Oops, You Have Been Organizing Your Fridge All Wrong

According to Greatest:

Refrigerators should be kept at 40 F or lower, and freezers should be set to 0 F. But even when the refrigerator is sufficiently cold, the temperature will vary in different parts of the fridge depending on how close they are to the cooling element.

Freezer
Frozen fruits, veggies, meat, stock, and other items. You can also store a surprising number of other foods in the freezer for later use, such as tortillas, pasta sauce, bread and even eggs.

Doors
Doors are the warmest part of the fridge and should be reserved for foods that are most resistant to spoiling. Keep condiments, juices, and other foods that can stand up to temperature fluctuations here.  No milk or dairy.

Upper Shelves
The upper shelves of the fridge have the most consistent temperatures, while the lower shelves are coldest. Leftovers, drinks, and ready-to-eat foods like tortillas, hummus, herbs and deli meats.

Lower Shelves
The lower shelves are your best bet for raw meat, eggs, seafood, and other dairy to be stored at the coldest temperatures. To prevent raw meat’s bacteria from spreading to other areas, assign a particular section of the fridge as your meat locker.

Crisper Drawers
The purpose of crisper drawers is to maintain moist conditions that help preserve fruits and vegetables. However, the ethylene produced by ripening fruit can cause vegetables to go yellow, limp, or even sprout. For this reason, keep veggies in one drawer and fruits in another.

RANDOM AVOCADO TIP:

One trick that I have learned about avocados is that once they ripen on the counter you can store them in the fridge to prevent them from over-ripening too fast.  I usually have anywhere from 4-6 avocados that all ripen at the same time and suddenly I am force feeding my whole family guacamole.  Learning that I can toss them in the fridge was a great tip that buys me lots more time and now I have ready-to-eat avos in the house pretty much every day.

Click through to see a simple graphic that will make all this fridge organization stuff nice and clear for you.

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