How to organise your fridge the Marie Kondo expert way

New data has revealed that the average spend on the weekly shop in Britain is up almost 20 per cent since lockdown started – despite the fact that overall, Brits have made 77 million fewer visits to the shop compared to the same period last year.

With the nation’s fridges bulging, Marie Kondo-certified expert Sue Spencer has produced tips on how to organise your fridge, .

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Sue, a professional home organiser , said: “It’s important to know how to store food products because not only does this make it easier for you to access what you need while preparing meals, but it also means your food will stay at optimum quality for longer.

“It’s likely that there’s some obscure, half used jars clogging up space in the fridge – so there’s no better time to spend an hour decluttering, cleaning and reorganising your fridge so it serves you better.”

Before organising your fridge, Sue recommends a full audit of your food products, so you start with a clean slate.

Sue’s tips for a top to bottom fridge audit include gathering all the contents of the fridge together and group into categories of similar items and then through each category and check use by/best before dates and remove anything that’s obviously past its best.

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Next, go through each category in turn and look at what you have, making decisions about whether it’s something you will definitely use in future or not.

If it’s unlikely that you will use it before it’s used by date, discard it.

Once the audit is done, you can move on to organising your fridge.

Sue said: “Start with the bottom drawer and save this for vegetables and fruit – this cooler space in the fridge helps to keep the vegetables fresher for longer.

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“If the drawer isn’t big enough to fit everything just store your veg in it and put the fruit in the main body of the fridge.

“Don’t keep potatoes in the fridge thought, they should be kept in a well ventilated, dark, dry place.

“Use the lowest shelf in the fridge for raw meat and fish – these should always be kept in sealed packs or containers.

“Storing these products lower down in the fridge also limits any nasty drips or spillages if the packaging splits.

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“Put any fruit or salad that doesn’t fit in the bottom drawer on the lower shelf.

“The middle shelf should be used for dairy produce – cheese, yoghurts, cold puddings and eggs.

“Eggs do not belong in the fridge door, simply because this area is exposed to the opening and closing of the door.

“Milk should also be stored on the middle shelf where possible.

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“On the top shelf, store any leftovers, ready to eat deli foods (like ham) and things that do not need to be cooked at the top of the fridge.

“The fridge door is the least consistent temperature in the fridge due to it being opened and closed frequently.

“It’s best to use the door to store things like condiments and non-perishable items like juices and jams.

“You can also store soft dairy items like butter in the door.

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“You’ll be able to see exactly what’s in the fridge, which makes it easy to grab things and helps to reduce food waste and your shopping bill.

Food will stay fresh for longer as it’s all stored in the right place and, if you use fridge organisers, these will catch any crumbs and can be easily cleaned.”

This research was carried out in association with home appliances manufacturer Hisense.

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