Before we start on the subject, I would like to recommend that you never keep your food products into their plastic wrapping since plastic is the perfect place for bacterias. Plastic wrapping also change the taste. This is how you can recognize the excellent chees makers: the ones that do not use plastice wrappings.
Now, lets discuss the main topic: foods that we should keep outside the refrigerator.
Refrigerators are large consummers of electricity so if we can live with smaller machines then it will surely help the environment.
Some foods never belong in your refrigerator and here is the list of the ten most important.
POTATOES
Keeping a potato in the cold temperature of your refrigerator will turn its starch into sugar more quickly, so that you'll be left with a sweet, gritty potato and no need for more sugar which fuels so many health problems. Instead of putting potatoes in the fridge, store them in a paper bag in a cool -- not cold -- place. Assuming you don't have a root cellar -- the ideal place for potatoes -- store them in a dark place, like inside your pantry. Paper bags work better because they're more breathable and the potato won't rot as fast. We suggest that you store potatoes at a temperature as close to 15 degrees as possible. Like all vegetables, they need to avoid light and heat and you just store it in a recycled paper bag (PLEASE, it is urgent to respect the four Rs: RECUPERATE, REUSE, RECYCLE and REPAIR).
Tomatoes will lose all their flavor in the fridge. The cold air in the fridge stops the ripening process, which gives tomatoes more flavor. The fridge will also alter the texture of the tomato. The cold temperature breaks down the membranes inside the fruit walls, turning it mealy. Keep tomatoes out in a bowl or basket on the counter.
BASIL
Basil is a marvel for healthy and tasty cooking. It will wilt faster if left in the fridge, and it will also absorb all the smells of the food around it. It's better to keep it out, sitting in a cup of fresh water, like cut flowers. If you want to store basil for a long time, we recommend blanching it and then freezing it.
ONIONS
It is well known that onions give their taste to everything in the frige. If you put onions in the fridge, the moisture will eventually turn them soft and moldy. Keep them in a cool, dry place. Just keep your onions separate from your potatoes; when stored together, both deteriorate faster.
GARLIC
AVOCADO
If you want avocados to ripen, definitely don't put them in the refrigerator. Avocado always come too hard and are harvested younger then it should, so leave them aside for some times and their taste will only improve.
BREAD
You refrigerator will dry out your bread quickly and it will loose not only its texture but its freshness. We keep bread out on the counter or in the freezer for long periods of time. The better thing is to live near a real bakery (yes, I know, like in France) and purchase your fresh bread "du jour". You should at least keep bread that you will eat within four days out of the frige, to be sliced when you're ready to eat it, and you should freeze the rest to thaw and eat later. Bread in the freezer should be wrapped so it retains its moisture, and when you remove it from the freezer, you should let it thaw slowly and completely before eating or toasting. When the bread is dry and hard, make it moist by splashing some water onto it and put it to the oven for a little while and it will come back very smooth (but again breads being very fluffy means that they have added extra gluten and this is really not healthy; stay away from all industrial white sliced bread).
OIL
You should store olive oil and most oils in a cool, dark place, but not in the fridge, where it will condense and turn to a harder, almost butter-like consistency. Anyway, oil does not really decay over periods of times such as weeks as long as light is not effecting it.
COFFEE
If you leave coffee in the refrigerator, it will lose its flavor and actually take on some of the odors in the fridge. You should store coffee in a cool, dark place, where it will retain its flavor and freshness. You can store larger quantities of coffee in the freezer, however.
HONEY
The miracle element which never rots outside and can last forever. This produce of the bee industry (why can't human produce such good processed food themselves ?) brings so many nutrients which contribute to taste and health so much. So, I repeat, it does not rot, so there's no need to store honey in the fridge or anywhere special -- it will stay good basically forever if you simply keep it tightly sealed. Keeping honey in the refrigerator will just cause it to crystalize (perhaps just good for a scientific experiment to explain some concept to your children).
-------------
And here is the encore ! Lets talk about the famous butter.
BUTTER
One of the most-discussed foods is butter. It has been long debated whether or not and how long to keep butter out of the refrigerator. Butter straight from the fridge is too hard to spread. As with many culinary debates, there's not really a cut-and-dried answer and perhaps the answer again lies in France. I happen to live with a Frenchwomen so. According to the USDA (are they really a reliable source of health information when we know the corruption by the big companies), you should store butter in its wrapper in the fridge and keep butter out only for 10 to 15 minutes before spreading it, but I have friends who have lived with butter stored in the normal cupboards for decades without any issue. Some excellent restaurant chefs do the same as my friends and will call hereritcs, people who do otherwise. Because butter is made from pasteurized milk, the chances of contamination are very low. There's always a risk, however there is risk with everything and burning butter is surely much more dangerous. Salted butter, because of its salt content and water dispersion, runs a lower risk of spoiling and its salt helps keep bacteria away (if weak bacterias occupy the space then lyseria and other dangerous ones will never have a chance to exist).
While there may not be a definitively right or wrong way to store butter, there are certain foods that are much more straightforward.
