Oh the fridge! We love to eat but hate to clean and organize the place our food lives. It becomes that blackhole that once saw a salsa you really liked or bell pepper that looked nice and shiny at the store, but now you can’t even see it.
Where did it go?
It happens at some point to everyone. But I've got 7 steps to help organize your fridge, and prevent it from becoming a dungeon you are scared to look into.
Your refrigerator is the home for a great quantity of the food you and your family ingest on a regular basis. But if your fridge is cluttered and dirty, your food will spoil faster, grow all kinds of mold and toxic bacteria, and you’ll forget what you bought because you just can’t *see* it.
We waste a LOT of food. And it’s not just wasteful, it’s expensive.
To start, if your fridge and freezer have never been cleaned, then you should take everything out and clean the surfaces well, making sure to remove any food stains. You shouldn’t use harsh chemicals to do that - just mix baking soda, dishwashing soap, warm water and a little bit of white vinegar in a bowl, and use this as your cleaning agent. If you regularly clean your fridge, then just empty it out, wipe down the surfaces and let the organization begin!
Brainstorm where you should put your veggies, cheeses and cold cuts, drinking water, sauces, milks and juices, fruits and all the miscellaneous items that don’t fall in any of those categories. Do the same with your freezer: meats, fish, frozen veggies, boxed items, sweets and frozen liquids should have an established spot, where you place them when you get new ones.
Now think about what do you use the most. Those items should be more accessible, towards the front, and visible.
Check for expiration dates. If anything is expired or rotten, get rid of it. The top professional kitchens organize their items by placing the oldest/opened ones towards the front and the newer ones behind. You can also do this at home. This will allow you to finish using whatever you had left before getting to the new, fresher items. This will also help you keep your fridge and freezer decluttered, because the empty/expired bottles won’t live in the back of your fridge forever.
If possible, don’t buy food in bulk. Depending on where you live, try to only buy food for one or two weeks at the most. This will help you keep your refrigerator and freezer decluttered, will help you eat better, and will help reduce food waste. Fresh is better, always! TIP: Taking old, unwanted food out of your fridge right before new groceries go in is a real time saver.
Use fridge bins and organizers if possible. There are egg, juice, bottle and many other organizing bins that will help keep your fridge in order. These containers will keep your food contained and when others go into your fridge, they won’t “involuntarily” spread the items around.
Use fridge mats if possible. These are sold online and at kitchen stores, but you can also create your own inexpensive ones by measuring and cutting shelf liners, for each level in your refrigerator. Make sure the material is not porous and too weak. These mats are great for keeping your fridge surfaces clean, because anything that spills or spreads will do so on the mats, which you can then take out and clean, without staining and stinking your fridge surfaces.
Place a fridge odor absorber on the top shelf. This can be baking soda or ground coffee. Just place 2 cups of either in a container with a perforated cover (you can make the perforations yourself!). Swap it out monthly to ensure freshness.
If you follow these 7 easy steps to maintain your fridge and freezer, you will no longer be afraid of opening it and looking in, and wondering if something will be looking back at you. Ideally your fridge should be cleaned and organized once a week, but if you follow the above steps, it won’t take any time at all- it’s just maintaining it by wiping off surfaces, and checking/replacing food items.
コメント