The Chopstick Trick That Will Help Maximize Your Fridge Space

You know how, in your fridge, you have a shelf entirely filled with chopsticks? And you could be using that shelf for other things, like vegetables, but you cannot figure out how to maximize your fridge space? Well, if you take all of those chopsticks out of the fridge, and then put them somewhere else, and... Oh, wait. [checks notes] That's not the chopstick trick we're talking about.

The truth is, there are right ways to use chopsticks and a whole lot of wrong ways, too. But don't underestimate those slender sticks; there are so many wonderful purposes your chopsticks can serve, besides just pinching and placing delicious food in your mouth. Take the Egg Tornado, for example; a scrambled egg hack using chopsticks that is currently taking the TikTok world by, ahem, storm. Real Simple likes to hang on to chopsticks for everything from mini-drying racks to toaster tongs. But a chopstick hack that creates more room in an overflowing fridge? Give us that tip, chop chop!

Maybe you don't have a fridge full of chopsticks, but we are betting that you have a few wooden chopsticks lurking around a kitchen drawer somewhere — especially in this, the Year of Takeout. The trick is to see your chopsticks as more than just eating utensils, which will open you up to an entirely new world of possibilities. And when is a chopstick not a chopstick? When it's a Jenga block. Kitchn argues that, thanks to an ingenious Reddit hack, your loose chopsticks are the perfect way to create shelf space in your fridge, particularly for those pesky bowls without lids; the ones that have tin foil or cling film stretched over the top.

Un-lidded bowls are impossible to stack, which means you create unusable space in the area just above them. Enter chopsticks. Resting chopsticks across your bowl might be a no-no in your favorite Japanese restaurant, but in your fridge, it will create a makeshift tabletop, so that you can balance another item on top without it crashing down into that tuna salad you just made. Kitchn likes this trick for casserole dishes as well. If you have two large, rectangular lasagnas, for example, you can stack them vertically using four chopsticks angled across the corners. Think of your chopsticks as the Lincoln Logs of your fridge — there is no end to the engineering possibilities!