When was the last time you thought about how should your fridge be organized? I honestly can say it’s been a while since I had the capacity to try to tackle setting up organizational systems in our fridge. Week in and week out it gets full of food and instantly became overwhelming. Does this sound like you? Taking some time to sit down and plan out your fridge might not be a glamorous task, but it will pay off by saving you money and time by having it organized.
Whether you have a home with a big family, or living on your own in an apartment with a small fridge this post is for you! Everyone needs practical organization in their fridge to help effectively know what food they have and save money. Remember these reasons for your pantry cleanout? Yup! The same concepts apply here with keeping your food in front of your face and trying to reduce food being pushed to the back of the fridge and being forgotten.
Not sure where to start? No worries follow along with these steps below to help you organize and maximize your fridge storage!
Keep/Donate/Toss
Okay, here we go! So the first thing you’re going to do is literally clean everything out of your fridge. Before beginning, this step ensures you’ve got a big area that is clean and free for use. It might be a table, a bin, the floor, counters, whatever you’ve got around to place your items once it’s out of the fridge.
So now that you’ve got your space, literally, take everything out. I mean everything. Empty the entire fridge. Now, this might take a bit of time, depending on your fridge size and how many items you have in your fridge. Once every shelf is cleared and all your items are out, then onto the next steps!
Now I want you to make three piles, you can label them physically if you’d like with post its.
Keep – This is a pile of items you want to keep, you have a use for this item and have an idea of how it can be incorporated into a recipe or meal.
Donate – Donating perishable items is not always an option for some food banks, so make sure to check your local food banks before making this pile. If you have items that would not be perishable or can be donated and you won’t use them then you can place them in this pile. If the food needs to remain at a cold temperature, or in a fridge constantly to remain safe to eat it’s unlikely it can be donated.
Toss – This is for items that are expired, items that you do not like or will not use. You can place these items in a pile for disposal later, or build in disposal as you sort! Anything with mold or black spores on it definitely needs to go!
Phew – you did it! I know that part can be a bit time-consuming but honestly, it’s so important to know exactly what needs to go back into the fridge. Now we can plan accordingly for storage ideas and space for your fridge.
Deep Clean
Now we’re going to take some time to really get into all the parts of your fridge and clean it out! Now, if the keep/donates/toss section took you quite a bit of time, please be mindful of food safety and your food temperature. Things like raw meat, or dairy products can only be out of the fridge for certain amounts of time so if you need to put them back for a couple of hours and come back to this part please do this.
Now when you’re ready we’re going to deep clean. If you put your items back into the refrigerator then make sure to take them back out before starting the deep clean. Okay, now time to get scrubbing! What needs to be done is a deep clean of all areas such as all the shelves, drawers, and the fridge door. Grab an all-purpose cleaner and some microfiber or reusable paper towel cloths and get scrubbing! Below are some ideas of cleaning product ideas for you to use!
Make sure during this time you really give everything a deep scrub down. It’s often forgotten to clean the walls and the ceiling of your fridge. Ensure to get these areas as they can have build-up dust and bacteria depending on what has been placed near it. Make sure to use a scrubbing pad for any of those tough stains or spills.
Once it’s all cleaned up then you can place all the items back into the fridge to maintain food safety.
Categorization
Now some time is needed to be spent dividing up all your items so you’re able to understand how to organize your fridge to prevent food waste. Food Waste? Yes, dividing up your items will not only help prevent food waste but also save you money when you shop. What happens when you have categories is this allows you to actually know what you have in the fridge very quickly, you are less likely to re-buy items at the store and less likely to have to buy a new product that you didn’t know expired at the back of the fridge as it was forgotten.
What do I mean by categories – I mean group items that are alike together. Again you can use post it’s to label areas if that’s easiest to divide things up. So examples could be – school snacks, vegetables, yogurt, creamers, breakfast items…etc. These categories need to make sense to you so they should be specific to the items in your fridge. If you don’t drink coffee or juice then you don’t need spaces for those. Someone who has multiple cups of coffee a day with different flavored creamers then might have a section dedicated to that. So look at all your items and start grouping them how you would naturally do.
Once you have your categories take a moment to count up how many categories you have and how many are large, medium, and small.
Storage
You’ve done so much so far – congrats! Now is my personal favourite time – storage! Now, this is where you need to understand your fridge shape and size. Take some measurements of your top shelf, middle shelf, and bottom shelf.
So now we’re moving onto the part that’s “How should a refrigerator be organized”. When it comes to what storage you purchase, or make it’s really up to you and your preference. One of the best refrigerator organization hacks out there is using clear storage bins. Why? Well, clear storage bins let you see everything that is in them! Simple right? But honestly, a lot of the time things get pushed to the back or forgotten in the fridge simply because they’re out of eyesight.
So now that you’ve got your measurements and your count of categories, you can go out and purchase storage bins, use what you already have that would fit, or DIY storage options!
Expiration Dates
So, now that you’ve got your storage bins/holders now it’s time to start putting your items into your bins. This is a great time to become aware of the warmest part of your fridge and the coldest. This will help when placing items to ensure they keep longer at the right temperature. This will also help with how to organize a fridge for food safety. When placing your items back into their storage bins be sure to place items that are perishable soon or close to spoiled to the front of your bin. This will promote you to use them in a recipe or use the item before it goes bad. This is one of the key elements of how should your fridge be organized to save you money.
This step is one of the easy steps in this whole process. It is important that when you do your weekly shop or are placing foods into your fridge you take time to move items to the front that have been there the longest so they’re used first. This typically doesn’t take much time and once the habit is built in it really can become easy and quick to do!
Fruit and Vegetable Storage is Different
How should your fridge be organized with fruits and vegetables? Do you know the difference? I certainly didn’t until I owned my first fridge and learned the hard way! Fruits and Vegetables require different levels of humidity in the fridge and therefore should handle independently when organizing the fridge. Additionally storing these items is also different in regards to their containers.
Here are a couple of examples:
Berry Fruit – kept dry can be closed container, wash before eating.
Citrus Fruit – Mesh Bag, or produce-style storage bag
Greens/Herbs – Closed sealed bag in a drawer
Mushrooms – Stored in a brown bag, doesn’t need to be tightly closed.
Celery – Wrapped in tinfoil, can be placed in a drawer
Asparagus – in a cup of water, best on the middle shelf.
Peppers – Sealed bag, can be in a drawer, do not wash until eating them.
Practical Placement
Last Step! Okay, so many of you have probably asked yourself “How to organize your refrigerator properly”. Well, don’t worry! Each fridge organization hack won’t be super helpful for the placement of your items unless you know what you need. What I mean by this is take some time and think about your most used items. What do you reach for often? When looking in your fridge, what needs to be front and center because it’s used 10 times a day?
Once you’ve thought that through then place items in practical positions that make sense to you and your family! As I mentioned above take into consideration food safety and warm, and cold spots in the fridge. The great thing about your placements is that they aren’t permanent. You can put a storage bin on the middle shelf today, and maybe after a couple of weeks, you realize it should be on the top shelf then go ahead and move it!
Do you now feel like you know how should your fridge be organized? I hope so! Really it comes down to what makes the most sense for you but I hope these tips and tricks along the way were helpful!
Talk Soon!
This is awesome Alex! I was planning on tackling my fridge this weekend and now I have the prefect guide to do it. I’ve got a lot of work ahead of me, but your organization tips will make it much easier. Thanks for sharing!
Great tips! You have motivated me to clean my refrigerator. Thanks for information about fruit and vegetable storage.
I am not the best at organising the fridge as my sister always complains about it, but I love watching those images of fridges with storage and everything fixed neatly. So after reading this I have to try it out x
Oh gosh I look at my own fridge in disgust. Your post is really inspiring. I need to sort my fridge out really soon.
I love a tidy fridge and am big into frequently completely emptying the whole thing out and giving it a good wash. I usually find I have opened too many of the same condiments, like mustard, because they get shoved to the back, so I try to keep them in the side drawers now!
Loving your in-depth guide on how to store most vegetables and herbs, as well as your tips for categorizing.
Thanks for sharing!
I love this post. Its taught me so much. I’ve pinned it for later, as we need to defrost the freezer and I think some fridge organisation is due at the same time!
I’m not really good with fridge organizing but I always make sure to check the expiration dates – it’s really important! I learned a lot from this post, a reminder for me to be better in the future 😀 Thanks for sharing Alex x
My daughter and I aren’t huge fans of leftovers. We only cook enough for 1 meal. That reduces the number of things in our fridge quite a bit. One thing we do find handy for spinach and green veggies is to wrap them in paper towels. That also helps keep items fresh for us to be able to use them up.
I do deep cleaning. It is so satisfying. I also love to categorize!! Thank tou for these tips
I’m going to show this to my husband who has resisted my fridge organization urges (haha) because he thinks it’s not necessary. I am in the (very slow) process of surreptitiously doing it anyway … I am all for this and think it’s a great idea to keep your fridge clean, tidy and organized. It’s something we use multiple times a day so it’s a high traffic area that if you don’t keep on top of, there’s a good chance it ends up a dysfunctional mess. Thanks for this!
I hate clearing out my fridge but it’s such a good feeling when it’s done. I’ve started using fridge liners for my shelves. IT makes it so easy to clean the fridge. I just take them out and wipe it down. I like to try and have specific shelves for different items too.
I am the worst when it comes to organizing my fridge. I think it’s bc the fridge is like a closet. Once the door is closed, out of sight out of mind!
I will definitely try some of theses tips.
Organising a fridge thrills me slightly and these are some great tips!! I always see those tiktoks about it and I’m like I need to do that x
I always wonder how to properly organise your fridge to keep everything stored properly 🙂 thanks for sharing these organisation tips x
My mom definitely needs to see this lol great advice on how to organize the fridge
I am someone who loves cleaning my fridge and you’ve given me so many ideas on how to organise my fridge properly! x
Lucy | http://www.lucymary.co.uk
Awesome tips! It’s been too long since I’ve really organized my fridge. It makes things so much easier so I really should do it. I’m feeling inspired by this post to tackle it soon!
Thanks Tiffany! Awesome to hear your going to clear out your fridge soon and best wishes with organizing it – especially with a little one it’s so important to keep things in easy reach!
Thanks – awesome to hear! Hope all goes well with giving it a clean. 🙂
Fridge aspiration photos – love it! I’m glad this guide you’ve found helpful and hopefully it helps with your shared fridge! Thanks for reading 🙂
Wonderful to hear this inspired you – you’ve got this!
That’s awesome – giving it a really big wash is so great! Awesome to hear you’ve found the best places for you to put condiments so you don’t forget about them anymore! 🙂
Fantastic to hear! Best of luck with clearing out both your fridge and freezer!
Storage sounds like it would be your best friend for your fridge! Definitely look into some options that work best for you!
That’s awesome that you’re so on expiration dates – that is key! I’m glad to hear this post provided lots of helpful info!
That’s great to hear you’ve got an organized fridge as you often don’t have leftovers! What a handy tip – thanks for sharing that!
YES it’s one of the best feelings giving it a deep cleaning!
HA HA that’s amazing – I hope it helps with slowly chipping away at getting it to how you hope! Storage and Organization sounds like it is perfect for such a high traffic area in your house.
Yup – I hear ya. It is quite a bit to clean it but oh so satisfying once it’s done. Fridge liners are perfect for helping reduce cleaning and making it easier! Awesome tip – thanks for sharing.
Totally understandable and you’re 100% out of sight and out of mind! I’m glad these tips will help with building in some organization with it! 🙂
Fantastic to hear – I can honestly say same with not much excitement with it!
So great to hear these tips are helpful information for you – thanks for reading and commenting.
haha – I hope sharing this info will help with finding some organization methods that will work for you two!
Awesome – I wish I could bottle up your joy with cleaning your fridge! I’m glad this provided some awesome tips for you for the next clear out.
Thanks – sounds like a great time to do a big clean out! So sweet to hear this helped with some inspiration to do it!
Oh man, my fridge is a catastrophe haha I have so many ingredients for my husband’s and I’s regular meals as well as for my blog recipes! I’ve been meaning to sort it out soon so I’m pinning this post! x
Lynn | https://www.lynnmumbingmejia.com
Sounds like the perfect time for a clean and reset! It’s so easy to build up on you – best of luck with tackling it 🙂
Such great tips! I am into organizing, I love to have everything clean and perfect.
I should honestly tackle my fridge because it’s always a mess of jars and what not all over but to be honest…I’m not going to tackle it LOL But when I do, I will refer back to this post because you have given it so much thought and have awesome suggestions.
I definitely needed this! It always seems like things pile up in my fridge and I end up finding old and expired food stuffed way in the back. I will definitely be using some of these tips in my kitchen!
I’m so glad to hear – I hope all goes well with your fridge cleanup! Thanks for reading.
Totally understandable – it’s a big undertaking especially with your little one right now I imagine your hands are quite full! I’m glad this post has given you lots of great ideas for tackling it!
Fantastic I’m so glad this post was informative and helpful for when you tackle your fridge – best wishes for cleaning it!
Those were some really good hacks…even took a few screenshots on my phone. I wanted to get some of those containers for the fridge especially the egg ones but my partner is like the fridge already had a lot of storage and containers but I might still get a berry one and an egg one.
I’m so glad to hear! Storage containers can be so helpful especially ones for eggs and as you mentioned fruits! Best of luck with doing a fridge clean-out and organization!