Putting away the groceries seems like the easiest thing to do around the kitchen. But after a few calls to experts, we learned exactly how much we’re doing wrong. We’ve been destroying the flavor of watermelons by keeping them cold too long, misusing the crisper bin, and not cleaning the condenser coils—we never even considered that last one, let alone knew where the coils were.

When fancy-refrigerator manufacturer Sub-Zero put people in a room with a week’s worth of groceries and an empty fridge, “nobody really had any idea where to put stuff,” says Paul Leuthe, a corporate marketing manager at the company.

Click to see how to fill your fridge the right way »