We, as a nation, waste a ton of food per year. Whether you clean out your refrigerator and toss out forgotten leftovers, mushy fruit or freezer burnt veggies, it adds up quickly. Let’s face it, schedules become hectic, eating out takes precedence over cooking at home sometimes, and that green pepper you bought a few weeks ago is a living testimony of it. The Kitchn came up with three awesome ideas to help avoid food waste, and here they are: Write It on a White Erase Board: Go ahead and stick a magnetic white erase board right on your refrigerator. Write down all perishable items like your produce, or opened spaghetti sauce with the expiration dates if feasible. When that item is eaten up, erase it on the board. It’s a great suggestion as food items that would have else been forgotten behind all of those boxes and bottles are magically remembered. Plus, you’re able to know what you have and are most likely to use it up. This tip also goes along the lines of marking every container in your refrigerator with the expiration date with a permanent marker. Plan a Meal List: We all know you should never ever go grocery shopping on an empty stomach…and now we’re adding to it. Never ever go grocery shopping without a meal list. It’s easy to randomly grab up things you think you know what you’re going to do with. You know what ends up happening? Food waste! Meal list prepping is much better than ending up with a bunch of ingredients that don’t really go together. Tossed It Out? Write It Down: We especially love this idea. The next time you toss out moldy apples or a rancid salad, write it down and the reasons why you threw it away. By keeping a food diary or journal – whatever you want to call it – you will become more consciously aware of what it is that you’re throwing away. Thus, perhaps those strawberries are still okay to eat for lunch, or maybe you can make banana bread with those extreme cheetah-spotted ‘nanas. By keeping a record of what you toss out, you can begin to look at your throwaway patterns, learn from them, and change it accordingly when you go grocery shopping next.

3 Tips to Reduce Your Food Waste