What do you keep/ never ever put in your fridge?

NotSpaghetti

I don't put eggs in the fridge because they are sealed units and not washed (as I live in the UK).
I don't put apples/oranges in the fridge unless I have loads of them.
Likewise Avocados.

I don't put coffee in the fridge as I use it regularly and it doesn't have time to go off. I have some of a particular sort in the freezer though.

I don't put bread in the fridge and don't buy coke etc.
I have a 70/30 fridge/freezer

Much the same as above.
Eggs go in larder as does coffee, potatoes and other veg.
Fruit goes in fruit bowl and bread in bread bin.
Our fridge is always half empty but contains yoghurts mayo
Salad dressings, salad stuff cheesebox any cold meat and marge and butter. Also a few days in advance meat or fish products and bacon.
Something I never put in fridge? Trainers 😄

I haven’t put eggs in the fridge for about 20 years or more, but do remember buying fridges which all came with little egg containers

I keep potatoes and onions in the garage (it's always cool in there). I'm vegan, so, unless I have visitors, there's just salad, loads of vegetables, smoked tofu, apples - all the opened sauces etc. and oat milk in there. I keep some bread in the freezer part but there's another freezer in the garage.

It's half empty, usually, so the spare space is filled with lots of sandwich boxes, food containers - even empty sauce pans - to stop all the cold air escaping when I open the door. Really, I wanted fridge and freezer drawers (much more convenient and efficient) but couldn't find the space, width-wise. They're still on my wish list for my next place, though.

I never put bread in the fridge as I think it spoils it. I do keep all pickles, sauces, chutneys etc in the fridge although we never did years ago, we had a sauce cupboard. Eggs are also in the fridge although I know they’re supposed to be better used at room temperature.
I didn’t know that about potatoes Blondiescot I do sometimes put bags of new potatoes in the salad draw so will stop doing that.

“The most important food not to keep in the fridge are potatoes … ” the Food Standards Agency, says. “When these are stored in the fridge, the starch in the potato is converted to sugar. When baked or fried, these sugars combine with the amino acid asparagine and produce the chemical acrylamide, which is thought to be harmful.”

The way I think is.

Think of where you have bought it in the shop?

Was it in the chilled section or on a shelf.

Obviously with some things they are ok on a shelf until they have been opened, then need to be in the fridge.

Eggs for example are on shelves in the supermarket not in the chiller.

I don't put fruit in the fridge as I like it to ripen.

I have been known to put carrots/potatoes in the fridge as they do keep longer.

The only thing I would say is to make sure you have no waste... waste is well, a waste of space lol

If it all gets used you should just be proud of yourself for having such a fresh healthy diet

and several different jars of nuts and seeds

Should I keep nuts in the fridge?
It's not something I thought of, they're in storage jars in the cupboard.
The oils (olive and organic rapeseed) are in the cupboard too.

Bread is in the freezer, we just take out what is required usually.

I keep eggs in a cupboard, fruit in a fruit bowl. In my 'fridge, at the moment -

milk, bacon, cheese, ham, chicken, salad stuff, yogurts, fruit juice, butter, vegetables, sauces (mayonnaise, stir-fry sauce, ketchup), fish (for tonight), and Quark.

shysal

If you think about the conditions the shops use for eggs and bread, it is obvious that they don't need refrigeration.

Shops/stores work on getting things OFF their shelves daily. I shop weekly and require things to last at least that long. So, I do not try to copy how supermarkets store things (in view), to how I do at home.
I use a lot of eggs, have a couple for lunch most days. Purchase a dozen each week. Have a container that in which these store flat - do not like the idea of eggs living on top of eggs, (I would definitely be too lazy to sort out the bottom ones), Each week, I just move the remaining eggs forward and put the new lot behind. This container has a lid, so I can keep other items on top.

With regard to bread, I have tried, in the past, to keep this out of the fridge - never lasts very long. Only use two slices a day, in the fridge my Nimble loaf easily lasts up to ten days, outside it is five days. Tried having bread frozen, but find that does change the flavour of it - even when I remembered to take it out in good time to defrost.

Butter is kept in the fridge - stored, but once it is put into the butter dish it stays on my worktop. The three or four cola cans that I keep there for g.children visits (okay - not good for them, but the whole point of visiting g.mother is to be a little spoiled). takes up very little room. Rarely purchase fruit drinks, I drink tea of water. Do not have alcohol. I do find that keeping opened jams etc in the fridge does give them a very much extended life, and I like a good choice of those. I keep opened peanut butter in the fridge (it is butter and only used occasionally), lemon and orange curd, marmalades. Not honey, that lives in a cupboard.

I do not mind my well-stocked fridge - I very rarely actually need to thrown any foods away - so must be doing something right.

My children have told me for years that I have a 'siege mentality) - which actually does well for me as we go through intermittent shortages.

We keep ours quite full with bottles of fizz water and beer, coffee beans to grind, oranges to juice and a large variety of nuts. I think nuts last better in the fridge, we use many varieties in large quantities.

Aldom

Elegran I use Sainsbury's Taste the Difference jam and marmalade. Storage instructions are on the jars.
After opening refrigerate, eat within six weeks I've never had mould on jam or marmalade stored this way.

What is the percentage of sugar in the finished Taste the Difference jam? 60% should keep. It starts with equal quantities of fruit and sugar and is boiled down to setting point, which is usually when the sugar content is 60%. Recently jam is often made with less, as the jam-eaters want to avoid eating as much sugar.
Preserved fruits in boxes don't mould unless they get damp.

The problem is not the jam itself going off, it is the entry of mould spores from the air taking root and growing. The longer it is opened, the more chance of a rogue spore getting in, and mould prefers dampness . Mine kept singly in the cupboard keeps for weeks (I've not measured exactly how long) without going mouldy, but if I have several opened jars on the go, they can be standing around forgotten for longer.

I've an undercounter fridge 25\75. These days I've very little in it (only me) and fill the spare capacity with polystyrene blocks to save the energy consumption. Works wonderfully well for me.

Never kept bread water fruit jams etc in fridge
I don’t have things like chutneys olives gherkins in a fridge
I dont eat meat or fish so nothing in that line

Milk cheese butter eggs, drink and yogurt is about all I have in mine
I shop once a week so don’t ever have much not used up

I have 50/50 fridge freezer the freezer is pretty full with bread, meat, some frozen vegs and portioned meals I've made myself. The door has jams, mayo and various sauces, my fridge is only fullish on shopping days with veg and salad drawers full. Coleslaw, cheeses, cooked chicken and whatever I'm defrosting for dinner on the other shelves and a bottle of fizzy water. Doesnt sound much but I'm trying not to snack unless its fruit, apples satsumas and grapes.

I live alone and have the tallest possible miele freestanding fridge, also the identical freezer. Both are always full. I keep hm bread sliced and bagged, in the freezer, which is also used for grass fed meat, fish, vac packed organic coffee beans, large amount of home grown berries, salmon portions, home cooked ready meals etc. Freezer is also good for portioning and freezing my organic milk.

I keep my eggs and all fruits apart from bananas in the fridge. I need that size fridge as I eat 10-14 a day of fresh veg/fruit or I will juice eg carrots and celery and pour into small bottles to keep in the fridge.for a few days I make my own jams and marmalades and being made properly, they keep for a very long time, once opened then they go into the fridge as do all types of sauces and spreads and cooking oils, apart from olive oil

I don`t use commercial sliced hams or corned beef, any meat I do use comes out of the freezer for cooking. There are plenty of goats cheeses in my fridge and several different jars of nuts and seeds

The tall fridge and freezer were the first things I bought for my new house. I use the unused fixed fridge/freezer as a very good storage device. It has never been on and is ideal for spices, herbs, cooking ingredients etc. The smaller shelves are ideal for me as I can reach easily to the back of the lower shelves

Elegran I use Sainsbury's Taste the Difference jam and marmalade. Storage instructions are on the jars.
After opening refrigerate, eat within six weeks I've never had mould on jam or marmalade stored this way.

I don't refrigerate any of those things, Granmarderby10.

I think jams go off quickly these days or maybe I’m just eating less of it.
I like more than one so there’ll be lemon curd, marmalade, strawberry/ apricot jam in the fridge.

Then there are the chutneys, mayo, mint sauce apple sauce, tartar sauce,mustards?

Olives,gherkins, capers, beetroot’s in jars
I suppose it’s rather a lot.

I would like manufacturers to start selling smaller jars, I think it would help.
They cost more but… I got fed up with half cans of baked beans staring me in the face, and now buy small ones of whatever make, same with tin toms.

I have a big fridge, with 2 freezer drawers beneath and the fridge is virtually empty. I shop weekly and buy no more than is needed for the week.

Top shelf has fruit juice on it,
the next one has yoghourt,
the one below a large jar of momemmade chutney and pickled beetroot and a pack of ham slices.
Under that is the cheese box.
Then there is 0degree drawer with extra cheese and cooking fat.
Then the veg/salad drawer. It currently contains half a melon, packet of spring onions, lettuce and cucumber. It is nearly empty because tomorrow is market day so everything I bought last week will be eaten by this evening.

In the door is the milk, butter, open fruit juice and opened pots of sauces like pesto, Hoisin sauce etc

The freezer drawers hold frozen vegetables, leftovers for later use, bread and bread products.

Salad cream ketchup, most chutneys and pickles, jam, honey live in larder cupboards, they are all preserves, so called because they evolved to make food last a long time at normal temperatures.

Fruit goes straight into the fruit bowl.

I also have an upright freezer which contains all the meat we eat, as I buy in bulk from producer/butchers, home-made ready meals, fish, and a variety of other things. So none of these ever go in the fridge.

I don't put potatoes, sweet potaoes, squashes, onions or garlic in the fridge, or cooking apples. They hang in net bags from coat-hooks in my store-cupboard (which used to be a coat-cupboard until I turfed out all the assorted old shoes, shopping bags, gloves, umbrellas and so on that filled the floor, put all the coats but one into the wardrobe, and added an old bookcase to hold tins, packets and jars. An enamel breadbin holds flour and sugar and the hatshelf has kitchen and toilet rolls.).

You must have a very big fridge, Franbern. Do you have all those things in it at once? I also live alone, but my fridge is an under-counter one. It gets quite full after a big shop, but not as full as yours sounds. I have a few large shallow plastic trays (one on each shelf) which I put similar things into. When I need something, I slide the plastic tray out to find it. This means I can pile stuff up in it , and also that I can find what I want without emptying the entire shelf to search. There is space beside each for large items. The trays were sold as litter trays - before anyone says "ughhh!", they were bought new and have never been used as such.

In your salad box^"lettuce, spinach, carrots, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, celery, sugar snaps, etc."^ I agree with lettuce, spinach, carrots and cut cucumber, but if you are using them within a week, uncut cucumber, tomatoes, celery, and sugar snaps would be OK in the vegetable rack.

"I do a weekly shop - and the large proportion of this goes direct into the fridge., eggs, cooked meats (eg: ham, corned beef), ready made quiche, yoghurts, cheeses, ready made beetroot salad, coleslaw, chicken pieces/meats to be used in that weeks meals, breads (I know they say these should not be kept in fridge. but I find they all keep longer and fresher that way. I use Nimble bread - two slices a day and the occasional treat of a thin begal, but also have a packet of paninis in case someone comes to me for lunch any day"
Bread is very bulky. I freeze paninis. 30 seconds in the microwave will thaw them out, plus a few seconds more if they are still frozen in the middle. Bread freezes well, too, and a few slices can be removed from the still-frozen packet a short while before using (slide a table knife or a spatula between the slices if they try to stick together) , and thawed briefly in the microwave if they need it. I freeze unsliced bread in smaller pieces and freeze it, too, it will thaw out either in the freezer or in the plastic bag it was frozen in. All bread is as fresh when it comes out of the freezer as when it went in. Nimble always dries out even in the fridge, because it has no fat in it - you may find it stays soft better when it has just been defrosted from the freezer

"I also keep cooking apples, eating apples and easy peels in fridge to keep them longer, just putting a couple on the fruit bowl in the Living room to come to room temperature before they are likely to used"
Apples are stored for months at a time without being in a fridge. Are you sure they won't keep for a week at room temperature? I wouldn't have thought of doing anything else.

"Slimmer top shelf, which is difficult for me to reach, has items which I need only occasionally, container with ground coffee for cafetier, a few cola cans, for g.childrens visits, pickles, packet of pastry,"
Cola doesn't need to be stored in the fridge. If you have warning of the children's visits, you could put a couple of cans in to chill before they get there. Pickles do not need to be there - they are deliberately made with vinegar to preserve them, just as jam is made with sugar as a preservative.

"The door shelves are taken up with milk, mayonnaise, a good selection of jams, and marmalades, etc. lemon juice, cold water for pastry, selection of flavourings for coffee, etc. the occasional tetrapack of fruit juice."
Cold water just takes up space, there is plenty in the tap. If you want it colder, put a small amount into the fridge for a while before you start making your pastry, or use that packet of ready-made that is in there. Jams and marmalades are preserves - the sugar content preserves the contents, but once they are opened they need to be eaten within a reasonable time.. I only have one marmalade and one jam open at any time, so that they get used up, and I keep them in a cupboard, not in the fridge.
I think perhaps the changes of temperature as the glass jars are taken in and out of the fridge to use may encourage condensation and the resulting dampness may then grow mould even faster - but that is just a theory.

Another tray on your top shelf may make it easier to use. you could pull it right out and put it on the worktop to find things.

My fridge is mostly empty.
Milk in the door and eggs too.
Pack of butter and hard cheese and that’s about it, unless I’m having visitors, or I’m defrosting something to cook later. I have an old fridge in the garage where I store what vegetables I need - in those bags that extend the storage life. I keep an unopened carton of milk and a bottle of white wine in there too.

If you think about the conditions the shops use for eggs and bread, it is obvious that they don't need refrigeration.

Most veg go in the fridge, except potatoes and onions - new potatoes still go in, though. Tomatoes, never. Eggs do go in - I’m short of worktop space so it’s one less thing cluttering it up. Will take them out in advance if I’m e.g. going to be making a cake. Half a large loaf will go in the bread bin, the rest in the freezer.