How to Set up FIFO for the Whole Kitchen
Most people have never cooked more at home than in 2020. If you started last year and didn’t plan on cooking any more, you may still be stuck with an inefficient kitchen environment that is uncomfortable to use. Regardless of your current cooking sentiments, now is the perfect time to overhaul your kitchen organization – and there is no better system than FIFO.
First in first out (FIFO) is exactly what it sounds like; this ensures that old things get used to them earlier than new ones. For this to continue, old things must be the first thing you see when you open your refrigerator or pantry. That’s why in grocery stores, the oldest item is placed on the front of the shelf, while in the professional kitchen everything is stored with the label facing out.
For home chefs, FIFO is synonymous with labeling everything in the refrigerator . While it’s a great system for keeping track of food leftovers and reducing food waste , there is much more to it than just managing your refrigerator. Your entire kitchen can and should be organized according to the main FIFO principle: “If you don’t see it, you won’t use it.” Keep this in mind when reorganizing to make your kitchen easier to use, no matter how cramped or inefficient it may be. And since the FIFO principle is to use what you have, you can do it without buying a single item.
The specifics of the FIFO transformation will be different for each kitchen, but the end goal is universal: arrange things in the kitchen so that you can see as much as possible. This can be done in four main ways, starting with the container situation.
Optimize food storage
Pantry clutter is the enemy of the FIFO system, so unfortunately this is where you should start. You might think the solution is to spend a ton of money on identical glass jars – which is easier to see than glass? – but this is optional. Organizing the pantry so that everything (or almost everything) is always visible is easier with containers of the same shape and different sizes.
Tupperware’s messy clutter of inappropriate programs won’t work either. Sort food containers, keep suitable kits, and recycle disposables. Then fill in the blanks, starting with what you already have. Redesigned food packaging is great for a pantry, especially if you’re brand loyal and have a ton of the same containers. (I have many glass jars in my pantry that once held Adams peanut butter and Bonne Maman jam.) If you need to buy new ones, soup containers are ideal for small storage because they come in different sizes but have versatile lids. …
If you prefer bulk groceries, ditch the expensive “wholesale warehouse” bins on Amazon and head straight to the hardware store or restaurant supply store. I buy flour 50 pounds at a time and nothing beats a 5 gallon plastic bucket with a twist off lid . At a hardware store, they cost less than $ 20 and last forever. However, buckets take up a lot of space and cannot be stacked. If you’re running out of space, look for Cambro containers in restaurants . They are smaller and more expensive than plastic buckets, but they are square and round and stack securely.
Label everything
Perishable food labeling is an essential element of any FIFO system, and for good reason. Clear labels tell you at a glance what is inside the container and how old it is; FIFO doesn’t exist without them.
If you already have the habit of labeling the contents of your fridge and freezer , that’s great, but don’t stop there. Most items in your kitchen can and should be labeled. Large pantries in opaque containers are an obvious use case, but labeling self-cleaning solutions, countertop fermentation projects, and even pantry shelves will make your kitchen easier to use. No more waste of sourdough counts or wondering which shelf you put your coconut milk on; you can look at the label and continue. Just make sure these labels are facing up. A spring for a labeler if you like, but masking tape and a Sharpie will work too.
Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate
Labels are great, but they won’t help if you can’t see them. This is especially true for the refrigerator: if yesterday’s takeout food is buried in a graveyard with half-empty soup containers, it will expire before you remember it was there.
Consolidation is the second secret step after product labeling. It’s simple: just move the contents of large containers into smaller ones as you use them. (Universal lids are especially useful here because you can downsize without purchasing a new lid.) Mercilessly merging your leftovers and pantry items frees up precious storage space so you can really see what you’re working with. It also makes it easy to know if a new package really needs to be opened and when some items run out.
Bonus round: inventory
The last boss of FIFO is taking inventory . To be honest, I do not keep an inventory of my kitchen and do not plan to do so, but I am preparing for myself and another adult. If you are feeding a large family, keeping a detailed inventory can make your life easier.
Taking inventory is keeping track of what you have so you know what to buy and when to buy. If you’ve never done this before, start small. Choose one kitchen area – pantry, refrigerator, or freezer – and write down the name of each food, quantity, and expiry date. (Tables, paper lists, dry-erase boards, and even a note-taking app on your phone have their pros and cons, so use whatever feels natural.) Update the list as things get out of date. When you sit down to make a shopping list, check your inventory to see what you really need and what to wait. There is no one perfect system, so play around until you find one that works.
If this all sounds like a lot of work, it is because it is. Kitchen management is a huge job; doing this in addition to your usual work gets boring in a hurry, even if you love to cook. Setting up a FIFO won’t save you the constant drain of daily cooking and cleaning, but it will make your kitchen easier to use.