Organizing tip Tuesday: The fridge
Do you purchase bags of nice organic lettuce, only to find excavate them 3 weeks later as a slimy mess? Yeah. I love doing that. Especially at the price of produce.
A key to preventing this, you guessed it, organization. But before you go trot off to Amazon and purchase expensive fridge organizers, let’s take a look. Let’s open that fridge and see what we have!
If you’re like most people, half of your condiments are sketchy. The half-bottle of ketchup from last summer’s b-b-q and the gourmet kimchee that you paid a LOT of money for but you didn’t like. So, let’s send them on their merry way. Turn on some requiem music if you need to get into the spirit of things and have a sturdy trash bag handy. This is not the time to recycle a shopping bag because you will likely discover it leaks. (Trust me on that one!)
Next, I like to group like items with like. For example, I use a basket from the Dollar Store to stow salad fixings. I use another basket for cheeses – like string cheese and shredded cheddar. For things that are used only occasionally, like green curry, I stow those together and put them toward the back of the fridge. (I make a yummy Thai Chicken soup that calls for green curry, in case you’re wondering.)
Leftovers get to be store front and center so they don’t perish. Ditto for my carton of half and half – that gets prime real estate in the fridge because I use it in my coffee every morning.
Another thing I do – especially after a trip to Costco and I’ve got a big thing of spinach in a plastic container. First, we will eat off of it right away. And then I will store the spinach in a 2-gallon Ziploc bag. That way I can smoosh it down so it doesn’t hog all the space in my little fridge.
Finally, one last thing. I’m learning to buy in smaller portions. Yes, it means more trips to the store but it does save money because I’m not throwing out produce. I’ve very fortunate to live close to a Trader Joe’s so it makes it easy sqeasy.
Keeping your fridge organized is easy once you’ve established the habit. Bonus – this helps keep the fridge clean too!
