Is your fridge overflowing with bottles, containers, and packages of food?
Fridges have a way of becoming a second pantry, which can mean there is a lot of food in there that doesn’t actually need to be there.
This goes beyond expired items in the back that have become permanent fixtures.
The truth is, we’ve been using refrigerators for so long, that we can tend to forget their technical purpose.
According to How Stuff Works, the idea is that colder temperatures slow down the activity of bacteria, and make food last longer.
As it turns out, there are plenty of food items that aren’t prone to this kind of rapid bacteria growth and don’t need to be refrigerated at all. Or at least, not for as long or quickly as we might think.
If you’re looking for an excuse to free up from real estate in your fridge, learn about all the items that don’t need to necessarily be there.
1. Hot Sauce
Even if you don’t like spicy food, you probably have a bottle of hot sauce crowding up the door space in your fridge.
While keeping your hot sauce in the fridge could just be a matter of personal choice, you definitely don’t have to keep it in there for food safety reasons.
Most hot sauce’s main ingredient is vinegar — a natural preservative. That said, you’re still going to want to store your bottle in a cool dark place.
2. Potatoes
You may think they need to be stored in the fridge because potatoes are produce.
The truth is, refrigerating potatoes will do them and your dinner a lot more harm than good.
Food Republic explains that potato starch turns into sugar when cold, which causes them to go bad more quickly. Therefore, you’re going to want to keep them as far away from the fridge as possible.
