Easy Fridge Trick That Saves You a Ton on Your Grocery Bills

It’s a statistic that can’t be repeated often enough: Americans end up throwing away nearly half of our food, translating to $165 billion in groceries and farmers market haul at the bottom of the garbage can. That food waste is also the largest component of solid waste in U.S. municipal dumps.

Shopping habits can impact this rampant waste, but there’s plenty you can do once you bring your groceries home too. Remember how promising those wild blueberries looked, and your grand plans for that organic chicken? You don’t want them to go bad on you. Reorganizing the fridge in the most effective way possible could mean fewer tossed containers of Greek yogurt, which means saved money (and better breakfasts).
Here’s how restaurants do it: Place food in the fridge based on how thoroughly it needs to be cooked before it’s consumed. Foods that require no cooking can go on the top shelves, where it’s warmest. Then work your way down, with foods that need to be cooked to the highest temperature at the cold bottom (we’re looking at you, free-range bird).

It couldn’t hurt to keep a thermometer in your fridge to maintain an ideal temperature of about 37 degrees F, and to make sure the mercury doesn’t climb above 40 degrees F, at which point bacteria can grow like crazy. Space items out, too, so the cold air can circulate and do its job of keeping food fresh and ready for feasting.

Now, on to the specifics, area by area:

Door

This is the warmest part of the fridge, where the temperature can be a degree or two balmier than the main compartment, so it’s not a good home for anything highly perishable. (Ignore those adorable little egg cups, for starters.) Use the door’s shelves for the collection of condiments you’ve amassed while perfecting your pad thai and tikka masala. Pasteurized orange juice can go here too. Butter doesn’t need to be kept super-cold and can go right where your fridge wants you to put it—in the covered dairy compartment. (You can also keep soft cheeses, such as brie, in there.)

Top Shelf

This is the second-warmest area of the fridge. Put soft drinks, yogurt, leftovers, and anything ready-to-eat—such as deli meats and cheese—up here.

Cheese Drawer

If you have one, this can be the designated home for your aged Gouda, where it’s relatively warm. (Cheese, incidentally, can find many happy homes in the fridge. You can also keep it in the drawers at the bottom, if you tend to eat more Great Hill Blue than broccoli.)

Middle Shelf
Things are starting to get colder. Because we Americans need to refrigerate our eggs, this is where they should go, where the temperature is most consistent. The milk also goes here.

Bottom Shelf

Keep raw meat and seafood here, in their original packaging, and toward the back, where it’s coldest. If you buy a lot of meat and are concerned about drippy raw chicken juices contaminating fruits and vegetables in the drawers below (a valid worry), keep a separate plastic bin on this shelf devoted to uncooked meat. Bonus: easier cleanup if things do get messy.

Drawers

Here’s where things get a little bit complicated. Fruits and vegetables belong here, where refrigerator humidity levels are highest. But different produce requires different levels of moisture, and certain fruits emit ethylene, a gas that accelerates rotting in vegetables.

Your best bet is to make like the Offspring and keep ’em separated. Keep fruit in the lowest-humidity drawer, often marked “Crisper,” with the vent open, which allows more air to come in. Vegetables can tolerate more humidity. Keep the vent on this drawer closed, which keeps air from circulating and holds moisture in.

5 things to check on your appliances (part 2)

6. Fix rusty dish rack tines

Rust on the tines of your dishwasher racks can adhere to and ruin your dishes and silverware. To solve this issue, purchase a tine repair kit, and use a sealant to adhere the replacement tips over any rusty or chipped tines. Let dry for at least 24 hours before running the dishwasher.

7. Clean and deodorize your garbage disposalTurn the disposal off and look down the drain for any large, stuck items. Use tongs or another tool--not your hands--to remove blockages. Pour a mixture of ice cubes and salt, or vinegar down the drain. Run cold water over it for 10 seconds, and turn on the unit. To remove odors, place a handful of citrus peels in the disposal, run cold water, and turn it on.

8. Clean your dryer exhaust

Lint in the dryer exhaust not only reduces appliance efficiency, it is a fire hazard. To clean, loosen the clamp and pull the exhaust off the back of the dryer. Remove large clumps of lint from the tubing and the hole in the back with your hands, or if you can't reach, gently scrape with a straightened coat hanger. Vacuum and reattach.

9. Inspect washing machine hoses

Most washing machine floods are caused by leaks in the hose. Check the hoses that connect to the back panel on your washing machine for any cracks, leaks, or weak spots on the hoses. If you find any deformities, replace the hose. And at minimum, replace the hoses every five years.

10. Clean your air conditioner filter

Clogged or dirty filters restrict air flow, reducing energy efficiency as well as the appliance's lifespan. As a result, filters should be cleaned every two to four weeks. To clean the filter, remove the front panel of the unit. If a reusable filter is in place, vacuum it to remove as much dirt as possible. Disposable filters can simply be replaced

5 Tips to Make Your Refrigerator More Efficient

Today, we're looking at ways to make your refrigerator run a little more effectively in order to keep those bills down. These are simple tips that should help any home!

1. Vacuum the Back

The idea of pulling your refrigerator away from the wall isn't exactly at the top of anyone's to do list, but it can help so much. So much dust and dirt gets trapped behind your refrigerator (especially if you have pets) and this collects on the condenser coils. Once you've cleaned them off, the heat from your refrigerator will be able to be carried away without as much resistance, making your cycles run for a shorter period of time.

2. Check the Door Seal

Use a thin piece of paper or dollar bill to check whether your seal is losing air. Hold it up next to the closed refrigerator door and see if it flutters at all. The rubber or plastic door seal on your refrigerator can be easily replaced and although it might seem like a pain, we promise it's not. No one wants to pay to refrigerate their entire kitchen, especially when it's only a few bucks for a new gasket!

3. Cover Everything

Unless you're keeping crackers in your fridge, most foods in there contain moisture. When left uncovered, foods will leach this moisture into the air and the compressor in your refrigerator will have to work twice as hard to remove it. (Plus, most foods will suck up smells of other foods and that just gets weird.)

4. Let Your Food Cool Before Putting it Away

So you made a big batch of soup and you're really tired. Sleep needs to happen ASAP, and you just don't want to wait up any longer. Sure, you can toss it in the fridge, but your refrigerator will have to pull double duty to cool it down. Try to let foods sit as long as possible (without bacteria cooties growing) before putting them in the chill chest. 

5. Fill Empty Space with Water

Using empty soda bottles, juice containers, or even store bought water jugs can help keep your fridge full when you aren't packing it to the gills. It helps keep things cold so your refrigerator doesn't have to work as hard. As an added bonus you will always have water for the zombie apocalypse.

Have you found any other ways to keep your fridge running efficiently?

5 things to check on your appliances (part 1)

1. Verify your oven door has a tight seal

Without a proper seal, your oven can lose more than 20 percent of its heat. The result is that food takes longer to cook or cooks unevenly. To check the seal's condition, open the oven door and locate the rubber or fiberglass gasket around the perimeter of the door. Feel for any broken, torn, or deformed areas, and close the door to see if you can find any leaks. If you do, replace the seal.

2. Clean or replace dirty range hood or downdraft vent filters

Wash metal-mesh grease filters by hand in soapy water, or run them through the dishwasher. Charcoal or paper filters should not be washed. Replace them instead.

3. Clean stovetop drip bowls

Remove drip bowls from underneath your burner elements and presoak them in a cleaning solution for five minutes. Then hand wash and replace. Remember to clean drip bowls immediately after spills. If spills burn into the bowls, you might need to replace them.

4. Clean coils in your refrigerator

Dirt, dust, and pet hair can clog up refrigerator coils, restricting air flow and causing the refrigerator to work harder to keep cool. Once or twice a year, use a handheld vacuum to clean the coils and suck up any loose particles. The location of refrigerator coils varies by model, but most can be found either behind the kick plate (the front panel near the floor) or at the rear of the fridge.

5. Change your refrigerator water filter

Filters that don't efficiently remove contaminants and impurities could expose you to harmful water. Instructions for changing the filter vary by model, but most are as easy as turning the filter a quarter inch and popping it out or locking it in place. Perform this simple task every three to six months, depending on water usage.

Wrap your meat for an efficient freezing

This is an illustrated guide to wrapping meat in freezer paper for an airtight seal. It's not hard to learn, as the major trick is folding and re-folding the creases to push out the air, along with keeping the fold tight while you tape it off. Once you've mastered the "drugstore wrap," you'll get better-quality reheats, frostless meat, and a lot less guilt at freezer-cleaning time (as you end up tossing fewer arctic-frosted cuts).

Foods of highest quality, properly prepared for freezing, can lose color, flavor, texture and nutritive value if packaged improperly.

Proper packaging methods mean:

Using moisture-vapor-proof paper or containers

Removing as much air as possible from package

Carefully sealing tightly wrapped package

Labeling package for usage within recommended storage time.

1. Place meat on paper.

Tear off enough paper to go about one and a half times around meat, put shiny side next to meat (if using wax coated paper). Lay meat on center of paper and allow ample paper at sides.

2. Bring ends together.

Start folding ends of paper together over center of meat. Turn edges over to make a fold about an inch deep. Run your fingers along fold to make a good crease.

3. Fold to meat.

Keep turning paper over and crease each fold. The last fold should pull paper tight around meat. You want to get all the air out of package to prevent “freezer burn”.

4. Fold ends.

Press paper down close to sides of meat. Press out all the air you can to make a tight package. Fold in each of the four corners of paper. This will make a point at each end.

5. Turn under ends.

Turn pointed ends of paper under package. Then fold under about an inch at each end of package. You have made a tight package that will keep air out and moisture in.

6. Seal and label.

Seal with tape (you can use masking tape or freezer tape). Label each package with kind and amount of meat and date you put into your freezer. Now it’s ready to go into freezer.

This method of meat wrapping is also known as “The Drug Store Wrap“.

Tip: Store wrapped items seam side down to protect seal. You can double wrap meat if the freezer paper you’re using isn’t the best quality (or use one layer aluminum foil or plastic wrap then cover with freezer paper).