Tuesday

Organizing: Tackling the Fridge

Does anyone else have a problem spelling refrigerator? I swear I have to type it twenty times to get it right. Refridg....Refrigora....refrigerator! Why is this word so hard for me? I think I'll stick to fridge; you know what I'm talking about right? Good. Anyway, enough of my crummy spelling. On to the organizing!

This is what my fridge looked like Saturday:

Before the cleaning and organizing. AH!

Look familiar? Pretty scary if you ask me! Plus, we never knew what was at the back and it never failed that we would find something moldy back there. Eeeewww.

Trying to find anything left me standing with the door open for ten minutes, getting grouchy.

It was time to get things in line. Here's what I did:

Start by taking out everything that's very perishable (dairy, meat, etc.) and put it in a cooler.  Shut off the fridge and empty the rest (veggies, juice, etc.). Toss anything that is gross and old.

Our fridge was surprisingly clean. I went ahead and wiped everything down with Seventh Generation multi-purpose cleaner and a towel. Another blogger (I forget who!), suggested making a baking soda paste with warm water and using that to clean your shelves. Since mine are wire, I didn't try this. I only encountered one small sticky spot that required a little scrubbing, thank goodness.

I only have one crisper drawer so veggies generally inhabit it, while fruit goes on a shelf, but sometimes I can fit both in. Here's an after of the crisper drawer:

Crisper drawer. The white lid is a jar holding half an onion. I try to keep onions in glass so they don't stink up our plastic storage.
Make sure you wipe out the area behind and under the drawer! This was the dirtiest part of our fridge for some reason.

Now, organize your stuff and get it back in! Group like items together and use easy to clean plastic baskets if you need to. Don't forget to turn the fridge BACK ON. Very important...

After the cleaning. Yay!
I bought those plastic baskets with handles from, where else, but Dollar Tree.

One basket holds yogurts because I usually have such a random assortment that cups get shoved to the back and forgotten. Now, I can just grab the whole basket and find something.

The other basket holds anything you would spread on toast or a bagel, like butter, jam, cream cheese, etc. Breakfast just got ten times easier!

Beside the baskets go eggs, lunch meat and random tubs/containers of things like sour cream and cheeses.

The top shelf is beverages and open jars like partially used spaghetti sauce, pickles, and salsa.

The bottom shelf is leftover land and a place for fruit and berries.

That's it. I spent two bucks and a little time to get a nice clean refrigerator and a less grouchy me.

And I only had to type that last R-word once! Go me.


Some other suggestions for fridge baskets:
  • Sandwich making basket - include condiments, cheeses, meats, etc.
  • Toddler (or grown up!) snack basket - portioned out sizes of applesauce, cheese sticks, grapes, pudding, etc.
  • Fruit basket - excellent if you only have one crisper drawer ( like me!), include any fruit that would roll around like apples, pears, plums, etc.
  • Salad dressing - if you have a large variety of salad dressing, plop them all in a basket and now everyone can choose their favorite at the table.
  • Canned drinks - I noticed that these baskets could easily hold a six to eight count of cans.




Any other tips on cleaning or organizing the fridge? I'd love to hear them!



Check it out. . .
Linking up to: Home Decor & Organizing; Simply Sensational Tuesday

6 comments:

  1. Love Dollar Tree - might have to go get some of those baskets. I do a fridge clean out and organizing once a week on Mondays as I put up groceries. I don't think I have ever taken everything out and wiped it all down at once. But my once a week spiff keeps it from being gross. (:

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    1. Dollar Tree is the best!

      For some reason I never organize my fridge until it gets really bad. :) Way to go on the once a week clean out!

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  2. Great job! It looks much better. I like how you organized it and all the ideas you gave for things that can go in baskets. I have to tackle my fridge soon too & this has given me some great ideas!

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    1. Thanks Hilda! I'm glad you found some of this useful. :)

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  3. Oh Em Gee, my mother still has an elementary school spelling paper where the only word I got wrong was fridge ... because I spelled it fridge ... hahaha :)

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