How To Organize The Refrigerator

Trying to organize the refrigerator? Great! You've come to the right place.

Having a disorganized fridge is frustrating, yucky and costly. When your fridge is a mess, things can't be identified and/or found. This leads to uncleanliness, food expiring (and therefore being wasted) and the unnecessary purchase of more.

Below you'll find tips on getting your fridge clean and organized, a system for maintaining this awesomeness and photos of my refrigerator. Happy reading and organizing!

The Process

Utilize the general organizing procedure of purge, sort and store, and apply it when organizing the fridge.


Purge:

• Start by going through your refrigerator one item at a time.

• As you make decisions, put the item in the corresponding pile, bag or box - Keep, Recycle or Trash.

• Take out the trash when you're done with the purging session. This hinders the possibility of undoing your hard fridge organizing work.


Sort:

• You have pared down, and now you can focus on what's left. Sort the remaining items into categories that make sense to you (i.e. dressings, condiments, cheeses and deli meats, beverages, breakfast, leftovers).

**Note: You can combine the Purge and Sort steps. After you've decided to keep the item in your hand, put it on the counter with other like items. For example, put all of your salad dressings together, all the cheeses and meats together and so on.**

• Since your refrigerator is empty now, take this opportunity to give it a good cleaning. Wipe down every shelf and drawer for a sparkly, fresh fridge.

Store:

• Put your sorted refrigerator items back into the fridge by assigning each section a category (i.e. the door is for condiments and dressings, top shelf is for drinks, second shelf is for leftovers, cheeses and deli meats go in the specified drawer, etc.).

This is my fridge! As you can see in the right photo, condiments are on the door according to size and I also have a packet organizer (on the second shelf).

In the left photo, I have clear handled baskets on the top shelf for easy access to those items, leftovers in clear food storage containers on the second shelf, canned beverages below that and deli meats and cheeses in the drawer. I can see and get to everything. Love it!

• Take into consideration those in your household. For example, you may want to put your child's snacks on a shelf that can be reached.

• Use erasable labels on food storage containers to easily identify what the item is and how long it's been in the fridge.

• Organize the refrigerator using products to maximize your space like a turntable for tall items or a packet organizer. See more fantastic products suggested below!


Maintain:

• Get into the habit of putting things back in their appropriate sections in the fridge and storing leftovers in easy-to-identify containers (with labels, if necessary).

• Every few weeks, go through your refrigerator to toss expired items and rearrange stuff if necessary. This is also a good time to wipe down the fridge and give it a quick cleaning. Doing this regularly means any dirtiness or stickiness can't build up to the point of having to break a sweat to clean it up. This keeps your fridge fresh and organized on a regular basis!

The Products

Organizing products for the fridge are very useful and will help you achieve and maintain neatness!


TellFresh Containers

These airtight containers are excellent for food storage. They are safe for the freezer, refrigerator, dishwasher and microwave!


Clear Handled Storage Baskets

An awesome product, these plastic storage baskets have handles for easy access. I use them in my refrigerator to hold some of the miscellaneous items that don't fit anywhere else like marinades.


Packet Organizer - a Favorite to Organize the Refrigerator!
Dressing packets, condiment packets, packets galore! I use this fantastic organizer to tame the packet monster in my fridge (and for any other small items floating around).


Stainless Steel Turntable

I love turntables, and they are useful all over the house! Can't see what's in the back of the fridge? Perhaps you need a turntable on one of the shelves for bottles and other tall items.


Erasable Food Labels

These labels are erasable for many uses and safe for the fridge, freezer, microwave and dishwasher. Never wonder what those leftovers are again!

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by Nealey Stapleton

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