Give every shelf a job
Zones only work if they match your habits, so build them around your week rather than around a photograph. A workable version for most households: the top shelf for things that need no cooking — yoghurts, cooked meats, cheese, anything you eat straight from the packet. The middle shelf for leftovers and prepped components, always at eye level, because what you cannot see you will not eat. The bottom shelf for raw proteins. One drawer for hardy vegetables, the other for fruit and herbs, since fruit gives off gases that push leaves and roots to age faster.
Do not pack it solid. Air has to move for a fridge to hold its temperature, and a crammed shelf creates warm pockets. If you cannot see the back wall anywhere, you have overfilled it.
The eat-me-first box
If you take one thing from this, take this. Clear a shallow container or a corner of the middle shelf and label it in your head as the box of things that must be used in the next two days. Every time you unpack shopping or clear plates, anything ageing goes in there: the last of the ham, half a lemon, the mushrooms starting to wrinkle, the leftover rice. Then cook from that box first.
It takes about four seconds per item and quietly removes the question of what to make on a Thursday night, because your fridge has already answered it. Soup, fried rice, a frittata and a tray bake will absorb almost anything that box offers.
