How do YOU organize your veggie bins?

[mamaofprincesses]

The crispers, I mean, in the refridgerator.

I have no system. I toss things into whichever drawer has room at the moment. I'd like some sort of system. DH said he thought there was some way to organize it by veggie and make the settings (ours have little control things?) ideal for those veggies, but he wasn't sure exactly what and how.

Thoughts?

[Drummer's Wife]

I just toss the veggies in the vegetable drawer and fruits in the fruit one. Oh, and meat in the bottom one if I'm not freezing it right away (like bacon, b/c I know it will get eaten). I don't actually know what the setting should be at - so I'm subbing to see what others have to say. They are set however the kids mess with them. Oh, and if we have a lot of deli cheese and meats I put them in the fruit drawer, just b/c there is usually more room in that one, since I keep a bit of fruit out on the counters.

[justmeandmybrood]

This rental has an older fridge, so we have only the one temp control...we have 3 drawers, so one is for cheeses, 1 is for fruits, and 1 is for veggies. Of course there are times when the fruits and veggies must co-mingle if i have more of one than the other, lol!

[sunnysandiegan]

All of our drawer fronts and shelves are clear glass or plastic.

I keep fruit in the top drawer (no controls, which means higher humidity than rest of fridge; eye level so it gets eaten). Technically, this drawer is meant for deli meats and cheese. We use a pull-out shelf for cheese and eggs. They both get eaten pretty fast in our house, so long-term storage isn't a concern.

I keep veggies in the middle drawer with the humidity control about halfway, unless it is mostly leafy greens -- then I put it lower humidity if the greens are in plastic bags and higher humidity if they are not. Leafy greens get slimy easily in plastic bags in high humidity. Leafy greens also wilt quickly if the humidity is too low (out of plastic bag or in plastic bag in regular part of fridge). We have a CSA and receive quite a bit of leafy greens every other week. They require the most "upkeep" for us!

DH tosses meat in the bottom drawer and the humidity control is open/low/same as rest of fridge. Any deli meat ends up down here along with bacon, sausage, thawed meat, etc. This is the naturally coldest part of most side-by-side fridges, so it works well for meat.

[lifeguard]

We don't use ours for fruits & veggies much - 'cause they tend to get forgotten then & go bad.

We put bags of milk in one of the bottom crispers. The other one is used for carrots & such (stuff that lasts a long time). The rest of our fruit/veggies go on the bottom shelf. The top crisper we use for meats/cheeses.

[LCBMAX]

Our fridge is about to die, and has been freezing veggies so we moved them to the door. I like it better! I keep dairy and meat each in a drawer, and the veggies and fruits in the lowest door shelves, and we SEE the veggies and we EAT the veggies. Much faster turnover. Plus, it's less gross to me to have the meat confined to a drawer, and having the dairy below means so much more shelf room for my husband's hundred condiments.

[MisaGoat]

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=...tBhGvyRU6vH6cg

Here is a guide to storing food in the fridge.

Honestly I just put the veggies in one drawer, some stay on the counter.

[ollyoxenfree]

We have 3 drawers:

- a meat/cheese drawer
- 1 veggie drawer I use for tender-leaved items - lettuces, spinach etc., and any fresh herbs that don't need to be placed in water (rosemary, thyme, oregano etc.)
- 1 veggie drawer I use for the tougher stuff - carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, zucchini etc.

Asparagus and some herbs (basil, parsley etc.) are stored in the fridge individually in a glass jar with about an inch of water.

Most fruit I keep in a bowl on the table, in the hope that it will get eaten. If we have berries, they are kept in covered bowls on a shelf in the refrigerator. We also have a pyrex container full of sliced watermelon on a shelf in the fridge right now.

[CariOfOz]

I honestly use them for very little... things like oranges that aren't going to go off quickly and large veggies (think chard) taht I'm planning to cook within 24h. Might not be THE most popular choice here, because it's plastic butI use the tupperware fridge smarts for all my veggies. I got tired of throwing stuff out because even in our newish fridge, crispers didn't keep anything crisp lol.