Don't Place These Foods in the Refrigerator

While a lot of meat and dairy products need to be refrigerated to keep from molding or going bad, there are a lot of other foods that should never be refrigerated. A refrigerator is a very specific, cool, dark environment that isn’t hospitable for every kind of food item. After reading this article, you might need to make some more space in your pantry.

Keep reading to find out where you should really be storing your carrots, pineapples, and dark chocolate.

Keep Apples Out Of The Cold

Apples can last a week or two at room temperature, but they start to get mealy pretty quickly if you keep them in the fridge. Also, apples can cause other fruits to ripen more quickly because of the natural gas that they emit. You don’t want to trap all of that gas in your fridge with your other perishables. Enzymes within apples become far more active at room temperature, making the apples way more nutritious. 

Avocados Do Better On The Counter

If you have some unripe avocados that you want to ripen up, the fridge is definitely not the place for them. The cold air causes avocados to ripen more slowly. Leave your avocados in a cool, dry place, like on your counter in the open air. But make sure to eat them before they get too ripe. There’s nothing worse than an overripe avocado. If you feel like your avocadoes are starting to get too ripe, you can pop them in the fridge to slow down that process. 

Keep Bananas Out In The Open

Bananas hold on to their nutrients better when they are kept out of the fridge. Cold temperatures actually slow down the ripening process (as we saw with the avocadoes). But there is also a lot of moisture in most refrigerators which can cause bananas to turn brown or even black. If you really want to keep bananas around for a long time, slice them into small pieces and store them in plastic bags in the freezer. Frozen bananas are perfect for smoothies.

Grow Your Own Basil

You shouldn’t store basil cuttings in the fridge. Refrigerators are dark and your basil can’t get any sunlight in there. Basil has been known to wilt in the fridge. Instead, place any leftover basil in a cup half full of fresh water, and then place that cup by a sunny window. Your basil will last a lot longer, and it may even sprout roots, which means that you can replant it and grow infinite basil. 

Don’t Dry Out Your Bread

Nothing dries out bread faster than leaving it in the refrigerator. At cold temperatures, bread will turn stale, dry, and tasteless. Also, bread acts as a kind of sponge and it will soak up whatever odors are lingering around your fridge. To be safe, store leftover bread in a breadbox. This closed off box will keep moisture from escaping from your delicious bread. If you don’t have a breadbox, you can always store your bread in a microwave. Just make sure you don’t accidentally turn it on. 

Save The Carrots!

Carrots can actually rot and become waterlogged and droopy if they’re left in the fridge for too long. You should store your carrots away from direct sunlight in a place with low moisture. If you’re cutting up a bunch of carrots to serve alongside chicken wings or something, you can put them in a container of water and place that in the fridge, but only if you’re going to eat them within a few hours. 

I Really Hope Nobody Keeps Cereal In The Fridge

I don’t know anybody who stores cereal in the fridge. I shouldn’t need to tell you this, but the fridge is not a place where cereal belongs. The moisture in there will cause the cereal to wilt and become much less crunchy. Cereal should always be stored in a cool dry place, like a pantry or a cupboard. Nobody likes soggy cereal. Unless you’re one of those people who like to let your cereal get soggy in the milk before you eat it…

Chocolate Doesn’t Belong In The Fridge (Sorry)

I know a lot of people absolutely love cold chocolate, but the ideal temperature for chocolate is actually between 65 and 68°F, which is much warmer than the average refrigerator. Only store your chocolate in the fridge if you live in a very warm part of the world and your chocolate is at risk of melting completely. If you really love freezing cold chocolate though, I’m not going to stop you from eating it that way.