30 Kitchen Storage Secrets That'll Keep Your Food Fresh

Though consuming bananas fresh is always best, says Rushing, there are some simple hacks that will prevent halved or otherwise cut bananas from turning into brown mush. If stored optimally with the tips described below, cut bananas are typically good for up to three days, he says.

To save yourself another trip to the grocery store (and lost cash), make sure you’re caring for fall’s favorite fruit and maximizing their delicious flavor and health perks.

Aluminum foil and aluminum bowls may seem like easy storage options, but they shouldn’t be your go-tos, especially when it comes to dairy and acidic foods like marinades and tomatoes, says Harley Peet, executive chef at Bluepoint Hospitality Group in Easton, Maryland.

With a little bit of planning and the right tools at your disposal, you can extend the shelf life of your salad greens and rid yourself of that food waste guilt (and lost money). The result? A gorgeously delicious fresh and crispy salad you meant to make for Saturday’s dinner (but put off until Tuesday) can still be a reality.

The obvious solution here is to turn my past-due peaches into jams, smoothies, compotes and other fruity concoctions. But what if I want to savor them as nature intended—whole, raw and dripping in tangy-sweet juicy goodness? Turns out, there are simple steps I can take to prolong the life of these magical stone fruits and ensure I’m eating them at their very best.

These tips can help you keep your goods from going bad before you’re able to chop, dice, or mince them into a meal.

We've all done the plastic wrap shuffle. You know what we're talking about — when we just can't tear the right portion off of a roll, or a staticky piece of the stuff doesn't wrap properly. Then we strive to start anew and tear off a fresh piece, and the same battle encores. Sigh.

Got too many knives for your knife block? Or just no knife block at all? Food & Wine Culinary Director Justin Chapple has the Mad Genius Tip that'll get you safely storing all your blades away, using just two easy-to-find items.

Cauliflower might not be an obvious choice for breakfast, but this versatile vegetable is actually a perfect addition to any morning meal—especially in September, when it's in season. Whether you're making potato-free cauliflower hash browns or craving cheesy cauliflower grits, you want to make sure that cauliflower is fresh. Otherwise, your purees will get gummy and your florets will be limp and sad, and the whole vegetable will look sad and brown. So how do you store cauliflower so it stays fresh for as long as possible and doesn't turn brown?

Scallions, also known as green onions, are relatively finicky vegetables. If you don't store them correctly, your scallions will wilt and turn into a dark green, moist mass that you have to toss. So how do you store scallions to keep them as fresh as possible for as long as possible? Well, unlike regular onions, which stay freshest at room temperature, scallions should be stored in the fridge. That's because scallions are more like leafy greens than they are root vegetables, and so you should be treating them more like herbs or spinach than potatoes or regular white or yellow onions.

If you're one of those people who can't stand cilantro and think the herb tastes like soap, stop reading now. But if you love cilantro, and wish you could put it on everything, you know that it's best enjoyed fresh—which is why it's so sad when fresh leaves of cilantro gets slimy before you have a chance to use it. The trick to keeping this herb fresh for as long as possible comes down to learning how to store cilantro properly. And fortunately, it's not that hard a skill to master.

Carrots are known for their crisp, crunchy texture when eaten raw, but these root vegetables can get soggy and limp and even wilt you don't store them correctly. The good news is that carrots are hardy, and learning how to keep carrots fresh for a long time isn't that complicated. In fact, according to Sweetwater Organic Farm in Tampa, FL, you can store carrots for up to a month in the fridge—if you follow a few simple guidelines.

The best way to do extend the shelf life of basil is to learn how to store basil correctly. And though, like many leafy greens, basil is delicate, there are a couple steps you can take to make sure your basil lasts as long as possible.

Grapes are surprisingly fickle fruits. If you don't store them correctly, they can shrivel up or even get moldy. But when you consider the fact that grapes are actually berries, and berries have a notoriously short shelf-life, it's kind of surprising that grapes last in your fridge as long as they do. In fact, if stored correctly, regular table grapes can stay fresh for long time.

Mushrooms are delicate vegetables, both in taste and temperament. If you don't pay attention, your mushrooms can go from beautiful to a sludgy, slimy mess in a couple of days. That's why it's so important to learn how to store mushrooms correctly—because proper storage and handling is what prevents these fungi from going totally bad before you have a chance to eat them.

Sweet potatoes are the unsung heroes of breakfast. There are so many easy and healthy ways to cook with this versatile vegetable, and these sweet potato recipes can keep you feeling full for hours. But it can be kind of tricky to know when sweet potatoes are ripe and ready to be used—and even trickier to know exactly when a sweet potato has gone bad. Plus, how do you store a sweet potato? And how long do sweet potatoes last?

Whether you add it raw into smoothies, sauté it for an omelet, or bake it into a quiche, spinach is one of those rare, versatile vegetables that's easy to add to any meal for some extra nutrition. But like most salad greens, spinach is fickle, and if you don't store spinach correctly, there's a good chance your spinach will wilt before you have a chance to use it. And you'll definitely know when your spinach has gone bad. The edges of the once bright, crisp green leaves will first turn yellow, and eventually, the leaves will get gnarly and soggy, often taking on an unpleasant smell. At that point, your spinach is better off in the compost pile than on your plate.

A lot of folks don't like pears because they're too mealy—but more often that not, that gritty, unpleasant texture is a result of incorrect storage and improper handling rather than a problem with the fruit itself. If you want to avoid biting into a piece of fruit that's soft and mushy with the texture of sand, you should learn how to store pears properly. And really, storing pears correctly couldn't be more simple.

There are few feelings more tragic than reaching for a handful of fresh strawberries, only to realize the berries have shriveled up and turned a deep burgundy color or, worse, gotten moldy. The bad news for those looking to keep strawberries fresh for as long as possible is that strawberries have a decidedly short shelf life. They really only last on the shelf a few days, due to "their thin skin and fragile structure," writes Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen. And that's even with cold storage. So what is the best way to store fresh strawberries and keep strawberries from going bad?

Fresh ginger has an unmistakable snap to it, so you know you've got old ginger on your hands when it kind of bends when you try to cleanly break it in two. And that's sad for everyone. So what's the best way to store fresh ginger so that it stays as fresh and snappy for as long as possible? There are actually a few different ways to store fresh ginger, and the method that's best for you and your ginger really depends on how you're planning on using this rhizome—and yes, ginger is technically a rhizome, not a root—in your kitchen.