5 Intelligent Ways to Use Your Refrigerator Crisper Drawers

The Kitchn Editors
The Kitchn Editors
The Kitchn editors are home cooks living across the country. We obsess over all aspects of life in the kitchen: cooking, snacking, grocery shopping, cleaning and organizing (even renovating).
Kristin Appenbrink
Kristin Appenbrink
Kristin is the co-founder of Part Time Vegan and Silent Book Club. As a former editor at Real Simple, she is compulsively organized and loves solving people's problems. She has a weakness for desserts, especially ice cream.
updated May 1, 2019
pinterest
comments
We independently select these products—if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices were accurate at the time of publishing.
Post Image
(Image credit: Ken Tannenbaum)

Be honest — when you get home from the grocery store, do you just haphazardly toss your fruits and veggies into whichever crisper drawer has the most space? If so, you’re not making the most of those seemingly simple plastic drawers. Here are five ways to hack your crisper drawers for a more organized fridge.

(Image credit: The Paupered Chef)

1. Use this ingenious method to create a salad drawer.

If you leave it in the plastic bag from the grocery store, lettuce can quickly become a soggy mess. Avoid that by storing washed greens in a bin lined with a paper towel or a dish towel, as shown in this tip from The Paupered Chef. This will help absorb moisture and keep your spinach, kale, and mustard greens fresh.

Read More: How to Store Lettuce in the Fridge at The Paupered Chef

(Image credit: Chris Perez)

2. Create high- and low-humidity zones.

If your refrigerator has humidity controls on the drawers, designate one as a high-humidity drawer and the other as a low-humidity drawer. Then use the motto “rot, low; wilt, high” to remember which fruits and veggies go into which drawer.

More on Crisper Drawer Intelligence: For a complete list of where each type of produce should be stored, check out our guide to your crisper drawers.

(Image credit: Emma Christensen)

3. Use a drawer for raw meat.

Some refrigerators have a meat drawer below the crisper drawers, but if yours doesn’t and you prefer to keep your produce at eye-level in the fridge, consider reserving one drawer for raw meat. Because it’s on the bottom of the fridge, it will prevent any accidental drips from contaminating the rest of your fridge. If you need both crisper drawers for an abundance of produce, consider using a meat bin instead.

Credit: Apartment Therapy

4. Use bins in your drawers for items that don’t need bags.

Not everything in your crisper drawer needs to be kept in the plastic produce bag you brought it home in. For items like apples, pears, or bell peppers, stash them in a separate bin in the crisper drawer to keep them from rolling around, as is shown in this idea from I Heart Organizing.

(Image credit: Lifehacker)

5. Skip the produce all together and use them for beer!

If you have opaque drawers and your veggies tend to rot or wilt because you just forget that they are in there, it might be smarter to skip storing produce in there all together. Instead try this idea from Lifehacker and use that space for something like beer, soda, or sparkling water. We’re guessing you won’t forget about any of those.

Do you have any unique uses for the crisper drawer?

Filed in:
Tips & Techniques