You Won't Ignore Fruits And Veggies Ever Again With This Smart Fridge Organization Tip

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How many times have you opened the crisper drawers in your fridge, only to discover a bag of gooey cilantro or sad, withered lemons? Into the trash it goes, yet another victim of "out of sight, out of mind." Storing fruits and veggies in crisper drawers isn't necessarily a storage mistake that can ruin your food — after all, they are designed to regulate humidity and thus extend the shelf life of your produce (assuming you're using those fridge drawers correctly). However, the very nature of keeping your produce in a drawer that isn't easy to see into means that it's easy to forget. And while some produce has a shelf life of up to a few weeks, other produce has a much narrower window of just a few days. So if you want to break the cycle of purchase produce, neglect produce, discard produce; it may be time to re-think your fridge organization.

Enter the "ADHD-friendly fridge." The key aspect of this organizational approach is to make sure your shortest shelf-life items are the most visible. Start by moving your produce out of the crisper drawers and into the main part of the fridge. Re-purpose the crisper drawers as condiment or beverage storage — items with a long shelf life that you'll be able to find when you want them. Store the produce in the door of your refrigerator or on the primary shelves — as long as it's visible and easy-to-access.

Redditors on the r/ADHDWomen subreddit who have tried the ADHD-friendly fridge hack or something similar have additional advice to offer. One user shared that they use the lower crisper drawer for storing raw meat; if the meat leaks, the mess will be contained and easier to clean up. Other people say they don't use the crisper drawers at all, or remove them entirely to create extra, visible shelf space. One helpful thing several people mention is to keep your perishables at eye-level as much as possible.

Additional storage options include bringing back one of our favorite old-fashioned refrigerator features: the lazy Susan. While lazy Susans don't typically come with modern fridges, you can purchase them separately and add them to your fridge, such as the Amazon Basics Clear Lazy Susan Turntable, which comes in a variety of sizes for around $20 or less. Several people who have utilized the "ADHD fridge" technique also enjoy having a lazy Susan in their fridge for easier access to products. Or, you could purchase some additional, small clear storage bins to place items in. These can help your refrigerator look organized while being easy to remove from the shelves when you need something in them. One Redditor in the same subreddit noted that fridge organization hacks like this simply don't seem to work for them; however, they found success in reducing waste by using a whiteboard to keep track of perishable items inside the fridge.