We've all bought fruits and vegetables we were craving at the time or needed for dinner that night, only to be left with more produce than we can deal with.
Thankfully, there are some incredibly easy hacks that can make your fruits and veggies last longer, saving you money and reducing waste:
1. Soaking in vinegar
After watching this hack, you'll never just run your fruit under water again. This TikToker shares how to get your berries cleaner and make them last longer, and you probably already have what you need on hand.
There are two ways of doing this. You can either let them soak in a mixture of vinegar and water — one part vinegar to three or four parts water — or you can use a mixture of baking soda and water. One look at the leftover water is all the evidence you'll need.
2. Using your refrigerator correctly
Different types of fruits and veggies require different levels of humidity to stay fresher longer. Simply tossing them in the crisper drawer and walking away won't cut it, and if you're just tossing your fruits and veggies in the fridge and not even using the drawers, you might as well be tossing money out the window.
Use the sliders on the crisper drawers to make sure what you store gets the right amount of humidity, and enjoy fresher produce.
3. Keeping strawberries fresh for weeks
Strawberries typically last three to seven days in the fridge, so if you don't eat them quickly, you'll end up throwing away food and money. But it's incredibly simple to get a couple of extra weeks out of them.
Start by cleaning the strawberries — see No. 1 above — and dry them. Put them in a mason jar layered with a Swedish dishcloth and close the lid almost all the way. This trick can reportedly keep strawberries fresh for over three weeks.
TCD Picks » Quince Spotlight
💡These best-sellers from Quince deliver affordable, sustainable luxury for all
4. Ridding your fruits of pesticides
It's not something we really think about — because it's unappetizing to do so — but most of the fruits and veggies we bring into our home are covered in pesticide residues and other contaminants (insert puke emoji here).
Fortunately, it's incredibly simple to get rid of the pesticide residue and anything else that might be tainting your produce. As this chef demonstrates, just soak it in water and baking soda for 15 minutes, rinse, and you're good to go.
|
Which of these savings plans for rooftop solar panels would be most appealing for you?
Click your choice to see results and earn rewards to spend on home upgrades. |
Save $1,000 this year 💸 5. Throwing it back to the 18th century
Refrigerators didn't exist in the 1700s, so the people then had to figure out different ways to keep food fresh. Fortunately for them, keeping apples fresh longer could be done with things they probably already had. Apples can be stored in materials such as sawdust or grains, or individually wrapped in newspaper and stored in a cool, dark pantry.
But there's a lot more that goes into it, like knowing which apples to pick and store, and avoiding storage mistakes.
Get TCD's free newsletters for easy tips to save more, waste less, and make smarter choices — and earn up to $5,000 toward clean upgrades in TCD's exclusive Rewards Club.
Cool Picks
