Kitchen Hacks: Managing The Fridge

When a refrigerator is packed with food, it’s easy to forget about items that are lingering in the back until they’re long past their expiration dates. Avoid this problem by placing a rotating Lazy Susan on one of your fridge shelves. Now everything is visible (and accessible) with a quick spin.

Just any simple container with a sticker “eat me first” is a great place to store all the items that are getting close to their expiration dates. Instead of losing those old sauces and veggies at the back of the fridge, keep track of which ones are nearing the end of their lives by putting them in this simple box!

If you don’t have enough space in your refrigerator to store bottled beverages upright, here’s a clever way to store them horizontally, without them rolling around: simply stack the drinks in a pyramid.

Keep your refrigerator neat and organized by keeping a permanent marker and masking tape handy. Every time a new bottle or jar is opened or leftovers are packaged up, write the date on a piece of tape and stick it to the side of the container in a highly visible spot.
Here’s a great tool for labeling containers of leftovers in the fridge: blue painter’s tape. It comes off easily without leaving any adhesive behind, and you can rip just the right-size piece. You can even print reheating instructions on the tape.

Finding room for a large dish in a cramped refrigerator is a familiar challenge for many cooks. Here’s one space-saving solution: create an extra “shelf” by stacking a baking sheet on top of the casserole dish and then place smaller items on the baking sheet.

To keep your family or roommates from using ingredients reserved for use in a recipe, use brightly colored stickers to mark them as soon as you unpack the groceries. Make it known that anything with a sticker is off-limits and you’ll be saved repeated trips to the grocery store to replace recipe ingredients.

The refrigerator form has evolved over the years to include a wide, deep freezer drawer at the bottom—great for reaching into, but not so efficiently organized. Until now, that is. The solution? Basic plastic bins. Use these bins to give her freezer drawer a filing system—sorting breakfast foods, veggies and oven snacks into different containers.