Apples, Soy Sauce, and 26 Other Foods You Don't Actually Need to Refrigerate (2024)

Avocados ripen best at room temperature and sulk in the refrigerator. Once ripe, they need to be used promptly, as even the slightest bruise acquired during shipping will cause a fruit to spoil rapidly, even if refrigerated. Thankfully, you can even use overripe avocados to make the most out of your favorite produce.

Bananas and their less-sweet cousins, plantains, hate the cold. They will not ripen in the fridge, and the cold will turn their skins brown prematurely (though the flesh will still be fine to eat). Make use of banana peels, but remember to store them at room temperature.

This tender leafy herb will cringe and develop black spots when exposed to cold temperatures, so keep it out of the fridge and store on the counter, with cut ends standing in a glass or jar of fresh water.

Bread tends to get stale in the fridge. Keep bread that you will eat within a few days in a cool, dry place, and slice it only when you're ready to eat. For longer storage, either dry it for bread crumbs or slice it, place it in an airtight container, and freeze it. Remove only as much as you need at a time, and thaw it slowly and completely before eating or toasting to enjoy optimal flavor and texture.

These heat-loving fruits (yes, they're fruits!) store well at room temperature.

Store honey, tightly covered, in a cool, dry place. Most honey will crystallize over time, and refrigeration seems to speed the process (re-liquify grainy or solidified honey by setting the jar in a pot of hot water until the honey melts). Honey's color or flavor may change gradually as it ages, but that's OK. (Be sure your honey is ACTUALLY honey.)

Keep whole melons, including watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew, on your counter for best flavor and to help preserve antioxidants.

Onions, shallots, and garlic hate refrigerators—the high humidity tends to make them soft or rubbery and encourages them to sprout and/or mold. Find a cool, dark, dry place for them.

Peppers, especially ripe or ripening (red, orange, yellow) ones, will stop ripening when refrigerated, cheating you of some of their goodness. Just leave them on the counter or in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place. (Make sure your veggies aren't among the most pesticide-laden on the planet!)

​Chances are good that if it grows in the tropics, it will store best at room temperature.

Temperatures below about 45°F will make potatoes turn unpleasantly sweet and gritty; if they're roasted or fried, they will contain significantly more acrylamide than potatoes stored at warmer temps, so keep them out of the fridge. Store them in a dark place so they won't turn green; they need high humidity to stay firm and plump, so a plastic bag inside a paper bag is a good option.

These heat-loving veggies may develop discolored patches when stored in the fridge. Keep them in a cool place and, as they need reasonably high humidity to stay firm and plump, inside a plastic bag or some sort of a container.

Tomatoes get sad and mealy in the fridge. Keep them on the counter or in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place.

These tomato cousins don't like the fridge, either. Leave them in their little papery husks and they will keep for an astonishingly long time in a cool, dry, well-ventilated place.

Fresh apples and pears store well for a couple of weeks (and look pretty) on your counter. If you won't be eating them in that time, they might last a little bit longer in the fridge. Quinces can stay at room temperature.

Green beans, especially the tiny haricot beans (as well as other types of snap and fresh shelled beans), can suffer cold damage in the chilly depth of the fridge and will last longer in a cool (not cold) place. But if it's very hot in your house and there is no cool place available, you may want to store them in the warmest part of the refrigerator if you can't eat them right away.

In most countries, eggs are sold and stored at room temperature. Fresh, clean eggs from your own hens or a local farmer's hens will keep safely on your counter for a week or two. In fact, keeping fresh eggs at room temperature for a few days before cooking will make them much easier to peel when hard-boiled. Dirty or cracked eggs should be refrigerated and used as soon as possible. Once eggs have been refrigerated, they should be kept refrigerated until you are ready to use them.

Grapes will last for a few days on the counter; for longer storage, or if they are very ripe, they will last longer in the refrigerator.