The Most Underrated Food-Waste Solution

Our family goes through a LOT of berries (name one household with toddlers that doesn’t, I dare you). And let’s be real… they’re not cheap. The last thing I’m doing is letting them go bad.

For a long time, I thought you were supposed to wash them as soon as you got home. Spoiler: that actually encourages mold to grow faster. The trick is not to wash berries until you’re ready to eat them. Keep them unwashed, in their original container or a breathable storage solution, and you’ll get more days out of those little sweet treasures.

Prepping and storing fruits and vegetables correctly is one of the highest-impact, lowest-effort ways to prevent waste. When produce is washed, chopped, and visible, it gets eaten. When it’s buried in the back of the crisper drawer? Straight to the garbage or compost. Bye, $6.99! 

Proper storage is the quiet superhero of sustainable kitchens: it saves money, reduces waste, and makes healthy eating easier. 

The Golden Rule of Produce Prep

The best time to prep your produce is the day you bring it home. (Except for certain berries - more on that below)

Yes, it feels like extra work, but investing 10–15 minutes to prep your produce the day of purchase will pay off all week (or longer). Here’s your baseline Finch-approved system:

1. Wash and dry produce you’ll use in the next few days. A mixture of water and a splash of vinegar works perfectly to help clean the dirt and surface residues off your produce. Even if it’s organic, there could still be pesticide residues, dust, or bacteria.
2. Separate ethylene producers: Keep bananas, avocados, and tomatoes away from greens and berries to prevent premature ripening.
3. Chop what you can: Think carrot sticks, pepper strips, or salad greens. But only if you plan to use them within the next few days. Over-prepping can backfire, leaving you with soggy veggies and more waste than you started with.
4. Store items properly: More on that below.

How to Store Common Produce

Here’s a breakdown of the most common fruits and vegetables and how to make them last longer:

• Greens (spinach, kale, lettuce): Wrap in a damp cloth or paper towel and tuck into a reusable bag or container. Keeps them crisp and salad-ready.
• Fresh herbs: Stand upright in a glass of water (like flowers) or wrap in a damp cloth and refrigerate. Basil can live on the counter in a glass of water.
• Carrots, celery, radishes: Store submerged in water in the fridge—they’ll stay crunchy for weeks. Swap the water every few days for extra freshness.
• Berries: Wash only when you’re ready to eat them to prevent premature mold. Trust me. We ran out of berries during a snowstorm (very big deal with the threenagers) because I made this mistake. 
• Mushrooms: Paper bag in the fridge. Plastic traps moisture, making them soggy and sad.
• Tomatoes: Keep at room temperature—refrigeration can compromise flavor. Ripen first, then refrigerate if needed.
• Avocados: Store at room temp until ripe; then move to the fridge to extend life by a few days.
• Citrus (oranges, lemons, limes): Store in the fridge for long-term freshness, or on the counter if you’ll use them quickly.
• Apples: Keep in the fridge for longer life, ideally in the crisper drawer; separate from strong-smelling foods so they don’t absorb odors.
• Bananas: Keep at room temperature. To slow ripening, separate them from the bunch or wrap the stems in foil. Once they’re ripe, you can freeze them for smoothies or baking.

Pro Tips from a Container Queen

• Containers matter: Stackable glass containers with locking lids keep things neat and visible.
• Label everything: Masking tape + Sharpie = magic. Date and name items so nothing gets forgotten.
• Visibility is key: Keep chopped or washed produce at eye level in the fridge. If you can see it, you’ll eat it.
• Use what you prep: Pair this with a simple meal prep system (like batch-cooking proteins, grains, and roasted veggies) to make weeknight meals seamless. More on this in our blog on Romanticizing Your Weekly Meal Prep. 

Make It a Habit

2026 is officially the year of habit stacking for us—building small, repeatable routines that make life more efficient, less wasteful, and way less stressful.

Two habits we’ve stacked so far:

• Prepping our produce for a long shelf life.
• Meal prepping so we don’t live in the nightly loop of:

Them: “What do you want for dinner?”

You: “I don’t know, what are you thinking? 🙄”

We’ve all been there. We’ve all not wanted to be there. This year, let’s hold ourselves accountable and actually enjoy weeknights instead of turning them into an improv episode of The Truman Show.

To the produce that didn’t make it… the lonely carrots, forgotten greens, and berries that never got their moment. We’re sorry, and we promise to do better.

Related Reads

• Want a low-stress system to use this produce all week? → Read our guide to romanticizing your meal prep
• Curious how AI can help you plan around what’s in your fridge? → Learn how we use AI to reduce food waste