How to Organize Your Kitchen to Avoid Food Waste
How often have you bought a pack of fruit only to find it completely inedible two weeks later? Sometimes, you push things to the back of the fridge or pantry, only to see them again when it’s too late. People want to save food, but with how busy their lives get, keeping track of things in the kitchen gets difficult. With the proper kitchen organization, you can keep food items visible and ready to use. Here are some organizational tips to help you lessen food waste.
1. Prep Your Produce When You Get Home
When you get home from the grocery store, don’t just throw stuff in your fridge without a second thought. You might forget about a lot of things and end up wasting them.
Unpack your fruits and vegetables. Wash, peel, slice and prep them, depending on your needs. Then, store them in proper containers and place them somewhere that’s easy to see.
2. Use Clear Containers
Invest in clear food containers. It’s easy to forget about food items if you can’t see them. With clear containers, you can see what you have and how much you have left.
You can also switch to glass food containers to be more sustainable. Doing so can provide visibility while preventing food smells and colors from clinging to the container.
3. Store Food Properly
Prolonging the life of your food can help you lessen food waste in your home. To keep food fresh for longer, you must store it properly. Use high-quality airtight containers to prevent air, bacteria and other contaminants from entering. You should also check whether food stores best in the pantry, fridge or freezer.
4. Keep Everything Visible
You can create storage updates in your kitchen to help you see ingredients better. Multi-layered racks are essential, especially in deep pantries, where it’s easy to miss food items at the back. Add pull-out baskets, risers and door organizers in your pantry.
Another smart solution is a lazy susan, which can help you see and access many food items in your pantry. You can use double-layer lazy susans to maximize visibility in your kitchen.
Glass cabinet doors are another great solution. They allow you to see everything inside, rather than tossing items in, closing the door and forgetting all about them. Glass cabinets will make any clutter inside visible, so they’ll push you to keep your food organized and under control.
5. Take Note Of Expiration Dates
As you store food in your fridge, take some masking tape and a Sharpie, and label your containers. Write down the date you bought the ingredients and their expiration date. This technique can help you prioritize more perishable foods. You’ll also avoid wasting food, as you get to cook them before they go bad.
Remember — foods have different shelf lives. Vegetables, fruits and meats all have different timelines. Take note of each ingredient’s shelf life and label their containers accordingly.
6. List What You Have
After you prep and store food, there’s still a possibility you’ll forget about them. Life can get pretty busy. Help yourself remember the foods you have in stock by writing them down and displaying the list.
The best place to put your list is on your fridge. You’ll stop opening and closing it looking for things to eat when there’s a clear list telling you exactly what’s in it. Remember to cross out ingredients you already used so your list stays up to date throughout the week.
7. Keep Older Food At The Front
The back of the fridge is where food goes to die. Whenever you put something new in the refrigerator, you push items to the back, where you forget them.
When you buy groceries, place the fresh food at the back. Then, place the old food at the front so you’ll see and use it first. As you buy groceries, keep pulling older items to the front to prevent wasting food.
8. Designate A Fridge Cleaning Day
Having a dirty, cluttered fridge can contribute to food waste. When too many things are in it, some foods might be out of view. Assign a designated fridge cleaning day to help you get more organized and waste less food.
Take out all the food and do a deep clean. Then, check every container, bottle and carton for the expiration date. Throw out everything spoiled and plan a meal around items near their expiration.
To avoid letting your fridge get cluttered again so soon, you can take extra steps to organize everything inside. Try fridge organizers and labels. Also, take advantage of how cool or humid each area in the fridge gets. For example, the bottom shelf has the perfect temperature to preserve raw meat.
9. Keep A Meal Calendar
Keeping a meal calendar can help you better utilize the ingredients you have in your kitchen and help you optimize your grocery shopping. A family of four can spend up to $1,500 a year on food that ends up wasted. Creating a solid weekly meal plan can prevent food and monetary waste.
You can add a leftover day to your meal calendar. Heat leftovers or use them to cook something new. Keep your meal calendar visible in your kitchen so everyone in your family is in the loop.
It can be challenging to eliminate food waste in your home. However, following organizational tips can greatly help you save food and money. It can also help take a lot of mental load off you, so you don’t need to stress about spoiled food and using up ingredients.
Cora Gold
Writer
Cora Gold is a home and family blogger and the Editor-in-Chief of women’s lifestyle magazine, Revivalist. Connect with Cora on LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest.
