Organizing Refrigerator Space: 5 Secrets To Refrigerator Organization

Is your fridge a mess? Organizing refrigerator space is about being methodical and about being creative.

Here are 5 secrets to organizing refrigerator space that have transformed our fridge (for the most part...Thanksgiving and backyard BBQs are a bit of a challenge.) Enjoy!

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5 Secrets To Effortlessly
Organizing Refrigerator Space

1. Use turntables.

I never thought of a turntable as a refrigerator organizer, but it certainly does the trick. This is something I just implemented in my fridge and wish I had done it sooner. I put a turntable on the bottom shelf to hold the myriad of sauces (mostly BBQ) that my husband uses when he grills.

There were too many to store them on the door, and it was a pain to access them since they were behind a bunch of things on the shelf. Now with the turntable, they are easy to grab and nothing gets lost in the back.

2. Containerize packets.

Packets, small dipping cups, little individual creamers and anything else that's small needs to be contained. Otherwise, they become unruly and end up occupying valuable space.

You can repurpose Tupperware containers to organize small fridge items or purchase something created just for this reason. Either way, containerize and your refrigerator will be easier to navigate.

3. Baskets with handles rock.

I utilize a plastic basket with a handle to hold some miscellaneous items that don't fit on the turntable or the fridge door. In it are things like jars of pickles and jalapenos.

At one point we had 3 different kinds of pickles (you know, so we could offer our guests options during backyard BBQs), so the basket really came in handy. I could easily pull the whole thing out, see our entire stock of pickles and get to what I needed.

4. Shut the front door...I mean the fridge door.

The fridge door can really hold a lot, and it can quickly overflow into an expired mess of randomness. To avoid that, do these 3 simple things:

First, clean out the fridge door regularly. When I say this, I don't mean the whole thing and I don't mean every day. I mean, keep your eye on what's on the fridge door and once a month toss a few things that have expired.

Second, keep the like items together. This way you can see how many salad dressings you really have. You could group together condiments (ketchup, mustard, mayo), salad dressings (ranch, ceasar, italian), sauces (pasta sauce, hot sauce, soy sauce), juices (lemon, lime) and then the rest (butter, minced garlic).

Third, combine duplicates. My husband kept purchasing yellow mustard to use in his marinades, so we ended up with 4 partially-used bottles. Combining them downsized the bottles to 2, and what a space saver!

5. Create zones.

Divide your fridge shelves into zones. We've already talked about the fridge door and the drawers are typically reserved for deli stuff, vegetables and fruits. What's left are the shelves. To avoid losing stuff in the very back and organize this clutter-breeding ground, create zones that group like items.

For example in our fridge, there's the breakfast zone (berries, yogurt), the leftover zone, the drink zone and the snack zone. Think about the way your family accesses stuff in the fridge and create your zones accordingly.

And if you want to get real crazy, you can label your zones so everyone knows where everything goes.

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