The produce drawer often becomes a vegetable graveyard — good intentions that slowly rot into guilt. What the evidence best supports is proximity rather than sight: across a Cochrane review, food placed farther away reduced consumption by a moderate amount, and the mechanism is effort rather than attention — people take the least effortful option without deliberating. The obvious move is even wrong for this food: clear containers raise intake of small snacks but reduce it for vegetables, which the researchers called a visual turnoff. If you regularly throw away spoiled produce, the system is broken. Buy with a plan, prep immediately, and put the produce where reaching for it is easiest.
This companion covers why the drawer fails, and the fixes. (4 min read)