Good Question: Do Fridge Crisper Drawers Really Work?
One commenter in the post about how not to waste food offered her solution to wasting less food which is to put vegetables and fruits on the top shelf of the refrigerator so that they won’t go forgotten in the produce drawer.
I “learned” that each section of the refrigerator had a specific purpose for keeping foods. True? Old wives tale? Can we get a refresher on how to best use our fridge and store its contents properly?
– Heather
Heather, this is a great question, and we’re answering it today because we also ran a good post today on organizing the fridge by health and safety factors. We have done a lot of reading and Googling around on fridge “low-humidity” drawers and we’re having a hard time finding any sort of evidence that they do anything other than close part of your fridge off. Yes, that cuts down on humidity because they are more enclosed, and it can be good to separate out fruits and vegetables in these places. But that is a small element of your fridge organization.
The main thing we’ve learned the hard way is not to keep dairy and other highly perishable foods on the door; it does indeed stay slightly warmer than other parts of the fridge.
Other than that, we try to keep the fridge organized more for efficiency. We just heard an NPR piece about how a Chinese family organizes the fridge so that they can open the door and almost lay their hands on what they need – no standing and thinking in front of an open fridge.
We also organize for health, keeping veggies separate from meat, and trying to keep clutter to a minimum so we don’t forget about food and let it go to waste.
Here is a good article on keeping your fridge organized and efficient.
More thoughts for Heather?
(Image: Bosch Classic Edition, via Home Appliances)