetables are best stored in high relative humidity environments, though fruits can stand slightly drier conditions. More airflow, whether in a crisper drawer or produce bin, means less humidity less airflow means more humidity. If your fridge doesn’t have crisper drawers or humidity controls, you can buy produce bins with adjustable air vents in their lids that allow more or less air inside. Humidity controls in many fridges simply adjust the amount of fresh air that flows in or out. Store fruits and vegetables in designated drawers or crisper bins if your fridge has them, and adjust the drawers’ humidity settings accordingly. Group similar items together to keep your fridge organized and make it easier to find things, which will help to cut down on food waste and minimize the time spent with the fridge door open. (As one 2018 study on fridge design notes, “Little variation was found in the nominal storage temperatures among current refrigeration appliances.”) Your standard fridge is more like your standard oven-set to a single temperature but prone to fluctuations due to physics and individual design that you’ll discover with time. While an ideal refrigerator might have one very cold zone for meat and seafood and another, much warmer zone for citrus fruits and root vegetables that prefer cellar temperatures, most modern refrigerators don’t actually allow a lot of fine-tuning. I also used some plastic bins to separate the meat and cheese and adjusted the inside divider to hold the yogurt.That being said, however, your overall refrigerator temperature will vary depending on your temperature settings and the model of your fridge. Believe it or not, half of these items used to take up prime real estate in the main portion of the fridge. Bringing all the meat and dairy together has made things so much easier. The bottom drawer used to basically be the space where we stuck something if we didn’t have room for it elsewhere. And, because we plan our meals by the week (and I continually take visual inventory for side dish ideas if we have leftover produce), they typically don’t get over-filled. I keep my onions in the bag, still, and unless we get a huge mess of apples, I usually keep those stored in the fridge too (although, I don’t believe you’re supposed to □ ). Before I organized, I basically had both controls set in the middle- I know I’m not alone!Īdding plastic bins helps keep things sorted, especially if you aren’t using your plastic produce bags. Also, I’ve heard that in a lot of cases, plastic grocery store bags totally negate any humidity control so its best to store your produce out of the bags, when you can. (This means that your fruits and veggies may mix together). (seriously, people are SUPER vocal about this haha) Some things emit gasses and will ruin other produce, some things should be kept out of the fridge altogether… and while I don’t stick to any rule too much, the general guideline is that if it wilts, it needs high humidity if it rots, it needs low humidity. Produce drawers, humidity levels, and how your store your fruits and veggies is a hot point for a lot of people. ![]()
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