If your fridge is regularly filled with containers of unidentifiable fuzzy stuff, spills that no one ever seems to confess to and limp, sad produce, then you’ve come to the right place. Here’s how to get your fridge clean, keep it clean, and keep your food safe.
Use baskets
Hit up your local plastic store for inexpensive, brightly coloured baskets. Small plastic baskets can round up small items, bottles that tend to fall over, eggs or items stored in plastic bags, like shredded cheese.
Remove clutter
Chances are, there are a bunch of things in your fridge that don’t need to be there. In fact, there are a number of items – like potatoes, that people keep in their fridge that don’t need refrigeration. Move these items to your cupboards.
Line your crisper
Always line your vegetable crispers with paper towels or newspapers. The reason is twofold.
First, they soak up any juices that may come off of fruit and veggies, making cleaning the drawers a breeze. You can just throw out the liner and put in a new one.
Second, the paper liner in the crisper drawer absorbs any extra moisture. Less moisture equals crisper produce and produce that stays fresh longer.
Unbag it
Also, don’t leave fruits and vegetables in their plastic grocery bags. This will make them spoil faster, plus you can’t see what you have.
Put them in an open mesh, plastic organizing basket or just leave them loose in the crisper drawer.
Start a one-bottle rule
To cut down clutter – enforce a “one bottle” rule. For example, only one bottle of salad dressing, mustard, mayo and tomato sauce is allowed in the fridge at once. Your extra, unopened bottles can be stored in the pantry with no worry and you’ll save a lot of space in your fridge.
No plates
While you’re at it, make a “no-plate rule”, too. From now on, everything that goes into the fridge needs to be in proper storage containers with lids. This will reduce spills in the fridge and nix mouldy plates of umm-what-is-this-mess grossness.
Designate shelves
Remember the mantra, “A place for everything and everything in its place?” The easiest way to organise your fridge is to designate a certain type of food to each shelf. This eliminates search time and makes your fridge neater.
To keep track, use a dry-erase marker to write the type of food on the lip of the shelf.
Stop drips and spills
If bending over and wiping out your refrigerator shelves rates low on your list of fun things to do, then line your shelves with plastic placemats. When a spill happens, all you need to do is remove the mats and rinse them in the sink.
Keep cool
Chances are, the items in your fridge aren’t where they need to be. Some areas of your fridge are colder than others – making them better suited for certain foods.
For example, the door is a good place for tomato sauce and other condiments that don’t grow bacteria rapidly, but not other items.
The temperature of the the door area fluctuates a lot because of it being opened and closed often. That makes it a bad location for eggs, meat, milk or other items that are highly perishable. Store these items on the inner shelves of the fridge to keep them fresher for longer.
You can also make milk last longer if you move it to a bottom shelf. Bottom shelves tend to stay cooler than the top shelf.
Original Article By CNET.