How To Increase The Space In Your Fridge (Without Buying A Bigger One)
Whether it’s the Christmas holidays or summer barbeques, when you are playing host to an event, your fridge will quickly fill up making you wish you had a bigger one. However, during the normal day-to-day requirements a large refrigerator would be a waste of energy, so how can you make the most of the space in your fridge when it comes to entertaining?
Here are the best ways to organised and store your food to maximise fridge space and ensure nothing is damaged or spilt.
Top Tips For Maximising Fridge Space
1. Eat your leftovers
If leftover meals are lingering in the fridge, don’t cook from scratch that evening. Instead, free up the space that leftovers are taking. You can turn your leftovers into a new meal such as bubble and squeak if you don’t want to eat the same thing again.
2. Be ruthless
For a start, there should be nothing rotting in your fridge. If there is, throw it out. The same goes for anything where you cannot remember the last time you used, served or ate it. It may be worth to check expiry dates and throw anything at risk away.
3. Downsize
If you come straight from the supermarket, then it’s tempting to cram everything in the fridge as it is. However, often it is well worth taking products out of their large and bulky packaging and downsizing products to a new container. Having a range of storage boxes on hand can be incredibly useful so you can fit the perfect fit for each item. Don’t forget to put items in the same box if they won’t affect each other such as fruit and vegetables.
4. Transfer to a cool place
If you have items such as vegetables in the fridge, then it may be worth taking these non-perishable goods out of the refrigerator for a short while and placing them somewhere dark and cool. Consider storing such foods in the garage, shed or another cool place in your home. Herbs, for example, will be fine on the windowsill for a few days.
5. Prioritise food over drink
If you need more space, then it is more important to keep perishable food at a safe temperature, rather than having a cool drink available. You can make drinks colder by adding ice or storing in an ice bucket, cool box or even in the freezer for a very short period of time. Remove beverages from the fridge, and you’ll have much more space for food.
6. Plan your shop
Only buy the food you need for the next free days rather than doing your normal shop and your entertaining shop together. The chances are you’ll have plenty of leftovers from entertaining so you won’t need to hurry to do your regular supermarket shop for a few days, giving you much more space.
7. Get stacking
Store items in sturdy containers and then you will be able to stack them up making the most of the height in your fridge and then balance the delicate items on top. Warn the family of this stacked approach so that nobody pulls out a container and causes the whole pile to topple.