Hacks to Organise Your Fridge

July 20 2016

Your fridge is the appliance that works 24 hours a day, seven days a week and as a result, it endures much more wear and tear than the other kitchen appliances. Strange as it may seem, most of us are predominantly focused on removing the grease from the oven, wiping out the crumbs from the countertop or mopping the floor. As a result, fridge cleaning and organising are rarely included in our weekly cleaning list. In most cases, the bad smells, coming from the bottom drawer reminds us about the lettuce we bought two weeks ago or the pizza leftovers we intended to have for breakfast on Saturday morning. If you want to avoid dealing with bad smells and mould, you’d better read on and get familiar with the easiest tricks for keeping your fridge organised:

Before you take up a fridge organising project, you have to thoroughly clean it, throw out inedible stuff and eliminate unpleasant odours. Failing to do that means your organising project would have a sporadic effect. Especially if you are living on rent, keeping your fridge spick and span is a must as it may present a problem when it`s time to get your security deposit back. So, instead of waiting till it is time for an end of tenancy cleaning, pull your sleeves up and get the things done. The easiest solution for fridge cleaning is a mixture of baking soda and vinegar. As for the exterior, you can use a mild dishwashing detergent for removing the greasy fingerprints and all kinds of spots.
When you are done cleaning, it’s time to put your organisational skills into practice during the next domestic cleaning. If you have plastic boxes that lack their lids, you can use them for storing the foods you have to eat on the next day and write “eat me first” with a permanent marker. The upper shelves should be set aside for deli foods, ready to eat foods, etc.
You should use the bottom shelves for raw ingredients you are about to cook soon.
Are you among those people who always place bottles of milk or coke on the fridge door? It is convenient and you don’t have to spend a couple of minutes trying to find a free spot among the fruits and vegetables and keep your drink cool. However, that’s a popular mistake as the door is actually the warmest place in the fridge. You can use it for placing condiments, but leaving eggs or bottles of milk is not recommended.
Do you have empty egg cartons? If you do, cut them in half and use them for storing all ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, bottles. All you need to do is to turn them upside down, so their tops fit into the egg cartons.
Make sure you put the meat on the bottom shelves and prevent contamination that is inevitable if you put a raw steak on the top shelf and fresh fruits and veggies right below the meat.
As for the fruits and vegetables, they are usually stored in the bottom drawers. However, if you have more drawers, you can set aside one of them for meat and the ones for produce.
Do you keep your fruits and veggies together? If you do, you’d better place fruits separately from vegetables. Here is why. Fruits produce ethylene, a chemical that promotes their ripening. However, the ethylene helps the other plants to ripen, too. Therefore, if you keep peaches and peppers together, the peppers will limp or sprout.
If you have only one drawer, you can use your own plastic bin for storing meat. Putting the raw meat into a plastic box eliminates the risk of any spills or drips on your veggies. Needless to say, the area of the fridge where the meat is stored should be disinfected on a regular basis.
It is important to note that the shelves should not be too crowded. Although that rule is not valid for freezers, the situation with the fridges is a bit more different as you have to ensure enough space for the cold air to circulate. Stuffing the fridge with too many items poses a difficulty to the smooth air circulation process and as a result, your electricity bill is boosted.

Your fridge is not just a food closet where you can carelessly throw all kinds of foods. If you do that, don’t get surprised if you spend too much on food that becomes inedible soon. To sum up, keeping the smelly, leaky stuff in plastic boxes, keeping the produce away from meat and avoiding overstuffing the appliance are the three rules you have to follow. Of course, having a well-organized fridge helps you find a desired item easily. A container with an “Eat soon” label will also help you reduce the amount of inedible food you throw out. All you need to do is to take your time and disinfect the fridge and deal with the mess inside.