I. Hate. Wasting. Food.
I'm sure a lot of you out there agree with me that wasting food leaves a terrible feeling inside of you. I don't only feel like I've wasted money and time that it took to go to the store to get that food, but I also feel like a complete failure because it just reminds me about the good intentions I had to cook at home - and didn't. *sigh*
I also feel, and please tell me I'm not the only one, that there is someone in the dump going around looking for scraps of food and will come across my food and think that I'm the most terrible person ever.
I'm usually very proud of my fridge, because I don't often have anything expired int the fridge, unless it isn't mine to toss.. Then it just stays in there until they've completely forgotten about it, and I toss it anyway.
Here is my fridge before I cleaned it out and threw out all the old stuff. (wasn't much to toss..)
Yucky. All disorganized. There was nothing sticky, or icky in there, because I already do this so often. If there is anything yucky in your fridge, you should really clean it and disinfect it. Not only doesn't it make it clean and healthy, but it also motivates you to keep it clean, because you've already took all the time out to clean it once. Any "touch-up" cleaning, I just use a Clorox wipe, right away so he problem doesn't stay around, and then wipe it down with a damp cloth to make it food-safe.
Making sure that your fridge it organized can really help to make sure that all of your food keeps cold. Stack things like yogurt cups and pudding, so that cold air can go all around them and keep them cold. Make sure that there is space in between everything so that everything can stay as cold as possible, and so the cold air can circulate around your fridge properly!
If you look closely, on the second shelf from the top, there is a wire shelf hanging from the top. I put packaged meats (pepperoni, hot dogs, liverwurst, etc)
in this shelf to not only keep them cold, but to also keep them visible and in one place. As you know, these usually come in small packages, are are very easily lost.. So the shelf helps to combat that issue.
Also on that shelf, I have two bins - one blue, and one green. The blue one has all of my son's drinks for lunch and dinner - juice boxes, and vegetable Capri Suns (they DO exist, and they are AMAZING). Those things are also very small and awkward, so putting them into a bin together is ok with me, especially since we put them in the fridge just to get them cold, and not to keep them fresh. They are a nonperishable item, so putting them all bunched up in one pile won't hurt them. =)
In the green bin on the right, I have my son's (well, anyone really who wants them..) fruit cups. I try really hard to get my son to eat fruits and vegetables, and he seems to like them cold, so I put them in the fridge. Like with the drinks, they are nonperishable, and won't go bad if you just throw them in the bin. I like these bins because they keep everything in one place, and I can easily tell when I'm getting low on something.
I also have a wire basket that houses all the left over condiments we get from our fast food escapades. Teehee. As you can see, lately there have been many of them.
Here is my fridge after I organized everything, and got rid of the wrinkly grapes:
It's a very dark picture, and I apologize for that. But, you're whole goal is to make it so that you can see everything in your fridge. If you can't see it, you won't use it, and it will go bad. There is no way to remember exactly what you have in your fridge, so making everything visible will make this issue go away.
My fridge looks rather full, because I just went shopping that day, lol!
Remember, your fridge should be full, because it cuts down on electricity bills... But you still want everything to be seen, and everything to be able to breath and the air to circulate. That's the key to an efficient fridge, and it will even extend the life of your fridge if it's not having to work as hard to cool void space.
Hope this helps! If you have your own tips, tricks, or you have any questions of concerns, please let me know in the comments! Thank you! =)
- Ashley
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