Spring cleaning is a good time to go through your mom’s kitchen cabinets, fridge, and freezer. Remove the expired items and do a thorough cleaning when you do. When it comes to reorganizing, do you know what belongs in the refrigerator or freezer and what doesn’t?
Items That Need to Be in the Fridge
While you’ve probably seen grapes sitting in a fruit bowl in magazines and on TV, it’s not an ideal way to store them. They should be in the fridge. If not, eat them quickly as it won’t take long before they start to spoil.
Most eggs have been washed before packaging. This washes away a protective coating that prevents bacteria from getting into the shell. Store them in the fridge. If you raise chickens and have fresh eggs, refrigeration may not be as important if you don’t wash the eggs prior to storage.
Items That Need to Be in the Freezer
Some items that are typically stored in the fridge or pantry are best stored in the freezer. Yeast is one of them. Put your yeast in the freezer and it lasts much longer. Whole wheat flour and other whole grain flours are also going to last longer if you store them in the freezer.
Whole grains can go rancid over time, and they’re not the only thing. If you buy nuts in bulk for baking or use almond flour, put those items in the freezer to help them last longer.
Items That Shouldn’t Be in the Fridge or Freezer
A lot of people put their soy sauce in the fridge. It doesn’t need to be. Soy sauce has a lot of sodium that prevents it from spoiling. You can leave it in your pantry.
Avocados can be refrigerated, but they won’t ripen. If you have unripe avocados, putting them in your fridge isn’t going to help. Instead, let them ripen on the counter and then move them to your fridge once they’re ripe. The same is true of bananas.
Butter should be refrigerated if you’ve bought it in bulk. If you only have one stick and know you’ll use it up within a couple of weeks, don’t bother storing it in the fridge. You can freeze other sticks until you need them.
Finally, there’s an old wives’ tale that storing batteries in the fridge makes them last longer. Alkaline batteries do not lose more than 1 percent of their charge each month when left in a cupboard. Refrigerating them doesn’t make a difference. The condensation that can form can actually cause damage.
Does your mom struggle with housework? Senior care is one way to make sure she’s able to get her daily tasks done. The items she struggles to complete don’t have to cause her distress. She could have a caregiver sent by a senior care agency to take over her household cleaning.
If you or an aging loved one is considering senior care in Parker, CO, please contact the caring staff at SYNERGY HomeCare today at 303-953-9924.
