From Standard Fridges to Corner Fridges and Bespoke Cold Rooms, it always pays to be prudent in having a well maintained and organised refrigeration unit. These units are paramount in ensuring that you and your family remain healthy. Correctly ordering the perishable contents such as meats, cheeses, fruits and vegetables, alongside various drinks will prolong the shelf life of all your foods and result in better and more fresh tasting meals. Following these simple steps will make numerous aspects of your daily life easier, with both adults and children alike being more inclined to having a balanced diet consisting of many nutritious foods which don’t spoil in a short period of time.
Following a few of these tips alone will make a noticeable difference to any kitchen and shopping habits, but if you can utilise all of them then you will become master of your kitchen space!
Storage Labels: Labelling various drawers, shelves, and containers is one of the best first steps you can take in ordering all of your refrigerator’s contents. Doing this will increase time efficiency, as you won’t have to root around your fridge looking for last nights leftovers, or a specific item which has been pushed to the back of a shelf. Having allocated shelves and drawers for specific items will make the weekly grocery shop unloading a much faster and more efficient process.
Time taken to prepare any ingredients when cooking a meal will also be reduced from knowing where everything is stored beforehand, and which produce needs to be cooked first. Tupperware containers can have easily replaceable labels attached and removed allowing any packed lunch maker to prepare food the night prior for themselves, their spouses and children. These containers can be used to sort any manner of food or drink, with meats, condiments and vegetables being obvious choices when aiming to group items in visible and easy to reach locations.
Employ Drawer Storage for Fruit and Vegetables: Large refrigeration units which have allocated fruit and vegetable humidity-controlled drawers work wonders in preserving perishables in their fresh, ripe and crispy states, averting any decay for a few more days. It is important to understand that vegetables and fruit require different environments in order to ensure they remain fresher for longer. The general rule to apply to all groceries and produce is to place any food which will rot in a drawer with low humidity settings; this pertains to vegetables and fruit which emit an ethylene gas or are sensitive to the gas e.g. apples, tomatoes, pears and avocados.
The low humidity in a drawer will allow these gases better opportunity to escape, thereby keeping the fruits and vegetables from rotting prematurely. Many fruits ought to be stored in plastic bags to prevent over exposure to moisture in the surrounding atmosphere, and if they have been rinsed under a tap make sure to dry them off to prevent any unneeded water from promoting the growth of mould. Citrus fruits prove the exception to this rule and can be excluded from having a plastic bag cover.
Deli Meat Preservation: Many refrigeration units, will have a shallow but long drawer designed to hold prepared delicatessen meat and cheeses. These drawers retain a temperature which is slightly lower than the general areas, with the aim of keeping these products fresher for longer. In addition to using this shelf, make a rule of immediately storing and meat of cheese into the fridge as soon as possible. It should be noted that The Corner Fridge does not have a need for this due to the comprehensive ventilation system installed.
Once a deli meat pack has been opened, look to store this meat in a tightly closed container or binder clipped bag to remove potential contamination of additional moisture. If you are considering a long-term option for this meat, using a freezer and compatible container will extend its shelf life considerably, with some meats such as pepperoni having the possibility to last upwards of eight months.
Diary Designation: Dairy products can vastly differ in the amount of care and protection they require. Cheeses can generally be divided into two methods of storage; with soft cheeses e.g. Brie and Mozzarella, requiring an airtight packaging. Semi-hard and hard cheeses, once they are opened up, should be placed on wax or parchment paper, and subsequently stored in a resealable plastic bag to maintain freshness and quality of flavour. Looking towards items such as yogurt, sour cream and cottage cheese, these items ought to be situated on the bottom shelf, with many of these items fairing better in the colder temperatures.
Conversely, any grocery which wilts on expiration should be put inside a high-humidity drawer. An easy indicator for this type is all of your leafy greens such as spinach, cucumbers, peppers, and basil. By having a more strictly sealed drawer the water vapour present will hydrate the contents ensuring they stay fresher and crispier for a longer duration.
Use Contact Paper to Improve Shelf Hygiene: Depending on the everyday contents of your refrigerator it is highly likely that you have faced the inevitable juice spillage problem, or sticky residue left from jars of preserves, and had to scrub the mess left behind. A simple and stylish solution to this issue is to use contact paper. This paper can be purchased online or at supermarkets and come is a wide variety of styles and colours to match your tastes. By covering each shelf in this paper, the interior of your unit will be both aesthetically pleasing and practical as the level of maintenance and cleaning required to keep your refrigerator clean will greatly decrease.
If you desire the ability to freely rotate your open diary products and make them more accessible for children, then a great method would be opting to use a Lazy Susan. Do keep in mind that milk, due to its sensitive nature to temperature, should not be placed in a fridge door due to the fluctuating temperatures which occur when the door is opened or if a seal has a slightly gap.
Corner Fridges possess vastly superior internal space and capacities allowing any owner to utilise their space in more creative and liberal ways due to possibility of allocating all food and drink types a designated area with significant space still remaining between each storage area.
