5. Build an eat-first zone and make leftovers visible
The most common route to the bin is not spoilage but invisibility. Food pushed behind other food stops existing, and it is discovered a week later as an archaeological question.
Designate one container, basket or shelf area at eye level as the eat-first box. Anything approaching its limit goes in it: the half pepper, the open pack of ham, the yoghurt whose date is Thursday, last night’s rice. The rule is that anyone looking for food checks this box first, and that meals get planned from it before anything else gets opened.
Leftovers need clear containers, not foil or opaque tubs. You will eat what you can see; you will not investigate a foil parcel. Square or rectangular containers use fridge space far better than round ones, and a matched set stacks rather than forming a tower that collapses.
Label with contents and date using masking tape and a marker. It takes four seconds and removes the guessing that makes people bin perfectly good food. Cooked leftovers keep three to four days in the fridge as a general guide, and should be cooled quickly — spread in a shallow container rather than left in a hot pot on the side.
Rotate every time you shop. New items go to the back of their shelf; existing items come forward. Supermarkets do this constantly for the same reason, and it takes an extra ninety seconds when unpacking.
Keep the fridge shallow. If a shelf is deep enough that things stand in two rows, put the back row in a pull-out bin so the whole row comes forward in one movement. Anything permanently in the dark behind something else is functionally already in the bin.