Latest / Bright Star Kids Parenting Podcast / Episode 3: The 30-Minute Fridge Reset | Simple Organisation Systems for Busy Mums

Transcript

Episode 3: The 30-Minute Fridge Reset | Simple Organisation Systems for Busy Mums · Bright Star Kids Parenting Podcast

• 0:00
  Dimity: Welcome to the Bright Star Kids Parenting Podcast.
• 0:03
  Susan: Hi, I'm Susan.
• 0:04
  Susan: This is Dimity and today we're going to be talking about fridges, fridge organisation, fridge hacks, cleaning your fridge and just really getting the most out of it so that you can use that fridge to make your life so much easier.
• 0:19
  Susan: Dimity, tell me that you're you're not a massive fridge cleaning, like super organised person.
• 0:24
  Dimity: No.
• 0:25
  Dimity: Right?
• 0:25
  Dimity: I'm not, definitely not.
• 0:26
  Dimity: I mean I keep my fridge clean because I don't like the idea of the fruit that I eat being amongst some.
• 0:32
  Susan: Yeah, you know, of course.
• 0:33
  Dimity: But I don't have a great system, I wouldn't say.
• 0:38
  Susan: Okay.
• 0:38
  Susan: That's all right.
• 0:39
  Susan: Well today maybe you're gonna learn a few things.
• 0:40
  Dimity: Maybe I'll learn a few things.
• 0:42
  Susan: Um, so I go through my phases of like absolute like fridge is gorgeous, super clean, I love it.
• 0:48
  Susan: Uh, but then yes, of course, definitely have ah moments when you're kind of looking at it going, oh my gosh, like what the heck is in here?
• 0:57
  Susan: Um and I think one of the issues is that if you are having like new recipes we've talked about before, and then you end up having all these ingredients that like you know, just random stuff, and then they end up like being at the back of the back of your of your fridge.
• 1:10
  Susan: Yep.
• 1:10
  Susan: Uh and then you don't know what is going on with it, and it's so hard to get into the back, you have to pull out all this stuff.
• 1:17
  Susan: So, one of the things I like to do is it's basically like whatever I'm buying, I try to make sure that I utilise it as much as possible in multiple meals.
• 1:27
  Susan: That way, I'm not ending up with this kind of weird thing of like ending up in the back.
• 1:31
  Susan: So that's a really great trick.
• 1:33
  Susan: Um, what other kind of things have you found?
• 1:37
  Dimity: Um, oh god, so I'm not gonna I don't do much with my fridge.
• 1:42
  Susan: Okay.
• 1:42
  Dimity: I don't.
• 1:43
  Dimity: I'm the person with the bad fridge.
• 1:45
  Susan: Okay.
• 1:46
  Dimity: If you were to open my fridge, you'd probably be like.
• 1:48
  Susan: How do you keep it clean then?
• 1:50
  Dimity: I mean, I wouldn't say it's overstocked, there's not always a lot of stuff in there.
• 1:53
  Dimity: We do buy what we need, but then jelly and fruit pouches that kind of get pushed to the back.
• 1:59
  Susan: Okay.
• 1:59
  Susan: And then you look at the date to Hennessy, but they probably last for eight years.
• 2:03
  Dimity: They do last for a long time.
• 2:04
  Susan: Okay.
• 2:05
  Dimity: Or like um, I guess it's the pickled things.
• 2:07
  Dimity: Maybe it's not that bad.
• 2:08
  Dimity: Maybe I'm just overreacting.
• 2:09
  Dimity: I'm overreacting.
• 2:11
  Dimity: So like the pickled stuff gets pushed to the back.
• 2:13
  Dimity: But they're just like, I would say.
• 2:15
  Dimity: I would say my fruit and veg drawer is maybe not the best.
• 2:19
  Susan: Okay.
• 2:20
  Dimity: I think that that's where I throw out most of my things when it gets to like the end of the week.
• 2:24
  Dimity: Which is really bad on my part.
• 2:26
  Dimity: Maybe we should be thinking about what we buy more and using it out more.
• 2:30
  Dimity: But it gets like, you know, the at the bottom of the fruit drawer, there's like a crusty old tomato that's like you know.
• 2:39
  Susan: Yeah, we've definitely had them.
• 2:40
  Susan: I've definitely had uh cucumbers that got a bit of mould and like kind of gets all squishy and things like that.
• 2:47
  Dimity: Like liquefied.
• 2:48
  Susan: Yes.
• 2:48
  Susan: And you're like, what the fuck is going on here?
• 2:52
  Susan: Oh yeah, like a whole like a little alien has formed in your fridge.
• 2:55
  Dimity: Yes.
• 2:55
  Susan: Yeah, well, I definitely had an experience when I was in um back in university days, I was like house share and my fridge was stinking.
• 3:06
  Susan: Like, what is going on here?
• 3:08
  Susan: And I'm smelling it.
• 3:10
  Susan: And it's like it's not that we actually, you know, we're poor students, so we didn't have much money.
• 3:14
  Susan: And then I was like, I really kind of went into this kind of weird like nook thing, and then there was this like mouldy block of cheese.
• 3:21
  Susan: I don't know how long it'd been there, but the oh, once I got that out, the smell of it was so bad.
• 3:27
  Susan: Oh, so yeah, not that was my horror kind of like college, you know, university story.
• 3:33
  Susan: Yeah, it took ages to get rid of that smell.
• 3:36
  Dimity: Yeah, okay.
• 3:36
  Dimity: I haven't really had many of those stories.
• 3:39
  Susan: Okay.
• 3:39
  Dimity: I do remember one time at um a workplace that I was at.
• 3:43
  Dimity: Obviously, everyone's like putting all of their stuff in the fridge, pushing it to the back.
• 3:47
  Dimity: You come in in the morning, push, you know, it just keeps pushing to the back, and there was this one container full of food, and it had, it had mould grown over it, and I could not tell.
• 3:58
  Dimity: I couldn't even tell what the food was underneath.
• 4:00
  Dimity: And I'm looking at this thing, and I remember I opened the lid and I was hit with this waft of stench, and it was just so bad.
• 4:08
  Dimity: And after that, I actually refused to clean out any work fridges after that.
• 4:12
  Dimity: Like I'm not dealing with anyone else's grossness.
• 4:15
  Susan: We're pretty good here.
• 4:16
  Dimity: Yeah, I think so.
• 4:17
  Susan: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:18
  Susan: There's the odd time.
• 4:19
  Susan: Yeah.
• 4:19
  Susan: And we actually have two fridges in work.
• 4:21
  Susan: We have a communal fridge and we have a kind of a personal fridge.
• 4:24
  Susan: So all of our personal stuff kind of goes into that.
• 4:27
  Susan: So that's your own lunches and everything, and then the communal one is like biscuits and whatnot.
• 4:31
  Dimity: Yes.
• 4:31
  Susan: Other stuff.
• 4:32
  Susan: So it kind of like keeps it relatively clean.
• 4:34
  Susan: We have a workforce that's mainly female too.
• 4:38
  Susan: So not that I'm saying not being sexist.
• 4:41
  Susan: There's a plenty of men who are way cleaner than a lot of females, but uh generally we are pretty good at teamwork and uh everything that helps out actually cleaning.
• 4:50
  Susan: Although your past place was a hairdresser.
• 4:53
  Dimity: Yes, it was.
• 4:53
  Susan: So that was all females.
• 4:55
  Dimity: Yes, yeah.
• 4:55
  Dimity: Yes, it was.
• 4:56
  Susan: So they are that's just to prove the point that not all females are clean.
• 5:00
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 5:00
  Dimity: It was also a tiny fridge.
• 5:02
  Dimity: So yeah, even worse.
• 5:04
  Susan: And uh yeah, like the overfull fridges, you know, you might think, okay, great, I've got everything I need.
• 5:09
  Susan: I know I don't need to go to the shops.
• 5:11
  Susan: But actually, what happens is like you feel like so overwhelmed when you open that fridge, and you do not know what to like what should I make for dinner?
• 5:19
  Susan: And a lot of time you don't even know what you have because it's so jam-packed.
• 5:24
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 5:24
  Susan: Yeah, have you got that?
• 5:26
  Dimity: All the time, actually.
• 5:27
  Dimity: So it's another example of my fridge.
• 5:29
  Dimity: Yeah, all the time.
• 5:30
  Dimity: And I open it and I think, oh god, I just don't want to deal with that.
• 5:33
  Dimity: And I close it and I go and order takeaway.
• 5:35
  Susan: Yeah, and then you end up with maybe leftover take, right?
• 5:38
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 5:38
  Susan: That goes into fridge and it starts building up this whole like habit.
• 5:41
  Susan: And like this pattern that you can't break.
• 5:44
  Dimity: Yeah, exactly.
• 5:45
  Susan: And I'm a bit of a weirdo.
• 5:47
  Susan: I actually really enjoy like helping friends declutter fridges.
• 5:52
  Susan: Don't be asking me, I'm not going to be doing it for everybody, but I do quite enjoy it every so often.
• 5:56
  Susan: It's a bit of a weird thing.
• 5:57
  Susan: And I actually what I do is I just get everything out and I put them into categories.
• 6:02
  Susan: So, you know, you put all like dairy into one and this into that, and just kind of like put them out in your kitchen space and just like organise them into categories and then like subcategories.
• 6:12
  Susan: And once all your fridges out, then clean it all out.
• 6:16
  Susan: It's amazing how dirty fridges can get.
• 6:19
  Susan: You know, things get spilt and whatever.
• 6:21
  Susan: And then once I've got the fridge clean, I'll look at all the food and then I'll look at the date.
• 6:26
  Susan: And if anything looks a bit mouldy, get rid of that.
• 6:28
  Susan: I'll also look in and see if we've got duplicates.
• 6:31
  Susan: Because plenty of times we've got duplicates, especially if you've got a very full fridge, you don't know what's in there, so you end up buying more stuff that you already have.
• 6:40
  Susan: Yeah, everybody I'm sure has experienced that.
• 6:42
  Dimity: All the time.
• 6:42
  Susan: And so basically decide of like if you've got two or three or four like jars of pickles, do you really need that many?
• 6:49
  Dimity: No.
• 6:50
  Susan: Maybe you need one.
• 6:51
  Susan: So maybe hike the other ones, and then then decide where you want to put your things.
• 6:57
  Susan: Now, obviously, this there's guides on the internet, and I can give you exactly this should go here, this should go here.
• 7:03
  Susan: Like for me, I just kind of like I make it up, whatever works for me and my family.
• 7:06
  Susan: Uh, and then basically put them all in, and you can do things like lazy Susans, which I am a bit offended by me being called Susan.
• 7:16
  Susan: Uh and I'm not lazy, but anyway, it's okay.
• 7:19
  Susan: We do like a good lazy Susan, and they can be really handy for those um little jars and stuff.
• 7:24
  Susan: So instead of you having to like reach into the back,
• 7:26
  Dimity: Just spin it around, yeah.
• 7:27
  Susan: And make sure that your label is on the outside.
• 7:29
  Susan: So when you spin, you can see it.
• 7:30
  Susan: Yeah, I guess another thing is like bowls.
• 7:32
  Susan: So, like if you are gonna have leftovers, don't use bowls and use like uh little containers.
• 7:39
  Susan: And you said that you've never done that.
• 7:41
  Dimity: I've never put a bowl in the fridge ever.
• 7:42
  Dimity: I always put it in a container, always.
• 7:44
  Susan: Yeah, yeah.
• 7:45
  Susan: It's funny, isn't it?
• 7:46
  Susan: Like, I I do find myself every so often, you know, just having a bowl, putting a bit of a cling wrap on it, and chucking it in the fridge.
• 7:53
  Susan: Now I only have myself, my husband, and my kid.
• 7:55
  Susan: And I've got a very big fridge, so I'm really lucky.
• 7:57
  Susan: But if I had like loads of kids, that's definitely a number one thing.
• 8:01
  Susan: Do not use that.
• 8:02
  Susan: Always put any leftovers into containers, even things like roast chicken.
• 8:07
  Susan: You know, when you um are like pulling apart your roast chicken, it's easy to put it into like um just a normal kind of casserole dish or something.
• 8:15
  Susan: Put that into a tub and you'll be surprised how much can fit into a really quite small container.
• 8:20
  Susan: Yeah, and then they can stamp on top of each other, which you've done.
• 8:24
  Dimity: Exactly.
• 8:24
  Dimity: Yeah, yeah.
• 8:24
  Dimity: That's what I that's why I've always gone for the containers, is because then it just takes up less space.
• 8:29
  Susan: It's so good.
• 8:30
  Susan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 8:31
  Susan: It's so good.
• 8:32
  Susan: And it's amazing when you do a declutter, like it can feel so overwhelming, and then in your head you're like procrastinating.
• 8:38
  Susan: Yeah, you're thinking it, oh my god, this is gonna take me forever.
• 8:41
  Susan: I would challenge you if you do have a fridge that is absolutely overwhelming, give yourself like 30 minutes.
• 8:48
  Susan: Just say, put on a timer, put on some music, have some fun, do it for 30 minutes, you'd be surprised how much you can get done.
• 8:55
  Susan: You probably will get it all done in 30 minutes.
• 8:58
  Susan: Yeah, and you'll feel so much better.
• 9:00
  Susan: You'll be probably telling people, come over and have a look at my fridge.
• 9:03
  Susan: Like how nice it is.
• 9:04
  Susan: Because that's what I do.
• 9:05
  Susan: But then once you kind of have that, it is less overwhelming.
• 9:08
  Susan: You can look at your fridge and you can you can see what you have and you can then plan out, you know, when you're going to the shops the next time, what do I actually need?
• 9:20
  Susan: Yeah, you know, and another thing, I don't know if you do it, but when you are bringing in new things to make sure that kind of like pretend you're a supermarket, you put your new stuff to the back.
• 9:32
  Dimity: Oh, yes, to the back.
• 9:33
  Susan: And then the old stuff to the front.
• 9:35
  Dimity: So that it gets used first.
• 9:36
  Susan: Exactly.
• 9:36
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 9:37
  Susan: And because if you have the old stuff, if you just put all the new stuff on top of the old stuff, what happens?
• 9:42
  Susan: That's when you get the weird cucumber that's got the thing...
• 9:46
  Dimity: And I'm pretty bad at that.
• 9:49
  Dimity: I do because it and because I've got two young kids, just quickly, I'm like, oh, quickly got to put this away, shove it away, shove it away, and then I've got to deal with them.
• 9:56
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 9:56
  Dimity: And then it gets to, you know, a couple of days later, and the stuff at the bottom is gross.
• 10:02
  Susan: And it's really hard to know of vegetables because there's no like there is no date on that.
• 10:06
  Susan: So you're having to kind of do the sniff test or the looking test or the squishy test.
• 10:11
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 10:11
  Dimity: Or they have a best before date.
• 10:12
  Dimity: So like it's probably gonna be okay to eat after this date.
• 10:15
  Susan: You don't know it, like capsicum s or the things that don't have packages, even cucumbers don't actually have a best before.
• 10:22
  Susan: Not that I can see.
• 10:22
  Susan: I think there is.
• 10:24
  Dimity: I think I've had most of my things have a best before, not a used by.
• 10:30
  Susan: Carrots go off really fast on the date.
• 10:33
  Dimity: Do you think?
• 10:33
  Dimity: I think carrots are the least likely.
• 10:36
  Susan: No, I know. But if you look at the date, I've had carrots that look good, but actually, when I looked at the date, they were like a month out of date.
• 10:42
  Dimity: Oh.
• 10:43
  Susan: You should look.
• 10:44
  Dimity: Okay.
• 10:45
  Susan: But they are still usually pretty good.
• 10:48
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 10:48
  Susan: Yeah.
• 10:49
  Susan: Especially if you keep carrots in the bag.
• 10:52
  Dimity: Uh-huh.
• 10:52
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 10:52
  Susan: You don't let them air out.
• 10:54
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 10:54
  Susan: That's that's a really good trick.
• 10:56
  Dimity: Yeah, we always keep our carrots in the bag.
• 10:57
  Dimity: I find that sometimes they'll go off really quickly and sometimes they'll last for ages.
• 11:02
  Dimity: So it's literally it's so hard to tell with vegetables in general.
• 11:05
  Dimity: Like I have capsicums that have been in there for, you know, a couple of weeks.
• 11:09
  Susan: Okay.
• 11:09
  Dimity: And then I'll bring a new one in.
• 11:10
  Susan: Yeah.
• 11:11
  Dimity: A week later it's it's mouldy and gross.
• 11:13
  Susan: So weird is n't it?
• 11:15
  Susan: I guess it depends on like where you buy it from.
• 11:17
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 11:17
  Susan: If the if the shop is very fresh and they get it in, but it they could have been lingering around the shop.
• 11:23
  Dimity: Well, exactly.
• 11:23
  Dimity: You don't know.
• 11:25
  Susan: You don't know.
• 11:25
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 11:26
  Susan: And another thing, I guess, is like for me is just to try and do like a monthly clean, you know, so that it's not getting to the point of going, what is that smell?
• 11:35
  Susan: You know, what's going on?
• 11:36
  Susan: Um so kind of like I try and do once a month, or at least like when I'm gonna do a big shop and the fridge is pretty empty, I'll kind of take that as an opportunity to just do a bit of a deep clean, even like not super deep, but one of the weird things I do, which you I think you probably probably don't, is I actually vacuum my crisper drawer, which is so weird.
• 11:59
  Susan: Because I like, I like to keep my onions in the fridge because I feel well, I'm pretty sure it's correct, that they don't make you cry as much when they're cold.
• 12:09
  Dimity: Oh, yeah, okay.
• 12:10
  Dimity: Well, that's good.
• 12:11
  Susan: So although I know onions could last outside the fridge, and if you do have a uh you know a massive family, you probably don't want to be using your space for onions, but for me, I do.
• 12:20
  Susan: So basically the problem with that is that all those peels end up in your crisper drawer and they're annoying.
• 12:27
  Susan: So I basically get my uh vacuum with the long little hose thing, and I vacuum my crisper drawer.
• 12:32
  Susan: And then it gets rid of all the little like um capsicum seeds and things like that.
• 12:37
  Dimity: I just want to see an image of you in there.
• 12:39
  Susan: I will, I will video myself and show you.
• 12:42
  Susan: Uh but I'll tell you what, I bet you other people do it, and if you don't, you should give it a go because um vacuuming your fridge is actually really handy.
• 12:50
  Dimity: Yes, okay, well, maybe I'll try.
• 12:52
  Susan: And then you can kind of get in there and get rid of all those, you know, there's always things I kind of get into those little grids.
• 12:58
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 12:58
  Dimity: Um and I struggle I do struggle to get to those.
• 13:00
  Dimity: Yeah, even with when I've got like my cloth, I'm like trying to scratch.
• 13:03
  Dimity: Yeah, it doesn't come out.
• 13:04
  Susan: Well, the thing is if you leave it too long, it gets even harder.
• 13:06
  Dimity: Uh-huh.
• 13:06
  Susan: So if you can get into the habit of just giving your fridge a bit of a clean, it'll be good.
• 13:10
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 13:10
  Dimity: One of my friends told me that if you open a container of baking soda, put it in your fridge, stops the smells and keeps things fresh.
• 13:17
  Susan: Okay, cool.
• 13:18
  Susan: So we'll have to give it a go.
• 13:19
  Susan: Baking soda is phenomenal.
• 13:21
  Susan: I've put it into my bin.
• 13:24
  Susan: It smells a bit funny.
• 13:25
  Susan: I washed it, I couldn't get the smell to go away.
• 13:28
  Susan: So I put some baking soda into it and it doesn't smell anymore.
• 13:32
  Susan: It's good, it works really well.
• 13:33
  Susan: Summertime in Australia.
• 13:35
  Susan: Oh, I wish I had 10 fridges.
• 13:37
  Susan: Especially when it comes to Christmas time.
• 13:39
  Susan: You're hosting Christmas, like, oh, which I have done for many, many, many, many years.
• 13:46
  Susan: And it's again, I don't have like a massive family.
• 13:48
  Susan: Yeah. But it's hard.
• 13:51
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 13:51
  Dimity: Even then.
• 13:52
  Dimity: It just and when you're going to other people's places, they give you things in a container, you've got to bring it back.
• 13:57
  Dimity: Even without hosting, you just the fridge fills so quickly.
• 14:00
  Susan: Yeah.
• 14:00
  Susan: I'll sometimes have to put my bread in the in the fridge.
• 14:03
  Dimity: The fridge.
• 14:04
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 14:04
  Susan: Yeah.
• 14:05
  Susan: Because it just can get mouldy so fast.
• 14:09
  Dimity: I've got my crumpets in the fridge.
• 14:09
  Susan: They do actually go mouldy.
• 14:10
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 14:10
  Dimity: They do really quickly.
• 14:11
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 14:12
  Dimity: We freeze the we freeze them if they're not open.
• 14:14
  Dimity: And when they're open, they go in the fridge.
• 14:16
  Susan: Yeah.
• 14:16
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 14:17
  Susan: And then like drinks, if you have, you know, like even just like your regular soda, but you know, you want to have some wine, you have some beers, that just takes up so much room.
• 14:27
  Dimity: Much space, that's right.
• 14:28
  Susan: So you've got not only now do you have your drinks in the fridge, then you've got like your bread in the fridge, your crumpets in the fridge, and all the other stuff.
• 14:37
  Susan: And then of course, the summertime you want to have salads.
• 14:40
  Susan: So you want to have you're going to have more.
• 14:42
  Susan: Everything needs the fridge, which is why then cleaning your fridge, using all the lazy Susans using your tubs, do not have bowls, do not allow them to be in your thing.
• 14:55
  Susan: I mean, give it a clear out, especially like coming up to Christmas time.
• 14:59
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 15:00
  Susan: I like to do a full clean out, like get rid of anything I haven't used in ages.
• 15:05
  Susan: Look at all the the best buy dates, just get rid of them.
• 15:08
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 15:09
  Susan: You know, I know I feel a bit guilty if I'm wasting a bit of food here and there, but if I put it into my FOGO bin, then I'm not feeling too bad.
• 15:15
  Susan: And then like with veggies and stuff that are maybe not super fresh, you know, like they can be really good for using in soups, yeah.
• 15:24
  Dimity: Yeah, we do that, if I remember, make up a big soup like that, and then we can freeze anything.
• 15:28
  Susan: Yeah.
• 15:28
  Dimity: You know.
• 15:29
  Susan: And I know summertime you don't want to be in the having soup, but you could do things like potatoes and quiche and other like tomato sauce things.
• 15:38
  Susan: So you have your hidden vegetables, you know.
• 15:41
  Susan: They're always good for the old kitties.
• 15:43
  Susan: Um, but you know, that's a good way of kind of using up some of that stuff without throwing it out.
• 15:47
  Susan: Don't feel guilty, and you know, we don't want to have like food waste, like that's such a massive problem in our society, isn't it?
• 15:53
  Susan: And not using like not doing all these crazy recipes that you buy this thing and then exactly nothing, you hate it, or you don't use it again.
• 16:01
  Susan: Um, being a bit more mindful about what it is that you're shopping for, don't just like wing it.
• 16:07
  Dimity: Definitely.
• 16:07
  Dimity: I think since we've gotten a menu and we've gone through um and we've had it the exact thing each day, it's there's been a lot less wastage, which is really good.
• 16:16
  Susan: Yeah, and another thing I know you talk about baking soda, but another thing I really like is kitchen towel.
• 16:21
  Susan: For example, if I have grapes, you know, I'll wash them and I'll put them into a container, but I line my container with kitchen towel.
• 16:28
  Dimity: Okay.
• 16:29
  Susan: And then I put my grapes in.
• 16:31
  Susan: And because grapes are always a little bit wet, you know, after you wash them, it's hard to get rid of all the water.
• 16:36
  Susan: But what that does is it actually absorbs the water.
• 16:40
  Susan: Uh grapes would like go mouldy only after like a few days.
• 16:44
  Susan: It would be annoying.
• 16:45
  Susan: And then I tried this trick.
• 16:46
  Susan: The grapes have been lasting for way longer.
• 16:49
  Dimity: Okay.
• 16:49
  Susan: So that's a good one.
• 16:50
  Susan: And I do that with lettuce too.
• 16:51
  Susan: So when I wash my lettuce, I try not to cut it too much.
• 16:55
  Susan: So I try to keep it as whole as possible.
• 16:57
  Susan: My iceberg lettuce.
• 16:58
  Dimity: Yep.
• 16:58
  Dimity: Like take the leak, like leaf.
• 17:00
  Susan: Yeah, try and yeah, try and do it gently so that they kind of like they don't break apart too much.
• 17:05
  Dimity: Okay.
• 17:05
  Susan: Because once you cut them, then they get that little brown bit after a few days.
• 17:09
  Susan: But if you keep them whole, they keep a lot fresher.
• 17:13
  Susan: Um, so yeah, I basically I again I line my tub with uh paper towel, yeah, pop my iceberg lettuce in, and it's amazing.
• 17:22
  Susan: Like it stays so fresh for like probably a week.
• 17:26
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 17:27
  Dimity: Okay, I thought I find lettuce is one of the big ones that goes off straight away.
• 17:31
  Dimity: So that's a good try for me to try.
• 17:33
  Dimity: I'm going to.
• 17:34
  Dimity: I'm going to.
• 17:35
  Dimity: Um, on the lettuce topic, I see so many videos of people chopping everything, prepping their fridge, putting it, and it's it is so satisfying to watch these people organizing their fridge fridges so beautifully.
• 17:50
  Susan: Yeah.
• 17:51
  Dimity: And I just wonder how realistic it is.
• 17:53
  Dimity: I'm not gonna lie.
• 17:54
  Dimity: Because I've seen people, you know, buy all of their groceries and then they're chopping up their lettuce and putting like chopping it properly, putting it in a container in the fridge.
• 18:02
  Susan: Kind of shredding it.
• 18:03
  Dimity: Yes, and I think to myself, that whenever I do that, it goes brown the next day.
• 18:07
  Dimity: So how are you maintaining that?
• 18:09
  Dimity: It just makes no sense to me, but it's so satisfying to watch.
• 18:11
  Susan: It does, it's gorgeous, yeah.
• 18:13
  Susan: It makes me want to do it once makes me want to chop all my things.
• 18:16
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 18:17
  Susan: And they got you see, these people are spending like their whole Sunday prepping for the week ahead.
• 18:21
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 18:22
  Susan: And I'm just worried, like I've never done it in that way.
• 18:25
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 18:26
  Susan: Where they chop up all their carrot sticks and they're chopping all their capsicums and they're chopping all their cucumbers, and yeah, as you said, chopping their lettuce, and they've got all these like beautiful stacks of food ready because they're gonna be like their kids will just come in and they will have snacks.
• 18:43
  Susan: And then sometimes they even like make pre-made like snack sections for each of their kids.
• 18:48
  Susan: Like that's a phenomenal amount of work.
• 18:51
  Dimity: I know.
• 18:51
  Susan: And I would be concerned because this is why I haven't done it, is that well, I've done all this work and then it goes all.
• 18:58
  Susan: If you do this and you love it and it works for you, please tell us because maybe we're totally wrong.
• 19:05
  Susan: Who knows?
• 19:06
  Susan: Whatever works for your family.
• 19:08
  Susan: But for me, yeah, I just like whenever I've wanted to give Jamie like some tomatoes or cucumber or whatever, I just like I chop it up.
• 19:15
  Dimity: Yeah, as I eat it.
• 19:17
  Susan: Yeah, and uh we do.
• 19:18
  Susan: And like honestly, if if he doesn't eat it, it just goes in the FOGO bin.
• 19:22
  Dimity: Yeah, okay.
• 19:23
  Dimity: So if it if because obviously my kids are quite young, if they don't eat a full thing, we'll put it in a Ziplock bag, maybe, leave it in the fridge.
• 19:30
  Dimity: And then if that doesn't get used once it's all, you know.
• 19:33
  Susan: Yeah.
• 19:33
  Susan: But I find like even I have done that here and there, but I find like within a day or so they they're all dried out.
• 19:40
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 19:41
  Susan: So I just I'm just suspicious of all these like big meal, massive preps.
• 19:46
  Susan: Like, does it actually work?
• 19:47
  Susan: Yeah, you know?
• 19:48
  Dimity: I know.
• 19:49
  Susan: 'Cos like imagine if it didn't work and you spent your whole Sunday doing all this prep, and then like by Wednesday, it's all you can't use it.
• 19:57
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 19:57
  Susan: Like what a waste of food, what a waste of time, what a waste of money.
• 20:02
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 20:02
  Dimity: So I know.
• 20:03
  Susan: Prove us wrong, tell us that we are totally wrong, and this is amazing, and it totally is a game changer.
• 20:09
  Dimity: Yeah, you know, but they are satisfying to watch, I will say that.
• 20:12
  Dimity: I love watching people put, you know, ASMR ones are really top tier for me, putting in their like their cans in the fridge.
• 20:20
  Dimity: Yeah, it's so I sit there and I just am so transfixed by people like organising their because it's insane, but I could never do it.
• 20:28
  Susan: It's not like the whole pantry thing when you see people do their beautiful pantries, like it's so like you know, it is you know, life goals, but like I just don't know if I'll ever be there.
• 20:38
  Susan: And another thing with fridges that I know a lot of people do is they prep their school lunches and they'll have everything stacked up beautifully.
• 20:46
  Dimity: Yeah, okay.
• 20:47
  Susan: So nice.
• 20:48
  Susan: But another weird thing I've heard, and I've never actually done it.
• 20:52
  Dimity: Okay.
• 20:53
  Susan: Maybe you might want to do as your kids get older is the freezer sandwiches trick.
• 20:58
  Susan: Just butter it, um, put your ham and cheese, and I think you wrap it in calling wrap, chuck it in the freezer.
• 21:06
  Susan: And some people do like literally will do 20 of these things in a bulk, pop it all in the freezer, you put it out the night before.
• 21:15
  Susan: So that it defrosts.
• 21:16
  Susan: Yeah, but some people do send their kids to school with the frozen sandwich straight from the freezer, and that it's meant to defrost by lunchtime.
• 21:28
  Dimity: Okay.
• 21:28
  Susan: And I think if your bag, if you're in a very hot part of Australia and your and the kids' bag is outside and it's not in an insulated bag, it probably will defrost.
• 21:41
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 21:42
  Susan: But imagine the kids here sandwich and it's like still a little bit frozen or it's soggy.
• 21:48
  Susan: I don't I would not like to be that poor kid.
• 21:51
  Dimity: No, take my sandwich.
• 21:53
  Susan: That is actually probably traumatic.
• 21:55
  Susan: So, yeah, I'm not sure.
• 21:56
  Susan: Tell us again what you think about this frozen sandwich thing, but uh it's a thing and people do it.
• 22:01
  Susan: I can imagine for fam like families with a lot of children.
• 22:04
  Susan: Especially if you're like going to school and you're both working or something.
• 22:08
  Susan: It might be amazing.
• 22:09
  Susan: It might be the best thing.
• 22:11
  Susan: But I'd probably be on the side of getting it out the night before.
• 22:16
  Dimity: Okay.
• 22:16
  Susan: Which you also have to be quite good at forward planning.
• 22:19
  Dimity: Yeah, maybe next week.
• 22:21
  Susan: Give it a go.
• 22:22
  Dimity: I'll freeze it.
• 22:22
  Dimity: Sandwich and bring it in and we'll see.
• 22:24
  Dimity: And we can whip it out and see how.
• 22:27
  Susan: Test it on ourselves.
• 22:29
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 22:29
  Susan: But another thing I do like to freeze is bread.
• 22:34
  Dimity: Yes.
• 22:34
  Susan: And I remember a friend of mine, she was going on about how she loves the half loaves of bread.
• 22:40
  Susan: And me and my other friend were like, why do you like that?
• 22:43
  Dimity: Yeah, they're expensive.
• 22:44
  Susan: They're expensive.
• 22:44
  Susan: They're pretty much the same price as like a full loaf.
• 22:46
  Susan: And she's like, Oh, because you know, um when you only need another half a loaf for the end of the week.
• 22:52
  Susan: And we're like, why don't you just freeze your bread?
• 22:55
  Susan: And she looked at us like we were crazy.
• 22:57
  Susan: But like, yeah, I think if you buy your bread, like and then you just freeze it straight away, it literally tastes like exactly the same.
• 23:06
  Susan: Once you get it out and let it defrost naturally, it's unbelievable.
• 23:10
  Susan: Like it's so good.
• 23:11
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 23:12
  Susan: Um, so that's another great thing.
• 23:14
  Susan: I like and also just have it in your freezer for like toast.
• 23:18
  Dimity: Sometimes we'll buy two loaves, yeah.
• 23:20
  Dimity: One for the fridge for toast, one for fresh.
• 23:24
  Dimity: I just want to take a piece out of the thing and quickly be able to butter it and make my sandwich.
• 23:28
  Dimity: I don't want to have to then defrost it.
• 23:30
  Dimity: But we use a lot of bread because I've got two young kids.
• 23:32
  Susan: Okay.
• 23:32
  Dimity: So but that's also not always.
• 23:35
  Dimity: That's like every now and then.
• 23:37
  Dimity: Like if the bread's on sale or we get some like good to go bags from Baker's Delight, where they you basically pay ten dollars.
• 23:46
  Susan: Okay.
• 23:46
  Dimity: And at the end of the day, they put all of their leftover bread in so that it doesn't and so we if we get like two loaves of bread in that, one of them will go in the freezer and then ...
• 23:56
  Susan: Yeah, cool.
• 23:56
  Susan: And it's definitely there's definitely like differ different levels of of freshness with bread.
• 24:00
  Susan: Like I think that kind of bread goes off really fast.
• 24:03
  Dimity: Yes.
• 24:04
  Susan: Whereas like some of the bread in the supermarket, it can last a long time.
• 24:07
  Susan: And you wonder what what chemicals I know.
• 24:10
  Susan: What ingredients do they have in there that makes them last so long.
• 24:13
  Susan: But uh, who knows?
• 24:15
  Susan: Whatever works for you.
• 24:16
  Dimity: Or sometimes if it gets to like we're midway through a loaf, and I think, oh, I'm not sure about this, and I don't know if we're gonna get through this whole thing before it's gonna go mouldy, chuck it in the freezer, and then that will be our toast grabbing.
• 24:29
  Susan: Especially if you're going away on holidays or things like that.
• 24:30
  Susan: You've got some bread like hanging around.
• 24:32
  Susan: And it's still like pretty good.
• 24:34
  Susan: Pop it in the freezer.
• 24:35
  Susan: It's so good.
• 24:36
  Dimity: I love the freezer.
• 24:37
  Dimity: Oh, yeah.
• 24:37
  Dimity: I just did a massive clean out of our freezer because it was jam-packed, I couldn't fit anything in there, and I had to take everything out, and there were things that had freezer burn to the point where it was not usable anymore that went straight in the bin.
• 24:49
  Dimity: And now it's like nice and and pretty good now.
• 24:53
  Susan: I think trying to like use some labels as well on your freezer thing.
• 24:58
  Susan: So, like if you are making like burgers or something, I'll always have a few left over.
• 25:03
  Susan: So trying to write down like burger and like the date of when I made it, that way if I'm looking and go, oh, that's like six months old.
• 25:12
  Susan: Probably don't want to eat that, yeah, or what whatever the thing is.
• 25:15
  Susan: And again, there's like different levels of um of what can be frozen and how long it can be frozen for.
• 25:22
  Susan: But generally, yeah, I'm the same as you.
• 25:25
  Susan: If it's looking like it's got crazy icicles all over it, I probably would use it again.
• 25:30
  Susan: Um, one thing I do like when I'm like like packing stuff into my freezer is like get rid of boxes.
• 25:37
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 25:37
  Dimity: So like take up so much.
• 25:40
  Susan: They do.
• 25:40
  Susan: Yeah, like you know, ice creams, like if you get them out and just take them out, put them into a section.
• 25:45
  Susan: So I try and like have pizzas or things like that in another section, having your frozen veggies like peas or whatever, in another section, your chips, wet, that kind of stuff, put that into like where the veggies are.
• 25:57
  Susan: And then I like I have this kind of pull-out drawer in it, which is pretty cool.
• 26:01
  Susan: And so I put like the chicken breasts and mints or salmon or things like that, or burgers, I put those kind of at the top.
• 26:09
  Susan: And so I try and like instead of going and buying new chicken breasts or something, I try and like look in the freezer and go, okay, what have I got here and get them out of the by the dinner time they're good.
• 26:20
  Dimity: Yeah, the amount of times that I've thought, oh, I'm gonna put that in the freezer because we're not gonna use that this week, and then it's like ah...
• 26:26
  Susan: You keep forgetting it'll have it.
• 26:28
  Dimity: Yeah, and then I think, oh, that chicken bread that's not in it again for a little bit of time.
• 26:32
  Dimity: Maybe I wouldn't use that.
• 26:33
  Dimity: Do you have a pull-out freezer?
• 26:35
  Susan: Uh yeah, it's a pull-out.
• 26:36
  Susan: Yeah, it's got a drawer, a main kind of section, then a pull a thing.
• 26:40
  Susan: The chest freezers are like they're dangerous.
• 26:42
  Susan: You know when you just like you just open up the lid and you look up.
• 26:45
  Susan: You look in there and it's like this massive, big like void.
• 26:49
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 26:50
  Susan: How do you start to like rummage through everything to try and find it?
• 26:54
  Dimity: Nah, our freezer's at the top of our fridge, so it's quite small.
• 26:57
  Susan: Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:58
  Dimity: So that's another struggle for us.
• 27:00
  Dimity: We have to make sure that I'm being quite particular with what is in there.
• 27:04
  Dimity: Because otherwise, there's not much space in there.
• 27:08
  Susan: And then like you've got all this like ice cubes if you want to have.
• 27:11
  Dimity: I love icy drinks.
• 27:14
  Susan: Okay.
• 27:14
  Dimity: I need all of my drinks to be cold, freezing cold.
• 27:17
  Dimity: So we've got so many ice trays that take up um that is a lot of space.
• 27:22
  Susan: Yeah. So that's again where the tubs are good.
• 27:25
  Susan: Like making sure that you fill up that tub as much as possible.
• 27:30
  Susan: It is a good space saver.
• 27:32
  Dimity: Yeah.
• 27:33
  Susan: And last Christmas I was over in Ireland.
• 27:35
  Susan: So I you know, it's the total opposite to Wollongong here in Australia, where it was like super hot.
• 27:40
  Susan: In Ireland, totally so cold, like freezing.
• 27:43
  Susan: And so we didn't even have to worry about the fridge.
• 27:45
  Susan: For the drinks, like for the wine and the beer and whatever.
• 27:48
  Susan: We just put it outside.
• 27:49
  Susan: Isn't that crazy?
• 27:51
  Susan: So no ice buckets needed.
• 27:53
  Susan: Because I was actually saying to my sister, oh, should I go and get some ice?
• 27:56
  Susan: And then I realised I don't need to.
• 27:58
  Susan: It is icy outside.
• 28:00
  Susan: So organising your fridge is a really good way to make sure that you are able to see what you've got to eat.
• 28:08
  Dimity: Yeah, definitely.
• 28:09
  Susan: You're not buying multiples, you know, you're not having weird smells going off.
• 28:13
  Susan: Tell us about what you like about, you know, what do you like to do with your fridge?
• 28:17
  Susan: Do you have any got cleaning hacks?
• 28:18
  Susan: Do you have got storage hacks?
• 28:20
  Susan: Like, do you do that whole Sunday prep?
• 28:22
  Susan: Does it work for you?
• 28:23
  Dimity: Do you freeze your sandwiches?
• 28:25
  Susan: Yeah, so many different things.
• 28:26
  Susan: But that's it for us today.
• 28:28
  Susan: And join us for future episodes.
• 28:31
  Susan: We'll see you next time.
• 28:33
  Dimity: Thanks for listening.
• 28:34
  Dimity: If you enjoyed today's chat, tap follow so you don't miss an episode.
• 28:37
  Dimity: We would absolutely love to hear from our Aussie Mum community.
• 28:39
  Dimity: So leave a comment or share your thoughts with us on Facebook or Instagram at Bright Star Kids.
• 28:44
  Dimity: Share this episode with a fellow mum if you think she'd love it too.
• 28:47
  Dimity: You've got this, and we're right here with you.
• 28:49
  Dimity: Until next time.