this is a great idea, my husband and i are always forgetting about fresh foods or something new we bought and 2 weeks later we have to throw it out.

great tip, thanks!

Good idea, but don't forget that you can also freeze a lot of things before they go bad - that pasta sauce being a prime candidate!

I am definitely going to try this. I'm the one who shops and cooks in my home, and my husband tends to tune out these decisions. I have frequently found 2 jars of the same item open at once in the fridge (he saw the back-up in the pantry and opened it, not realizing there was some still in the fridge). The other day I opened my second egg carton to find 4 eggs in there, not 12. This is exactly the kind of visual reminder we need.

Sounds like CMCINNYC and I are married to the same person. Great idea!

In our home, if we buy a duplicate of something like milk, ketchup or eggs, we store it behind the already open one or underneath the ones that are already in the fridge, as is the case with produce. That way, the stuff that's already open or has been there gets used up first.

With eggs, I bought an attractive glass bowl and just keep them all in there and throw out the carton. The eggs that need to be consumed first get marked in writing, "Eat me first!"

With condiments, I keep them where I store my cooking oils and vinegars if they are unopened. I don't usually forget about them and buy a new one if I run out of the refrigerated one because I've already formed the habit.

Fruits that are kept in the fridge, like berries or those in storage containers, are placed on the very top shelf. That way they are always visible and will never get left forgotten in the fridge.

In general, my fridge is never overstocked with food items. We tend to buy the bare necessities (for the reason of if not using it, then it has to get thrown out).

I treat the pantry the same way as the fridge.

First and foremost, I love the kitchn, so it's an honor that you guys reposted - thanks! Secondly, thanks for the positive comments everyone. And I love that idea Anita83 - gonna place my eggbowl right in my "Eat me first" basket!

that is a great idea

I love this idea. It's annoying that I'm the one who always has to be aware of what's about to go bad. If I put things right up front, my husband is more likely to eat them. If they have their own special bin, the likelihood that he'd go for them would go waaaay up!

$100 a month? that sounds a bit excessive! Thats a lot of peoples whole monthly budget! Maybe they are talking about bigger households than a single or a couple.

Ive found that once again it all goes back to planning, when planing out a menu for the week I see first what we already have that needs to be used, then decide what im making, then check to see what I dont have and buy it. When you approach meals this way its hard to forget about something or end up with too much forgotten stuff.

like others i do try to rotate things forward (old in front, new in back) to use staples like onions, eggs, etc first.

Dont forget those extra veggies and stuff can be frozen to use for stock later when you have enough! Extra meat scraps usually become doggie treats.

To take this a little farther, I have some low-profile plastic trays on one shelf in the fridge. They hold items like sour cream, yogurt, cream cheese, pickles, jams and jellies (you know, those little things that get lost but don't belong in the door). There are 3 side-by-side on the shelf, and they are long and narrow. I can just pull out one tray to get to items in the back without digging around. They've been amazingly useful.

I like this idea a LOT! I actually tend to waste food because I forget that I have it...I definitely need to do this with my fridge food.

Great idea! I'll go and find a suitable plastic container right now!

One thing that's made a difference for me--and this might be heresy--is not using our crisper drawers. I never noticed much prolonging of shelf life or quality with them, at least in our particular, older fridge, but I did notice they were where produce went to get pushed to the bottom of the drawer and die. Now I use one for storage of some of those little jar/bottle kind of cooking ingredients that otherwise want to roll all over the fridge and one for a veggie item or two I know I wont forget (like a big bag of baby carrots). It's definitely cut out waste to have the lettuce and other greens where I'll see and use them.

Oh man, my crisper doors TOTALLY prolong the life of veg. A head of lettuce in there will last about a week, as opposed to just a few days inside the regular fridge. My fridge must have extra-special moisture-sucking properties. Lol.

I do the same thing as Anita83 - when I get more milk or eggs or what have you, the oldest item goes in front (or in the case of egg cartons, on top). Maybe it's just because we did that when I was working in food service, but it makes sense.

As for the box thing, I think that might work best for leftovers! My fridge is deep but not particularly wide, so boxes of leftovers often get pushed to the back and forgotten.

My question is - why don't fridges have rolling pull-out shelves like my favorite cabinets? That would make finding things much easier.

I eat a lot of yogurt and have a plastic box that I put the newest purchase in the back and older in front. That way I know without looking at the expiration date that I have the oldest container in my hand. The box is of a web design so air circulates around it and I can see what I want to grab without draging the whole box out.

'Why didn't I think of that!!" type of post..so true of the pushed to the bottom to die vegetable's..'what's this whizzled old bit of green down there...' oh..it's my fresh from last week or so broccoli..' argh..I used to do the eggs in the bowl for charm purposes..but I do the new milk behind the old, as in the stores. I will also look around my home for a basket to put the unused frozen veg. bags that accumulate all jumbled around and opened, that I could of at least tossed into a soup...waste..you're right! Thanks for all these great tips to keep myself on top of things!

I use a lazy susan in my fridge for all those little opened jars of things, leftovers and for yogurt etc. Milk and eggs don't last long enough to need to be there.

I make and take a lunch to work so I also have two baskets. One is full of everything needed to make a sandwich and the other is filled with everything that goes with a sandwich (single serve fruit, yogurt, cheese sticks, single serve hummus, cut up veggies, etc.) Makes lunch making a little easier and much quicker.

This is GENIUS! I'm the person that watches the commercials about how much food American's throw away and thinks "Yea that's totally me". This article has just radically changed my life.

I've developed a habit I like to call "pantricide." That's where you gear a meal to kill as much as the fridge and pantry as you can. It challenges you as a cook to come up with new ideas based on what ingredients are just about to GO. My favorites include turning leftover squash and nearly-squishable carrots into orange gnocchi, and making leftover corned beef from St. Patrick's Day, a near-empty bag of frozen shrimp, and an about-to-mold brick of cream cheese into peppercorn alfredo sauce.
We hardly ever have to throw anything away in my house.
I'm spending the week at my mom's, dog and house sitting while she's on a scuba diving trip, and I'm exercising pantricide on her freezer. He had it comin'.