Hello, friends! I recently did a little organizing to our refrigerator, and while it’s not ground-breaking, I thought I’d share a few of my tips with you guys. Plus let you in on how your fridge can be this clean and cheerful!
With any organizing project, it’s always best to clear everything out first, and give it a good scrubbing. Unfortunately, with a fridge, that has to be done more than once every few years months. Most of the time, I’m a meal-planner, and list-maker, before heading out to the grocery store. If not, I come home with tons of stuff, but nothing in which to actually prepare dinner! (We aren’t home during the day, so breakfast and dinner is all I shop for.) And I only buy for the week ahead, so our fridge never gets over-stuffed.
While making my list, I go through the fridge, freezer and pantry, and toss any sad or outdated food. We try to stick with lots of fresh foods, so I only buy those in quantities we can actually eat in a week.
Keep reading for more fridge organizing tricks, and info on how you can win a set of these cute liners!
Fruits and veggies each have their own drawer, and meats and cheeses are in another.
The door tends to be a hoarding ground for me, since most condiments have a pretty long shelf life. But I’ve found if I keep them well separated and organized, I won’t buy more than can easily fit and be seen.
Yeah, we’re pretty serious about salsa, it gets it’s own shelf.
Packages of fruit cups, yogurt, pudding, and popsicles take up a lot of space, and as soon as one or two are eaten, the rest tend to get lost in the back. Or you think you have plenty, only to find out there’s only one left in the box! So I keep a plastic bin (like these) for all the individual-sized food cups. It takes up less than half the space as packages, and they stay together. It’s also really easy for the kids to see their snack options.
Another thing I finally did, was toss all the mis-matched tupperware, and invest in a single size with universal lids. Not only did this eliminate a huge mess in my cabinet, but they stack more efficiently in the fridge. No more little forgotten containers in the back. Unless you’re trying to grow your own penicillin, no one likes finding those!
To encourage the kids (and Mr. Sugarplum!) to make healthy snack choices, I keep a bowl of fresh fruit and veggies clean and at their eye-level.
Yes, we keep breads and cake in the refrigerator…I just prefer them cold. Oh, and side note… our kitchen appliances are Whirlpool for Ikea….we bought them during the Kitchen renovation, and we’ve been absolutely thrilled with them! Not to mention, the-easy-to-use, no-questions-asked, 5-year warranty!
Now that your fridge is all tidy, you probably want to make it look as cute and cheerful as mine, right?! The colorful drawer and shelf liners are Fridge Coasters, and they’re pretty amazing. They are actually a cardboard-like material, and they absorb drips and leaks, so you no longer have that nasty ring where the milk sits. Not to mention, it makes me so dang happy to open my fridge!
To read a bunch of other great fridge organizing tips, and to win your own set of Fridge Coasters, hop over to I Heart Organizing!
What tips do you have for keeping your fridge tidy? Do you keep your bread refrigerated? I’m cool with that, just don’t tell me you keep the peanut butter in there, too?!
