Here’s a deep dive into fridge organisation

First-in, First-out (and Throw it Out!)

Go through your fridge and get rid of expired stuff! Things that have gone mouldy, greens languishing in the crisper, meat that has been in your freezer for so long, it’s a mystery now. And then follow the first-in, first-out rule, which means you use your oldest food first. Basically, the first items you put into the fridge (the ones you bought earlier) should be the first ones you take out and use before they expire. Newer items go behind or underneath the older ones. This doesn’t just help reduce food waste, it also saves money since you will actually use up what you buy.

2. No Hiding or Seeking: Create Dedicated Food Zones

When it’s crunch time and you need to get dinner on the table, you don’t want to be lost in your fridge, searching for ingredients. Instead, treat your fridge like your personal mini-grocery store, with different “sections.” Creating dedicated zones (pre-cooked food and leftovers on the top shelf, eggs and dairy in the middle, meat at the bottom, vegetables in the crisper,) instantly levels up your organisation game. This system makes it easier to find what you need and helps prevent unwanted cross-contamination. (If you consume meat and seafood, place raw meat on the lowest shelf or inside the lowest crisper drawer to prevent cross-contamination.) Another thing to note: the door is the warmest zone in your fridge, so use this space for stable items like condiments, sauces, pickles, and preserves.

3. Don’t Overstretch, Personalise Your Shelf Height

Not all fridges or people are the same. Adjust your fridge’s shelf heights to suit you and your lifestyle. Do you use tall bottles for water and juice? Lower a shelf to make room. Do you batch-cook and prep small containers with meals and fruit for the week? Create tighter shelves for easy stacking. You can even adjust the layout to match your own height, so essentials are always within easy reach. These little tweaks that come at no extra cost make your fridge feel less like a boring home appliance and more like a custom grocery setup!

4. Divide and Conquer with Baskets and Bins

Baskets and bins can help maximise space and keep your fridge neat and tidy. If you have a bigger fridge, they can help break up large, deep spaces into neat little sections, and this makes it easy to group items together. Use drawer dividers, storage bins, inserts, and small baskets to separate smaller items like cheese, packaged snacks, cold cuts, chocolate and fruit.

5. Prep Your Produce (and Thank Yourself Later)

You need to prep your produce, not dump it into the crisper, to avoid spoilage. Produce stays fresh for longer when its sealed, so place your fruits and veggies in Ziplock bags, air-tight containers, produce bags, or reusable silicone pouches. These storage solutions help hold in moisture, preventing dehydration. Some staples, like lemons and limes, fare better when immersed in water, so you can store them in water-filled jars. And remember to keep your fruits and vegetables separate. This is because they require different levels of humidity to stay fresh (fruits do well in low humidity, veggies do better in higher levels of humidity).

Lining your fridge shelves and drawers goes a long way in keeping it clean, so take the time to do this for your produce shelves. Water-resistant liners are just a click away on most shopping sites, or you can use heavy-duty paper towels.

6. Transparency is Key, So use Glass Storage Solutions

As Indians, we have an affinity for steel dabbas. And while they are durable and certainly get the job done, there’s a place for them—and we advocate that it’s not in the fridge. Using clear glass containers makes meal prep much easier, because you can literally see what’s on hand. Often times we have more leftovers than we assume, and storing them in glass containers ensures less wastage. You’ll also be able to see how much of everything you have, without having to lift lids. Plus, we all know by now that glass is safer and more sustainable than plastic, and aesthetically-pleasing, too.

7. Grab and Go: Keep Most-used Items Close

The Indian masala dabba is iconic for a reason: it carries the holy grail spices of Indian cooking in one easy-to-access container. And that’s a convenience you need in your fridge, too. You know best what you reach for and use most often. Keep your favourites in a spot or shelf that’s most accessible. If there are a few heavy-rotation items that can’t be placed together due to their odd size (like butter, sauce jars, and lemons, for example) then get a small Lazy Susan that can sit comfortably in your fridge, so you want have to rummage around.