Leftovers? Fit 25% more in your fridge!

Here’s how to share and store yours, so not a single delicious morsel goes to waste!

1 Store food like a pro!

Set up a leftovers station! “Just get disposable plasticware and have everyone fill their own leftovers box when dinner is over,” advises professional organizer Julie Coraccio (Reawakenyourbrilliance.com), host of the podcast “Clearing the Clutter Inside & Out” and owner of Healing through Organization. Include a pen so that guests can write their names on their box, then set the bags in a cooler by the front door so people won’t forget them when they leave.

Freeze your plastic wrap!

Tired of struggling with stubborn plastic wrap that somehow always manages to stick to itself—but not your leftovers? “Just put it in the freezer about an hour before you’re ready to wrap up your food,” suggests organization and cleaning expert Jamie Novak, author of Keep This, Toss That. “When plastic wrap is cold, it doesn’t stick to itself!” she reveals. “This trick makes it so much easier to quickly wrap your leftovers without creating stuck-to-itself clumps. It also makes it easier to find the end of the plastic wrap since it can’t stick to itself!”

Take advantage of square space!

To make the most out of valuable refrigerator real estate, store leftovers in square or rectangular containers. “This allows you to make full use of the entire interior of your refrigerator and freezer better than if you used round containers,” says Melinda Massie, owner of Organizing with a Side of Fabulous in Fort Worth, Texas. “You’ll be able to fit at least 25% more in the fridge!”

Go for glass!

If you plan to reheat the leftovers, opt for microwaveable glass containers with matching lids, says professional organizer Darla Demorrow, owner of Heartwork Organizing in Wayne, Pennsylvania. “Glass and ceramic containers don’t transfer chemicals to the food like plastic may.” Glass also has a non-porous surface that doesn’t absorb food and germs, plus it can safely be heated in the oven or microwave and washed at high temperatures in the dishwasher.

Lock in freshness!

Keep leftover bread separate from other foods, so it won’t draw moisture from other dishes. And don’t refrigerate it—that actually makes bread go stale faster, says Demorrow. “Also, remember that thawing frozen food will reduce its moisture content by 10% to 20%, so add a bit of gravy, butter or broth to dry foods like turkey before storing them. It’ll keep them fresh for the second time around!”

2 Keep food fresher longer! Get the most out of your turkey!

As with all perishable leftovers, turkey should be refrigerated or frozen within two hours of leaving the oven. To help it stay fresher longer, cut all the meat off the bone before refrigerating. (You can save the bones separately to make turkey stock the next day!) Cooked turkey lasts up to four days in the fridge and four months frozen.

Enjoy mashed potatoes all year!

Mashed potatoes can stay fresh for up to a year if frozen, but they’ll reheat better if originally made with butter and milk, rather than broth. (Whole baked potatoes sadly don’t freeze well.)

Get more life out of your stuffing!

Amazingly, stuffing can be frozen and reheated whether it has been cooked or not. So whether you doubled the recipe or were left with typical leftovers, freeze them for up to a month in a container that you can pop directly into the oven and reheat until it reaches 165°F.

3 Transform leftovers into new favorites! Turn dinner rolls into croutons!

If you’re rolling in excess dinner rolls, chop them into cubes, then place in a plastic bag in the freezer for up to four months, suggests Novak. The frozen cubes can be thawed and sautéed to make delicious croutons for a salad or baked in a late-winter batch of stuffing!

Make “wine bouillon cubes”!

Vino left in an opened bottle? Freeze it in ice cube trays to drop into sauces and soups to enrich their flavor, Novak says. Tip: Cover the tray in plastic wrap to prevent ice crystals from forming on the top of the cubes. (You can do the same with gravy as long as it’s not cream or milk-based.) The wine cubes will last a year or more in the freezer; gravy will keep for about four months.