10 Creative Uses for Your Wine Fridge Beyond Storing Wine

Using a wine fridge is a great way to make sure that your wine is stored properly and that it’s at the perfect temperature whenever you’re ready to open it. But if you don’t have a ton of wine stocked in there at all times, you may feel like that space is going to waste. You might be surprised to learn that there are actually a lot of things you can store in a wine fridge, far beyond your favorite bottles. You can fill those extra, empty spaces with everything from snacks to extra produce you don’t have room in your regular fridge for. And who doesn’t like to take advantage of some extra refrigerator storage space?

The following are a few of the items you can store in your wine fridge, whether you just want to keep those items close on hand when you plan on opening a bottle of wine or because you want to make some more space in your standard refrigerator. Either way, you might just be surprised at all you can store in your wine fridge.

It’s always nice to enjoy some charcuterie with a glass of wine, which is part of the reason that keeping cured meat in your wine fridge could make sense. It’ll always be available when you’re getting ready to pop open a bottle of red, and you don’t even have to make a trip to your kitchen to have the perfect snack. But convenience isn’t the only perk of keeping cured meats in your wine fridge. 

Wine fridges generally run at a slightly higher temperature than kitchen refrigerators, only going as low as 40 or up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit . That works especially well for sliced, cured meats, which store best around 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Since they won’t be as cold, you might just be able to appreciate their textures and flavors in a richer, more pronounced fashion. Plus, wine fridges tend to have humidity control, which can extend the shelf life of your cured meats.

Just keep in mind that, because wine fridges don’t have shelves, you may need to either put the cured meat at the bottom of your wine fridge or simply install a mesh or plastic shelf in which to place the cured meat. Regardless, never has having a snack with your glass of wine been so easy.

If you like to cook with fresh herbs, then you know that they can be quite difficult to keep fresh if you have them on hand for more than a few days. All too often, they’ll start to wilt or go soft even before you have the chance to use them all. And considering how expensive fresh herbs can often be, it can feel like you’re literally throwing money into the trash. 

But you might not realize that you may already have a tool in your home that can help you keep those herbs fresh for longer: your wine fridge. Yes, a wine fridge is a great place to store fresh herbs. This is because you run the risk of accidentally freezing your herbs if you place them in the wrong spot in your fridge, which can cause them to wilt once they thaw out. However, that’s not a problem when you’re using a wine fridge, which is typically warmer than a standard fridge. Plus, some herbs can be damaged by light; many wine fridge models are designed to be quite dark, removing light that could cause products to oxidize more quickly.

Just place the cut herbs in a glass of water, and place them in your wine fridge. That way, they won’t get in the way of your other groceries and you’ll be able to get to them easily when you need them. Remember, though, that you won’t want to put super strong-smelling herbs in your wine fridge, as they may start to affect the aromas of your wine.

Perhaps you don’t tend to store actual wine in your wine fridge very often and you want a place to stash the kids’ snacks so they can get to them easily. Or maybe you just get kind of snacky after a glass of wine or two, and you want easy access to all your favorite munchies. Either way, you might want to explore putting some of your favorite snacks in your wine fridge. This allows you to use your actual refrigerator for the food you eat for meals, while the wine fridge can function as the place where you put just your snacks, better helping you organize your food.

Wine fridges work well as a place to store kids’ and toddlers’ snacks partially because they tend to be relatively short, which is ideal for little ones who may not be able to reach the top shelf of a kitchen fridge or who don’t love their snacks at a super cold temperature. However, if you are going to store kids’ snacks in your fridge, you’ll just want to make sure that you leave it free of alcohol, particularly if your kids are young.

Do you drink vermouth every once in a while and enjoy keeping a bottle of it in your house for whenever you get a craving for it? It’s always nice to have vermouth on hand, whether you use it as a mixer for your favorite cocktails or you enjoy drinking it all on its own. Although it’s technically fine to keep your vermouth at room temperature out on your bar cart, it’ll actually keep longer if you keep it cool. That makes a wine fridge the ideal place to store your vermouth. 

As opposed to a standard fridge, a wine fridge is slightly warmer, which won’t dull the flavors as much as a super-cold environment can. You can store it alongside your red wines so it’s always ready to go when you want a drink. And since nice vermouth can be expensive, it only makes sense to try to stretch its shelf life for as long as possible. By keeping your vermouth fresh, you can guarantee tastier cocktails and even better vermouth if you drink it on the rocks. This is especially useful if you tend to drink vermouth not-so-frequently, like many of us do.

Does your fridge have an especially small spot for produce? If you eat a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables, you may find that the crisping drawers at the bottom of the appliance just can’t hold the amount of produce you keep on hand. That’s when your wine fridge can come in handy. Instead of just letting some of that stuff sit on the countertop, which can make it go bad faster, you can put the extras in your wine fridge so you can ensure that you always have crisp apples, fresh celery, and plenty of carrots sticks on hand.

Fruits like strawberries, blueberries, and apples are great to store in a wine fridge, as are carrots and leafy greens, on the veggie front. This storage solution makes particular sense for fruits that you don’t like to enjoy too cold, like tomatoes or oranges, since wine fridges run slightly warmer than standard kitchen fridges. Just like your kitchen fridge, a wine cooler will prevent them from going bad quite as quickly as they otherwise might and may even keep them extra fresh — and they’ll also remind you to eat something healthy every time you reach for a wine bottle. Sounds like a win-win to us.

Some types of pet food, like canned wet food and dry kibble, don’t need to be kept refrigerated. They generally have pretty long shelf lives, so you can keep them out without having to worry about them going bad. However, if you feed your cat, dog, or other pet fresh pet food, then it may be worth it to store that in your wine fridge. This storage method works for any kind of meat-based wet food or food topper as well as insects or fresh vegetables, if that’s what your pet happens to eat.

Keeping your kitchen fridge clear of your pet’s food gives you more room to stock your groceries, and it can help prevent those food mix-ups that sometimes happen when pet food is stored in your main fridge. After all, nobody wants to accidentally eat their cat’s wet food just because they thought it was a new kind of fancy canned tuna. This is especially helpful when you have animals like rabbits or guinea pigs that eat vegetables that could easily get mixed up with the human family’s food.

There are certain kinds of medications that need to be kept at very specific temperatures. And since your standard kitchen fridge might fluctuate in temperature quite easily, it’s generally better to keep those types of medications in a more temperature controlled environment. Luckily, that’s just what a wine refrigerator is. Therefore, it’s a great place to keep those important medications, whether you use them on the regular or just need to grab them out of the fridge when symptoms flare up.

However, before you put any medications in a refrigerator — whether it’s the one specifically used for wine or the one in your kitchen — you’ll want to speak with your doctor or pharmacist about how best to store the medication in question. Different medications will have different storage guidelines, and it’s important to get this info ahead of time to make sure your medicine doesn’t go bad or become ineffective from improper storage.

It’s probably not every day that you get your hands on black or white truffles, since they can be quite pricey and are only found at certain times of the year. However, when you do get one (or several, if you’re lucky), you’ll want to keep them as fresh as possible before you use them. Not only does this help retain their strikingly complex flavor, but it also ensures that they have the right texture when you shave them on your pasta or whatever other delicious dish with which you decide to serve them.

That’s where a wine fridge can come in handy. A wine fridge will help preserve your truffles, ensuring that they stay fresh for as long as possible. The low setting for most wine fridges is around 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and the ideal temperature for storing truffles is from 32 to 39 degrees F, which means that they should stay fresh in a wine fridge with no problem, without the risk of freezing, which can damage their temperature. Wrap them individually in paper towels, then put them in an airtight container. 

Using an airtight container is important firstly because it protects the truffles from going bad too soon but secondly because the strong aroma of truffles can affect the flavors of the wine you have stored in your fridge. As long as you store your truffles properly, though, keeping them in your wine fridge can extend their shelf life so you can enjoy their unique, earthly flavors for as long as possible.

There’s nothing like sipping your beverage out of a cold glass. Putting a glass in the fridge before you serve your beverage of choice is always a good idea, but all too often, it can take up a ton of room in your fridge. Instead of saving room in your fridge for food, you instead have to make room for a glass or several, if you’re having guests over. This is where your wine fridge can come in handy. Instead of crowding your kitchen refrigerator with glasses you want to chill, you can use the extra space in your wine fridge instead.

And it doesn’t have to stop with chilled glasses. You could chill a bowl that you intend to serve a chilled soup in, or a plate that you want to place a cold dessert onto. Having the ability to chill plates, cups, glasses, and more can all make your at-home dining experience feel a bit more elevated — and you don’t even have to use up any extra room in your refrigerator.

Every once in a while, it’s nice to get yourself a treat, and if you love seafood, then caviar may just be your treat of choice. However, since caviar tends to be on the pricier end of the luxury food spectrum, you’ll want to make sure you store it properly so it stays fresh for whenever you’re ready to enjoy it. Putting caviar in the wine fridge is a great idea if you’re looking for a cool location where it will be out of the way.

For the freshest caviar, don’t open the tin until you plan on eating it, and make sure you properly seal the leftovers in an airtight container. This is especially important when you’re storing caviar in a wine fridge, since improperly stored caviar may affect the flavor of your wines. After all, that fishy aroma can be powerful, and you don’t want it to interact with the delicate notes in your wine collection.