Guest post from Jane of JanesDish.com
I’m ready to come clean. I’ve wasted thousands of dollars in food over the years.
According to research, I’m not alone. A major study by the National Resources Defense Council claims that the average American tosses about 25 percent of food and beverages purchased. For a family spending $500 a month on groceries, that’s $1,500 a year in the trash can. Ouch!
Late last year, as I threw away rotten tomatoes, shriveled cucumbers, and slimy lettuce, I knew something had to change. The fresh produce drawer was not going to be a place salad went to die ever again.
I pulled everything out of my fridge and found a simple solution that cut down our family’s food waste to almost nothing.
So, what’s the trick?
I moved all the fruits and vegetables to the top shelf of the fridge!
More specifically, I organized my fridge shelves from MOST perishable to LEAST perishable.
The top shelves are reserved for produce, the middle shelves are for leftovers and the bottom “Crisp Produce” drawers are for beverages, condiments and all other items that can withstand a nuclear bomb.
By placing fruits and vegetables in clear view, I’m able to check their state of freshness every time I open the fridge. If an item appears on the verge of a rotten ruin, I’ll make arrangements to eat or freeze it ASAP.
Almost immediately, I noticed that I wasn’t throwing away rotten onions and potatoes by the bagful on trash day. But something else happened. Something fantastic. My family and I grabbed vegetables and fruit to eat more often when they were at eye level.
Any fridge arrangement that also encourages healthy eating habits is a winner in my book.
Other tips for reducing food waste:
1. Your freezer is your friend.
We all know there’s an entire aisle in the freezer section dedicated to fruits and vegetables. That’s because produce freezes great! When you rearrange your fridge with produce at eye level, you’ll have a chance to freeze produce before it spoils.
Fruits and veggies will be in your face telling you “FREEZE ME.”
2. Only buy what you need for your menu plan.
Purchasing produce in bulk packaging is often cheaper than buying per pound. Of course, the exception to that rule is when you buy a large quantity of vegetables because it is a “better deal” then toss half in the trash because you forget to use it.
For ingredients I don’t use frequently, I will buy the exact quantity for several pennies more.
3. Be creative with leftovers.
Our family is not thrilled about eating leftover food. Except Pizza. (Isn’t pizza the exception to every food rule?)
We used to waste food at every single meal. Now, I’m very strategic about freezing leftovers immediately or planning two-part meals that use leftovers in a different way the following night, such as grilled chicken on Sunday and chicken pasta salad on Monday.
So, what are you waiting for? Save your produce today!
Jane is a wife and mother of two who recently left the public relations profession to blog at JanesDish.com. She’s passionate about growing and preparing good food for her hungry family as well as writing about everything from motherhood to frugal living.
Great post Jane! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found wilted gross celery or soggy spinach in my fridge because it got lost. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
One thing you can do to revive that wilted celery is cut the bottom off it and stick in a glass of water in the fridge for about 24 hrs. The celery veins’ suck up the water and make it nice and crisp again.
I never thought about keeping the fruits and veggies on eye level so you grab those more and I love the idea of organizing the fridge shelves from most to least perishable! GREAT idea. I used to keep them in a drawer. A drawer at the bottom of my fridge. My favorite thing to do is to buy a couple heads of lettuce from Aldi, chop it all up, wash it, then seal it into a mason jar. My lettuce lasts up to two weeks this way! You can read more about it here if you’d like: http://www.theblissfulmrs.com/?p=920
Great idea! I can definitely see how this would help you stop wasting food. In addiction, hiding some of those “bad” foods like pop out of site might help your family slow down on consuming them.
This is good advice! Plus, you probably end up eating more fruits and veggies when they are the first things you see after opening the fridge. I do like to keep fruits in the bottom drawer, though, as it is easily reachable for my kiddos. They are constantly rummaging through the fruit drawer for snacks.
We are a family of 3 and I have found being mindful of how much I make for dinner in the first place really helps cutting down on wasted food. Since I cook from scratch for most meals it’s pretty easy to cook just enough. I will double sloppy Joe filling and freeze a portion of it and it works great for spaghetti. If I do bake a boxed cake mix I spray 2 8×8 pans with cooking spray but flour one to remove the cake after baking and cooling completely. I wrap it in plastic wrap then into a zipper bag and freeze for up to 2 months. I love challenging myself to think of ways to waste as little food as possible. After all for most families like mine it’s our biggest expense next to rent or mortgage payments!
I love your tip on the boxed cake mix going into two separate pans, one for eating now and the other for the freezer. Thanks for sharing!
This is a great tip. I’ve been trying to find more economical ways to not waste food. Thank you so much for the idea.
Needing tips on how to keep frost from building up in the chest freezer so quickly! It seems as soon as I’ve cleaned it, it’s already building up again & a frost free freezer is not in the budget right now. I chipped some of the ice away yesterday with a spatula & mallet. It needs defrosted before garden harvest season & there’s too much food in it to do now.
Sounds like you might have a leak somewhere or the door is open either too often or for too long.
you might need a new rubber seal around the top (cheaper than buying a new freezer)
>>> to make it easier to clean …..
1. after you’ve cleaned wipe down the sides with a cloth with oil (vegetable oil is fine) sprayed on it. Make sure its a light application.
The next time you need to clean the freezer ….. the ice will sheet right off.
Thanks! I’ll have to try the oil & jot that tip down in the owner’s manual. I just cleaned it 2 weeks ago. The seal was replaced a few years ago & purchasing another one is not in the budget right now.
Typo on #3 made me laugh. I honestly read it a couple times until I realized it was supposed to say except. But the first way is true in my house, yes, if I’ve decided we should have leftovers (or made anything too healthy) I can “expect pizza”. My husband making himself a frozen pizza that is…
Haha! Opps…But so true. 🙂
Great idea! Just this morning I was cleaning out the fridge and feeling terrible about throwing out things! I’ve found that for fruits and veggies that can be washed and cut up ahead of time, we do better with not wasting them. They’re prepped and ready for a quick snack.
I really didn’t this! As a busy mom and wife that’s helping her husband run a ministry–it’s so nice to have this great tip!
This is great! The line of sight thing is so true. And, my family is the same way about leftovers! I can get then eaten for lunch the next day but that’s it. I have gotten better at portioning meals and transforming leftovers like you talked about. Pizza, salads, pastas, and quesadillas all can be good leftover users 🙂
I absolutely love this tip! Why hadn’t I thought of it before? 🙂 One other thing that I do with vegetables that are past their prime is to put them into a freezer bag. Then, about every two weeks or so, I’ll make a big crock pot full of vegetable stock. So good and so cheap!
We actually just started doing this with our oranges, apples and grapes. It is amazing how much more often we are grabbing them for snacks now. I actually just purchased another 10 pounds of oranges from Meijer since we have converted.
I would love to do our lettuce this way but it tends to go bad quickly. Any suggestions on how to avoid this problem?
Lettuce is one thing I still keep in the crisper too…but you can throw a salad on almost any meal! I think that’s what helps for us, we just use it so much it doesn’t get as terribly forgotten. Although there have been weeks where I still ended up with soggy rotten unused greens, ewww!
We grew so much lettuce this year that we were at a loss what we were going to do with it other than eating it. I started feeding the spoilt lettuce and the bitter lettuce when it got too warm to my earthworms. I have an earthworm bin. Almost immediately I noticed that the earthworms started laying more cocoons and I started seeing lots of baby earthworms. Maybe the lettuce was super high nutritious for them. Until then, I was just feeding them store bought produce and not seeing any doubling of earthworm populations every 3 months like I had read is supposed to happen. Now, I think within one month my earthworm population has doubled or maybe even tripled. I use the compost that the earthworms make to fertilize all my veggie plants and my roses.
Jamie Oliver recommends washing your lettuce then setting the leaves out on a clean bath towel, and rolling it up gently. Then you just unroll as much as you need. Haven’t tried it yet, but thought it was a good idea.
& ‘i quit sugar’ recommends ‘massaging kale’ with a little olive oil and lemon juice. Its much healthier as its partially broken down AND it keeps for over a week. I love that its ready to grab and throw on the plate already dressed and prepared.
Saw this tip on Pinterest a couple years ago: I cut up my lettuce so it’s ready to use, put it in a mason jar and put a folded paper towel over it. Screw the lid back on and turn it upside down. The moisture will absorb into the paper towel so you might want to change it out every few days. Lettuce lasts SO much longer since I’ve started doing this!
Interesting! I never heard of keeping lettuce fresh in a mason jar! I’ll have to give it a try. 🙂
I wash & spin dry our lettuce & pack it in ziplock bags with paper towel around it. It keeps for up to 3 weeks.
I wash my lettuce and place it in a plastic bag. Then I place a folded paper towel in the bag between the bag and the lettuce. Seal the bag and place it in the refrigerator, paper towel side down. The paper towel absorbs the extra water in the bag. Whenever I pull the bag out of the refrigerator, I replace the paper towel with a fresh one. I can’t remember where I came across this tip, but I NEVER have to throw out lettuce anymore.
I chop my lettuce (Don’t wash it) and store it in glass canning Jars on the middle shelf . The glass keeps it extra cold, crisp and fresh and the lettuce lasts quite a bit longer . You can see thru the container (no out of sight out of mind). My mother wraps her lettuce in tin foil and it stays fresh longer also.
Great tips! I’ve noticed that we often forget about what’s in the veggie drawer. If I want to remember to use something up, I take it out of the drawer.
I like to remix leftovers so we don’t eat the exact same meal over and over. Like, leftover chicken with new side dishes or leftover veggies with a fresh main course.