Easy Weeknight Dinners Start With An Organized Fridge

There are so many ways to make easy dinners at home that taste great; obviously, a lot of that comes down to how talented a chef you are. Never let anyone tell you that great home cooks can't produce restaurant-quality meals using simple ingredients. But there are always ways to improve your home cooking game, and some might not be what people expect. Sure, you can buy higher-end ingredients and get fancier cooking appliances — and those will help — but those cost money and time you might not have to spare.

Luckily, there are ways to make dinner both better and easier that don't cost anything. Chief among them is one a lot of people might not think about: fridge organization. Keeping your fridge neat and organized quite obviously saves time during the cooking process — if you know where things are, you can access them more quickly and easily. If you're feeling beaten down from a long day at work, it can be the difference between having the energy to make dinner and spending money ordering in. It goes beyond that, though; having a neat and organized fridge can make you a better cook.

There's a French cooking term you might have heard of before: "Mise en place." The translation varies, but all of the options ("set up," "putting in place," and "everything in its place") all come down to the same general theme of organization. Good professional chefs tend to be adamant about their neat and organized kitchen setup because it allows them to be more efficient and produce better food. You can apply this same process to your preparation and cooking areas at home — but it also works with your fridge (which is, after all, just another preparation area).

The easiest way to make this happen is to get going right when you're home from the supermarket. One key is knowing which ingredients can be prepped ahead of time, and vegetables are a key here. If you wash and chop up your veggies right when you get home, you can not only save yourself cooking time later but also save yourself space; after all, sliced red cabbage in a plastic bag or glass container is going to fit a lot more neatly in your fridge than an entire head of the stuff. And if you're concerned about veggies going bad faster this way, there's always the paper towel hack to keep them fresh for longer. Every one of these tricks will save you time you might not have during the work week.

If your fridge is neatly organized, it can even help you become a better cook in general. Think about it: If you can quickly and easily access whatever you need from the fridge, not only does it save on prep time, but it means that when you need to grab something while you're making dinner, you can save any time you'd have to spend looking for it. You won't accidentally burn dinner; your timing on when to complete cooking tasks is way more likely to be on point. And since so much of cooking is based on timing, that's a big deal.

Organizing your fridge may seem like a chore, and there's certainly an initial time investment (along with a smaller investment to maintain its cleanliness), but ultimately, it will save you time and effort in the long run. It's also a self-reinforcing cycle: when your fridge is organized, it's easier to keep it organized. So take a couple of hours to make your fridge nice and neat; you won't regret it.