How To Achieve A Well Organized Fridge

9 Ways To Achieve A Well Organized Fridge

Organizing your fridge is not just important for aesthetic reasons but also for hygienic purposes. Mold and a whole host of bacteria can develop if you’re not vigilant, so it would behoove you to ensure there’s a place for every kind of food and that every kind of food has its place. It’s worth doing a deep clean about once per quarter so that things don’t get gradually more and more out of control.

1. Sanitizing is sanity

Sanitizing your fridge will keep the risk of contamination and food-related illnesses to a minimum. Not to do this is insane! Once per quarter take everything out of your fridge and cleanse away every single stain or ground in a piece of dirt with disinfectant wipes or disinfectant spray with paper towels at the ready. You can place the food you took out temporarily into another fridge, if you have one, or else in a cooler with a few ice packs. Ensure that all the various compartments and drawers are taken out, soaking them thoroughly in warm soapy water before scrubbing.

2. Organizing is sanity

It makes no sense then to just chuck everything back in, higgledy-piggledy. You first ought to add a bit of baking soda in a cup and leave it there on a semi-permanent basis, to purge your fridge from lingering odors. You then need to decide what will go in the upper, middle, and lower shelves and doors, so need a mini-master plan before normal operations resume within your fridge. Generally, you’ll want to avoid putting vegetables or raw meat in the higher vantage-points of your fridge. Due to their relatively shorter shelf-lives, upper shelves should house deli meats, cheeses, yogurts, leftovers, and ready-meals.

3. Keep a Lazy Susan active!

These have customarily been used as spice cabinet arrangers, or sometimes to arrange condiments in an orderly fashion on your dinner table. However, there’s no reason why they can’t equally be used as fridge organizers, to stop things from disappearing into the deepest recesses of your fridge. Modern fridges haven’t been able to solve this age-old problem, so why not upcycle something else to cure the problem yourself? There are even purpose-built plastic Lazy Susans on the market, these days, in case you don’t have one to upcycle.

4. Group dynamics

If you try to keep similar kinds of foods together, you’re making things easier for yourself. Color-coded baskets or see-through baskets are the most useful; you can select a range of sizes to suit your various needs. It could be that one basket is devoted to making your kids’ school packed lunches, while another is for eggs and another is for raw meats.

5. Crisper drawers

These are also known as the bottom drawers in a fridge and are often able to be controlled in terms of humidity and temperature. Fruits and vegetables are ideal to be put in these drawers, but make sure you know how much humidity each kind needs. It can be useful to section off things like greens in one area, onions, and garlic in another, snap carrots and peas in another.

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6. Hold the line

Due to the increased humidity of the crisper drawers, make sure you clean these compartments vigilantly, Paper towels can be very helpful because they absorb bits of onion peel or broccoli, which can end up creating a stink over time. You should replace these paper towels once every few weeks.

7. Lessons in humidity

In many modern fridges, one side of the crisper section can be set to ‘high’ humidity, the other ‘low’. As mentioned, different things should go in different places; into the high humidity area should go things like arugula, herbs, and spinach; into the latter lower humidity area store ethylene gas-emitting fruits like pears and apples.

8. Show the door the door

Your fridge door is actually the least cold part of your entire fridge, so is fit for things like butter, sauces, and condiments, but not for eggs or milk. Although it might be slightly less convenient it will elongate the longevity of these products, if you stick to this.

9. Little zone for little hands

Designate one part of your fridge for a child-only area; ensure it is stocked full of healthy yogurts, organic snacks, smoothies, and all manner of other wholesome, yummy goodies. If your children become familiar with the layout of the fridge, it won’t be long before they will be more ready, willing, and able to help you set up for dinner.

Overall, it is a very useful and therapeutic thing to cleanse and re-organize your fridge from time to time. It can improve the hygiene of your diet, the management of the weekly grocery shop, the awareness of what needs to be consumed by when, and can help your children live a healthier, more helpful, and responsible lifestyle. Keep it fresh and keep it cool!

Sources:

1. How To Stock Your Fridge Like a Pro – Food Insight
2. Tips for Your Health and a Healthy Refrigerator! – MSU Extension