Wanna Reduce Fridge Waste? Get Some Help With An Eat-First Box

There are two types of people in this world: people who haphazardly toss food items in the fridge and walk away and people who need order and cleanliness at any cost. If you fall into the former category, I feel you. Amid the hustle and bustle of daily life, keeping everything neat and tidy and ensuring you make the most of your fridge space is hard. But, beyond just feeling cluttered, there's also the stress of food waste.

As grocery prices continue to rise, it's not a good feeling to find a moldy bag of lettuce or an uneaten cottage cheese container at the back of your fridge. Nobody likes wasting food, but avoiding it seems impossible at times. To prevent as much waste and save as much money as possible, there's a handy storage trick that we'd recommend: Make yourself an "eat-first" box so that the most time-sensitive groceries don't get forgotten about.

When your fridge is full, it's easy for items to get pushed right to the back. While this doesn't matter with all foods, it means you can easily miss the opportunity to eat certain things before they pass their use-by date. To ensure you and your loved ones are reaching for those items first, fill a box (of any kind) that fits on a fridge shelf and put ready-to-expire food items into it. Ensure the box is front and center so that when someone in your house looks for dinner ideas or a snack, their eye goes straight to it. Just make sure you're not putting together any foods that are a cross-contamination risk like fresh produce with cooked or raw meat. 

By moving items around in the fridge and organizing them so that the expiration dates are visible and apparent, you'll likely notice your family is throwing away less food, reducing waste, and finally maximizing your time, effort, and money to the fullest.