20 Food Storage Tips to Save Money and Waste Less

Save yourself money by storing all your fruit and vegetables correctly so they stay good for longer. Meaning your food will have more flavour, you’ll waste less money and time shopping.

Sadly 30% of all food that’s bought is never used and just gets wasted. Use these tips to mean you massively reduce any waste. It’s a win all round by storing fresh produce correctly.

Keep Supermarket Potted Herbs Alive

By treating them mean and storing in the dark and not watering for two days. Then water, wait two more days then move to sunlight. This is because they have been treated badly and will get shocked die if all of a sudden they are watered and put in sunlight.

Basil likes it warm so once it’s moved to sunlight put over a food bag to create a mini greenhouse.

Don’t Put Sweet Potatoes in the Fridge

Chilling sweet potatoes will ruin the taste and texture. Store somewhere dark, cool and well ventilated like hanging in a panty in a net bag and they will be good for weeks. Looking for a healthy and easy protein rich and gluten-free sweet potato brownie recipe?

Keep Leafy Greens Fresh and Not Wilting

To keep all your leafy greens like spinach, kale and rocket fresh place them on paper towels in the fridge. The towels will absorb moisture and stop them from getting damp, rotting and wilting.

Ripen Bananas on a Bunch at Room Temperature then Slow Ripening

Keep all your bananas on the bunch somewhere warm to ripen. Never store in the fridge as will go grey and powdery with a terrible texture.

Once they are at the correct ripeness wrap a bit of plastic on the end of the bunch to slow the ripening by half and prevent over-ripening.

Store Cucumbers at Room Temperature

Cucumbers are usually grown in glass hothouses so last longer in a warmer environment and not in the fridge.

Ripen Avocados By Storing With Apples or Bananas

Wrap unripe avocados in a paper bag or newspaper with an apple or banana at room temp and they will be ripe in 1-3 days. This is the only way to ripen avocados that works. The apple or banana release gasses that help ripen, see the next tip for downsides of this.

Once avocados are ripe either eat ASAP or move to the fridge as they go bad quickly!

Keep Apples in Airtight Container in The Fridge to Last For Weeks

As they release gasses that affect other fruits and veggies causing them to go off.

Store Pineapple in Somewhere Warm to Ripen Until a Leaf Pulls Away

Pineapples will only ripen somewhere warm, once a leaf pulls away it’s ready to eat. Once prepared store in the fridge, but never until it’s perfectly ripe.

Never Store Tomatoes in the Fridge and Always Place Stem Down

Tomatoes will lose flavour if stored in the fridge. Storing stem down stops air getting in so keeps them from losing flavour.

Onions and Potatoes Stored Together Cause Each Other to Go Off

Never store onions and potatoes together as the gasses they each release cause the other to go off. Store both somewhere cool and dark but well apart.

Scallions/Spring Onions Like to be Treated Like Flowers

Store your scallions/spring onions in water in the fridge and they will last for at least two weeks. Change the water every 3 days.

Or to store spring onions for longer chop and freeze ready for cooking.

Make Berries Last for Twice as Long by Washing in Vinegar and Water

You can make all berries like raspberries, strawberries and blueberries last for twice as long by washing in water with a few tablespoons of white wine or apple cider vinegar. Dab the berries dry and store on paper cloths in the fridge.

Clean Your Fridge with Vinegar to Reduce Bacteria and Make All Food Last Longer

Wipe down your fridge with a mixture of 1 part white wine vinegar to two parts water every week to reduce bacteria. Vinegar will naturally and safely disinfect your fridge and make everything last longer.

Store Mushrooms in a Paper Bag to Stop them Going Soggy and Off

The paper bag will absorb moisture from the mushrooms meaning they won’t go soggy and off like they do if left in plastic. Hopefully, they will go back to selling mushrooms in cardboard so this will fix the issue and reduce plastic.

Make Lemons and Limes Last Four Times Longer

Store lemons and limes in an airtight container in the fridge and they will last for four times longer and be just as fresh!

Freeze Ginger Ready to be Sliced or Grated

Ginger stored in the freezer will last for months and keep its taste. Perfect for slices for ginger in tea or grated into curries or healthy ginger cookies.

Store Melons Somewhere Warm to Ripen

Then once your melon is ripe store in the fridge in whole or segments as you enjoy it. If you like watermelon check out my recipe for raspberry watermelon lemonade.

Unwrap Broccoli to Breathe

Often broccoli comes wrapped in plastic. You want to remove the broccoli from the plastic to let it breathe and stay fresh. Store broccoli in the fridge to last longer.

Keep Celery Fresh For Two Weeks

Store celery in water in the fridge and it will stay fresh for at least two weeks! Change the water every 3 days.

Once you’ve enjoyed the celery did you know you can regrow celery from the stalk?

Food Storage Tips Video

All of my tips to store fruit and vegetables to save money and waste less in an easy to swallow video.

Always Save Veggie Peelings for Stock

Whenever you peal any vegetables store the peelings in a bag in the freezer ready to boil to make stock.

This works great with just about everything – broccoli stalks, carrot tops, onion peels and just about all veg.

Food Can be Recycled into Energy

Despite all of these tips, you might still waste some food from time to time. If you do then always recycle it using a food cady if your local authority offers this service.

Collected food can be used to generate eletricity. Sadly too much food is put into general waste where it goes to landfill and is really wasted.