Saturday, January 26, 2008

The Refigerator

Part of reclaiming your kitchen and freeing yourself of drive-thru/delivery hell is paying attention to what you have on hand and making it easily accessible. This includes the refrigerator.

Your task is to completely clean out your refrigerator. Take everything out and wipe down the inside with mild soap and water. This includes wiping off the bottles of salad dressing, ketsup, etc., that have been in there for God-only-knows-how-long. If you can't remember the last time you used that opened 1/2 bottle of whatever it is, get rid of it. When in doubt THROW IT OUT.

After wiping out the refrigerator, put things back in groups. Group like items together like putting all condiments next to each other, putting dairy products together, etc. You will quickly figure out a pattern that is convenient for you. This saves you precious time when you need to reach for something in a recipe.

Also, I'm a fan of plastic, gallon-sized zip lock bags. For example, I keep deli meat and cheese in a large zip-lock bag. That way when I make sandwiches for lunches in the morning all I have to do is reach for that one bag and all the sandwich fixings are together. I don't have to dig around for stuff.

Remember, the Golden Rule is: If your cooking items and utensils are not easily accessible, you're not going to use them. Arrange your kitchen as such.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Guess what I'll be doing on Monday??