Managing the Refrigerator
Have you ever pulled something out of your refrigerator that you couldn’t identify? Was it brown when it should have been green or green when it should have been brown? If your refrigerator space isn’t managed properly, you can waste money on spoiled foods, run out of space, or make yourself sick by eating out-of-date items. With a few simple rules, you can easily manage the contents of your refrigerator and make the best use of your food dollar.
But before you open that refrigerator, take a minute to clean off the OUTSIDE of the refrigerator door. Throw away any out-of-date calendars, phone lists, and schedules. Put children’s artwork and photos in the scrapbook, “important information” in a “Quick Reference” binder, and phone numbers in your address book. One or two items on the fridge door are OK, but less is more!
Now that the outside is under control, you are ready to tackle the inside. The good news is that organizing a refrigerator is a little simpler than organizing other spaces because you have only two decisions to make – keep or toss. First pull everything out the refrigerator and discard any packaged or bottled items that are out of date. Next, toss food that has been in the refrigerator too long. The following excerpt from “1,001 Timely Tips for Clutter Control” by The Editors of F&A Publishing shows how long food safely lasts in the refrigerator.
| Food | # days in refrigerator |
|---|---|
| Bacon (opened) | 7 days |
| Butter | 1-2 weeks |
| Beef, veal, pork, lamb | 3-5 days |
| Cheese (unsliced and opened) | 3-4 weeks |
| Cottage cheese | 1-2 weeks |
| Eggs | 3-5 weeks |
| Ground meat (uncooked) | 1-2 days |
| Hard boiled eggs | 1 week |
| Hot dogs (opened) | 1 week |
| Lunch meat (opened) | 1 week |
| Margarine | 4-6 months |
| Parmesan cheese | 2 months |
| Poultry (uncooked) | 1-2 days |
While the refrigerator is empty, wipe it down with a damp
cloth. Next, examine the shelving in your
refrigerator. If you have missing shelves or large spaces
between shelves, you may want to purchase inexpensive wire racks and
baskets to increase your space. For hard to reach
spaces, invest in a
Lazy Susan. Be sure you have an ample supply of sealable,
stackable plastic containers for leftovers. You can use fancy
Tupperware containers or free containers like margarine and whipped
topping tubs.
Now that you have discarded out of date food and set up additional storage, you can start returning your “keep” items to the refrigerator. Group like items together and establish “homes” for each type of item – vegetables in the crisper, cheese and lunch meat in the cheese drawer, milk on the top shelf, etc. For longer shelf life, keep eggs, milk, and refrigerated pastry dough on refrigerator shelves instead of in the door. Things like soft drinks are safe to keep on refrigerator doors.
So now that you have everything organized, how do you keep it
that way?
- First, always return an item (or a type of item) to its home shelf.
- Periodically check for out of date items.
- Before you make your grocery list, check the refrigerator first for items that need to be used and then plan to use them.
- Keep track of leftovers by identifying
the item and its “use by” date on a magnetic, dry marker
board. Erase the item from the board when you use
it. If the item is past the “use by” date and you haven’t
eaten it, throw it out.
With just a little work and a little planning you will have an uncluttered, organized refrigerator with delicious, fresh food. What’s for dinner?
