HOW TO ORGANIZE FRIDGE

Did you know that #fridgegoals is a thing now? Everybody’s and their mom’s fridge is organized now so come on and hop on the fridge organization bandwagon.

On a more serious note, according to a John Hopkins University study, 31 to 40 % of the American food supply is wasted and Americans spend $161.6 billion a year  on food that goes to waste. Aren’t those numbers just shocking? By keeping your refrigerator clean and organized you are doing your part and prevent over-supplying and food waste. It is one of those things that don’t take too much effort but have an enormous impact.

If you want to start today, these are my favourite fridge organization hacks.

1. This first point is something I haven’t learnt until quite recently. Different parts of your fridge have slightly different temperatures. Use this especially when storing meat and dairy. Place these on the bottom shelf and in case of the meat slide a tray underneath so there are no drippings. There is nothing worse than those red puddles of meat juice all over your fridge. The top shelf and the door are the warmest areas, good for sauces, condiments and eggs. When it comes to eggs specifically, you might have heard that you don’t need to refrigerate them at all, but that doesn’t apply to the commercially produced eggs, here in the USA so always put them in the fridge.

2. Keep your fruits and vegetables in separate drawers. Most fruit ( especially citrus) produces gas which causes your greens to go bad faster. I know that there is a trend now to pre-wash and pre-cut your fruit for healthy snacking, but by doing that you are unfortunately speeding up the molding process. To ensure everything tastes nice and fresh, wash and cut your snacks when you are ready to eat them. Also, refrigerating bananas or avocados is a no no, the cold will darken their skin and they will never fully ripen. Other examples of fruit that shouldn’t be refrigerated until fully ripen are plums, peaches, mangoes, tomatoes, pears and apples.

3. Put your healthy grab-and-go snacks and food that needs to be eaten first in clear bins at eye level so all family members find them easily.

4. If you want to save your future self some time, use lining for your fridge shelves. It might seem unnecessary but don't bash it until you try it yourself! You will thank me next time you clean up.

5. In terms of the refrigerating function, en empty fridge is just as bad as an over filled one. Over stocking leads to forgetting what you have (therefore creating food waste), blocking important vents and slowing the air flow. The ideal amount of fullness is approximately 2/3.

Let me know in the comments below if I missed something or if you have another useful fridge trick.