My food shopping has never been the same since the coronavirus pandemic started. The first thing that happened is that I started visiting the store less frequently. Individual grocery shopping errand now involved taking home a lot more food than previously.
This created a new problem – my fridge seemed a lot more congested. To adapt to my new situation, I had to discover new, better ways of organizing my fridge to avoid chaos.
In the end it was simple really. And it turns out I already had the tools I needed to add one more shelf to my fridge in one simple step.
I slid my cutting board into the fridge and instantly I had a new shelf. This gave me more storage space and still gave me a clear view of the contents of my fridge. I didn’t experience any resultant food wastage after this.
I minimize food waste by shopping for food I know I am going to eat. Things like organic milk (grass-fed), organic kefir, and plenty of yogurt. Most of my meals are rich in salad greens, fruits, and more and more vegies. These are food items that tend to occupy a lot of fridge space.
I strategically placed my cutting board somewhere towards the fridge and on top of tall things like milk, which gave me a new makeshift shelf instantly.
In case you want to do this without a cutting board, half a baking sheet or a pretty kitchen tray can do instead.
I made this new shelf work for me better by only putting stuff I am going to use quickly. In my case, I use it to store soon-to-be-expired yogurt, or fresh vegies and fruits that are ready to eat now. I also use it for leftovers that need to be eaten soon.
Even if you don’t buy a lot of milk bottles, you can still turn a cutting board into a fridge shelf by stacking a bunch of similarly shaped items in your fridge and placing it on top. Use a casserole dish, yogurts, or leftover containers for this.
This tip has worked for me over the past one year and I don’t think I am about to stop using it. I suspect that even if I were to go back to my pre-Covid shopping habits, I’d still keep my extra ‘fridge shelf.’
