Bummer of the week: reaching into your fridge for dinner ingredients and you pull back a slimy stalk of cilantro or a mushy tomato. We know that food waste is a contributor to climate change, but busy work days sometimes make getting use out of all your fruits and veggies before they go bad a tough task. Here are some tips on how to store your food and make it last longer.

Store ripe tomatoes upside down, stem side down. Tomatoes ripen from the bottom first, so storing them inverted prevents the bottom from getting mushy, as well as retaining moisture, since moisture releases out of the stem side.

Adding a slice of lemon to a glass of water makes for a refreshing beverage, but you can also store whole lemons in water to preserve their shelf life.

Store your bundle of herbs in a glass filled with water in the fridge, it makes them last longer and keeps them fresh.

Store potatoes and onions apart. Many fruits and vegetables release ethylene, a gas hormone emitted when ripening. This article details different types of produce that emit ethylene and how to store them.

Keep your cheeses in parchment or wax paper. Bonus benefit, most parchment and wax paper is compostable!

There are tons of hacks to help prolong the life of perishable foods and hence reduce food waste!