When it comes down to helping keep that fridge organized and keeping waste to a minimum, make this your mantra "Use the yellow". LightTags work by tracking time-- and when the light goes from teal to yellow, everyone that opens the fridge can know that yellow is the priority.
So how does that work exactly? We've put together our favorite use occasions for the phrase to make it easy for you to implement with your own fridge.
So how does that work exactly? We've put together our favorite use occasions for the phrase to make it easy for you to implement with your own fridge.
Make Lunch Decisions Easier 🥡
"Since we often work from the house, we know to grab the leftovers or lunch meat that have a yellow LightTag first. Since all of of the lights with the teal tags will be good at least until the next day, this makes it easy to choose and helps me feel good about not being wasteful."
- Ovie LightTag customer
- Ovie LightTag customer
Tip for success: This tactic works great for smaller families with a lot of leftovers from meals cooked or takeout. When every leftover went into the fridge on a different day, it takes a lot of mental energy to remember how old each one is. Our shorthand is to always assume 3 days or less (so 3 clicks to set the LightTag).
The challenge is you sometimes have to forego that craving in favor of using what you have in the fridge...
The challenge is you sometimes have to forego that craving in favor of using what you have in the fridge...
For tips on how long to save leftovers, head over to our blog post here
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Make Snacking Simpler for Kids 🧒👦
When you're wanting to make "can I have a snack?" meet more independence and good choices for kids, LightTags can be a great shorthand for what they can eat by teaching them to eat "anything that has a yellow light"
Did you know? You don't have to wait days for a LightTag to turn yellow for this tactic to work wonders. You can make a LightTag show yellow by only setting the LightTag for one day. So you can prep snacks the night before or morning of and put a LightTag on there and they'll see the yellow light when they open the fridge.
Did you know? You don't have to wait days for a LightTag to turn yellow for this tactic to work wonders. You can make a LightTag show yellow by only setting the LightTag for one day. So you can prep snacks the night before or morning of and put a LightTag on there and they'll see the yellow light when they open the fridge.
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Your 3:00 Snack Break 🕒
LightTags on snacks like protein shakes, yogurt and dips are a great way to keep up and make sure they're getting eaten on time. Once a dip or shake is open, Tagging it with a LightTag is a really easy way to make sure that the NEXT time you open the fridge, you reach for something that's already opened and not something new.
Snack hack: Try grouping your opened containers (like stacking an opened hummus on top of a guacamole) and tagging the container on top. This allows you to tag groups of foods in your fridge and gets your attention with only one LightTag. You can also try using a fridge drawer like this one and putting a LightTag on the lip of the drawer.
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For Baby Food Safety 👶
If you're in the stage of life where Baby's trying new foods (and only sometimes liking them!), you know the struggle is real with juggling foods and ensuring they're getting enough trials on a food that they'll eventually like it. We love LightTags for this because it helps new parents keep babies well-fed and exploring foods (even if it's a few bites at at time) without wasting much.
For homemade baby food: Use LightTags on newly made containers to track the number of days they're good right from the start. Once you've tried something and aren't ready to throw it away? Make sure you change the LightTag setting to only have 1 day left if you've fed baby right out of the container. This way anyone who has the next meal knows that this one needs to be eaten (or tried again)
For jars & pouches: Before the food is open, make sure and follow expiration dates by the manufacturer, but once they're open, LightTags are a great way to cue the next person in the fridge (auntie, grandma and grandpa or sitters and nanny) about which foods you want them to use. If the food is open, we always abide by the 1-day rule to stay on the safe side, so set the LightTag for 1 day and let them know to "Use the yellow" next.
For jars & pouches: Before the food is open, make sure and follow expiration dates by the manufacturer, but once they're open, LightTags are a great way to cue the next person in the fridge (auntie, grandma and grandpa or sitters and nanny) about which foods you want them to use. If the food is open, we always abide by the 1-day rule to stay on the safe side, so set the LightTag for 1 day and let them know to "Use the yellow" next.
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For Tracking Breastmilk 🍼
This one's for all of you new pumping mamas out there (and for the whole village that's supporting you). If you're pumping a lot or in and out of the fridge a lot, it's really easy to lose track of a bottle that's gone in the fridge -- causing that liquid gold to go straight down the drain.
Using LightTags for tracking breastmilk is an upgrade from the tape-and-marker method of tracking, but takes a little adjusting and a slight shift in mindset.
With tape-and-markers, you have the exact date of when the milk was expressed, so you can make sure you use FIFO (first in, first out) to make sure baby always gets the freshest milk.
How it works: With LightTags, you put a LightTag on each bottle and set it for 3-4 days (depending on how many days you want to keep it in the fridge).
For the first 2-3 days, all of the LightTags will be teal (since they're counting down). All of the new milk has teal, all of the older has teal-- which means that you'll just grab a bottle from the teal stash knowing that it's still good, but not necessarily knowing which bottle is the oldest.
If you've set tags for 3 days, at the start of day 3, you'll start to see some tags that are yellow. You have 24 hours to use (or freeze) the yellow-tagged milk. So reach for that one at every feed from here on out.
Each time a Tag goes into the last 24 hours, it will turn yellow. So at this point, you'll still have the newer (freshest) that are teal, and the older in yellow.
Have questions about how this works or want to give us some input? Send a note to friends@ovie.life