While my family and I have been enjoying the weekly produce from our CSA, I have also made my fair share of refrigerator snafus over the weeks. (Note to self: an overloaded fridge will freeze mustard greens and kaboko cabbage faster than you can SAY mustard greens and kaboko cabbage!)
Besides keeping the door closed as much as possible (unlike this photo!), here are three simple ways to keep it as energy efficient as possible:
- Keep it filled up but NOT overcrowded (yea, that freezing issue!) – if it starts to look a little empty, a few covered pitchers of water will do wonders.
- Cover EVERYTHING – anything that is uncovered will release moisture and make the refrigerator work overtime to keep the contents cold.
- “Give it some space” – while you might be tempted to buy the largest fridge on the planet, it truly needs about 2 inches of space on all sides for proper air circulation and you especially don’t want anything that “heats” (dishwasher, stove, oven, etc.) nearby because it again makes it work harder than it needs to.
There you have it… 1, 2, 3… may your refrigerator runneth over with healthy (unfrozen) produce!
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Oh man. I never thought about the stove not being near the fridge before. Why is stuff like that so obvious once you think about it for a second yet so impossible to think of on your own? And of course I have a recently remodeled kitchen with stove and fridge almost next to each other. Awesome.
Thanks for the tips! I love the pitchers of water idea!
Olivemom – oops! But stick with 1 & 2 and it still helps!
Thanks for the great tips. I am a green minded Mom, but I have a long way to go. I like you blog. Please stop by my blog as well. Also I tweeted your article about getting the most from your fresh produce. cleverlychanging.com
[...] shared my simple “1-2-3” tips for ways to make your refrigerator as efficient as possible, but sometimes the energy loss has [...]
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