Organizing
your refrigerator leftovers
1-13-06
Dear
Kathi,
This year we had enormous amounts of leftovers from the holidays
that we did not eat. Usually this never happens but this past
year our fridge has been a disaster. I am fed up with the
state of affairs in our refrigerator and vow to keep it under
control this year. Any ideas would be really helpful.
Steve
Rancho Santa Fe
Steve,
I am sorry to hear of your uneaten leftovers from the holidays.
There is nothing better than a leftover stuffing sandwich
on Sourdough!
One way to ensure that leftovers are not forgotten is to designate
a shelf where they always live. The best shelf will be the
one closest to eye level. This way, as family members are
reaching in for a snack, they will be confronted with tasty
morsels just waiting for a second go-round. If you have to
share this shelf with other food items, make sure to keep
the leftover containers in the front of the shelf. If it takes
to long to discover leftovers, they will often be forgotten.If
you want to really organize your entire refrigerator, empty
everything out and begin with a clean slate. Before you begin
to place items back into the fridge, think through the automatic
response locations. Sometimes these are not the ideal places
for certain items to live.
For instance, should the eggs and butter be kept side by side?
Should the marmalade be also in the same vicinity? Some fridge
manufacturers have thought these questions through and others
have not.
Where items should live depends a lot on your lifestyle. For
instance, if you rush into the kitchen and dash out the door
with barely a piece of toast, you might want to consider placing
all items related to this endeavor into one area. Coffee creamer,
milk, butter jam and bread if applicable, could be kept in
a plastic bin so that in the morning you simply pull out the
entire bin and you are in business. Place the bin back into
the fridge after you eat and run out the door!
Maybe you drink smoothies evry morning. If so, definitely
keep a bin in the freezer for all smoothie related fruits.
I even keep my vita-mix in the same bin. Pull this out, grab
the rice milk form the fridge and the smoothie is ready to
blend. This bin also keeps the sticky fruit residues off of
the freeze and kitchen counters.
The same procedure can be used if you eat lunch on the go
from home. Keep meats, cheese and condiments all stored together
in a container or at least next to each other on the same
shelf.
A good practice to help maintain order in the fridge is to
straighten it out every time you bring home new groceries.
Take a moment to relocate wandering items to their proper
shelves before you load in new items.
A great way to simplify your life is to alternate cooking
and eating leftovers every other night. This practice not
only cuts down on kitchen time but also eliminates the need
for tossing spoiled leftovers.
If you have one night open for cooking during the week, make
it count by prep cooking staple items like chicken breasts,
beans or hamburgers while you are cooking your dinner. On
the nights that you are exhausted from a long day, these items
will be practically finished and waiting for a final quick
prep to eat.
The refrigerator is a common zone for chaos. Keep diligent
watch and create system that work for your family. If at first
you don’t create the system that works, keep tweaking
it. Eventually you will find the methodology that works for
your kitchen.
