TIP: Write dates on containers for refrigeration

Do you have trouble growing in your refrigerator? Do you look inside and wonder how old that spaghetti is? Do you remember if you had that fried chicken on Thursday or Friday? Now we don’t want to waste food and just throw it out when we can't remember how old it is, that’s throwing money in the trash. But we can't eat it either, it could be old and gross, or worse yet, it could make us sick.

Here’s where a Sharpie® could be your best friend!

Many of use the disposable kitchen containers such as Rubbermaid take alongs® or Ziplock® containers already. If you don’t use these you might want to find something that you feel comfortable writing on. (Consider that you can often remove permanent marker from some plastics using rubbing alcohol, but there is no guarantee. You could test it on the bottom if it is a concern.) I use the Rubbermaid® brand containers, When they get too much writing or just wear out, I can buy 4 more of them for just a few bucks. The key here is to put your leftovers in the container, and write on the lid the date and day. I use this method because sometimes when I know I have had something recently, it’s just easier to look at the day mark to see when we had it. For today I would write on the lid “8/13 W” which translates August 13th Wednesday. It allows me to always keep track of everything in the fridge knowing that it is or is not safe to eat. You can also write on the lids of such things as spaghetti sauce jars, so you don’t use it after it has gone bad. (I wonder how long that is, anyway. Anybody know?) You can use this method on baggies with food in them, or just about anything in your fridge or freezer, that isn’t already dated. When the bowl is washed and ready to use again, just put a line through the previous date and put the new date underneath. You can get 4-5 columns of dates on one average size square lid.

Another great tip: when you clean out your fridge and there some questionable things in there that you really don’t want to touch or scoop or smell…just throw the bowl in the freezer and once frozen pop (or run hot water over the bottom of the bowl) to remove the block of frozen food, put it in a trash bag and take it out. No mess. No smell. Just make sure you remember what you put in the freezer, and tell your family that it is no good. I do this by marking an X or “bad” on the lid. When the bowl has been cleaned and you are ready to use it again, don’t forget to put a line through the X (or bad) and write your new date.