3. Learn which produce does not belong in a fridge at all
Several common items lose quality or spoil faster when refrigerated, and moving them out is a free improvement.
Tomatoes are the clearest case. Below about 55°F the cell membranes break down and the compounds responsible for flavour stop being produced, which is why supermarket tomatoes taste of nothing. Keep them on the counter, stem side down.
Potatoes, onions and garlic all want somewhere cool, dark and airy, not cold and damp. Cold converts potato starch to sugar, which changes how they cook and darkens them when fried. Store potatoes in a paper or hessian sack in a cupboard, and keep onions away from potatoes — onions give off moisture and gas that sprout them.
Bananas go black in the cold, and they release ethylene that ripens everything near them, so keep them alone on the counter. Avocados, peaches, plums, mangoes and melons should ripen at room temperature, then move to the fridge once ready to slow them down. Bread goes stale faster in a fridge than on the counter — freeze it instead if you cannot finish a loaf.
Basil is the herb that hates the cold; treat it like cut flowers in a glass of water on the worktop. Honey, most oils and unopened jars of preserve belong in a cupboard.
The general rule: fruit that finishes ripening after picking wants the counter first, and the fridge only once it is ready to eat.