Day 8 - An Organized Fridge

Welcome to Day 8 of the 31 Days to a Clutter Free Home series. Today we're talking more about de-cluttering the kitchen, particularly the fridge/ freezer.

I love reading other peoples' blogs and back in August, I especially enjoyed Jen's post on IHeart Organizing where she fully disclosed the contents of all her kitchen cabinets and refrigerator and freezer. It was a classic, let me tell ya.

Anyways, I particularly noticed how she used labeled acrylic containers inside her fridge/freezer to categorize items. If there's one thing that I've learned in the last few years it is that containers can go a LONG way in making a space seem less cluttered. So why not use them in the fridge too?

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And Jen's post also reminded me of this photo I had also found on Pinterest awhile back. I especially love the handles on the baskets shown below. How handy would that be? (I've since found these for sale at Wal-mart.)

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So, I thought I'd try to apply this tip to our fridge. It wasn't really that bad off to begin with... It didn't look like this or anything...

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But it does seem like our new side-by-side fridge is a lot more prone to disorganization that the old top mount freezer setup we used to have before our remodel. So I set out to re-organize our fridge using some baskets.

I already had the basket below and decided to use it for leftovers. This is typically what Dave takes to work for lunch so it's nice to have all the choices right there in one basket. We can pull it out in the mornings and decide what he's going to eat that day.

I also purchased this white bin from Target for around $4. It is perfect for all our dairy items (sour cream, cream cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, pudding, etc.).

I also purchased another smaller white bin like the one above to corral all the jams and jellies. And here's what our fridge looks like now.  I wish I had a label maker for my baskets but for now it works the way it is. I love using baskets to organize things. Even if I just toss items in the baskets and the inside of the baskets are a bit chaotic, it helps that the mess is at least contained in one place. I feel it looks a lot less cluttered now!

We keep drinks on the top shelf, dairy on the second shelf down, leftovers and pickles on the third shelf, jams, jellies, applesauce on the fourth shelf, and bread baking supplies behind those items (since they're used more infrequently), cheese and meat in the top drawer, vegetables in the next, and fruit in the bottom drawer. Then we have the milk and butter in their respective compartments on the door, along with condiments.

I also spruced up the freezer side a bit. It happens to have some pull out drawers that help to corral frozen vegetables and meat.

While browsing Pinterest I also found this particularly inspirational photo.

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I love how this person made an inventory on the front of their upright freezer using a dry erase marker! I have tried to keep an inventory on a piece of paper on top of my chest freezer but it inevitably gets missplaced. I thought this was a fabulous idea! No more losing the paper. And you can edit it easily just by wiping off and rewriting without having to scratch things off and rewrite like with pen and paper, etc. So it would continue looking neat even as you use things up.

I also recommend cleaning out your fridge each week on trash day. Get rid of all yucky fruits and vegetables and other expired items. On days when the fridge is closer to empty, take the opportunity to wipe it down before heading out to the grocery so the shelves are clean when you get back with fresh stuff. This helps keep it clean all the time so you don't have to dedicate one big day to fridge cleaning.

Also, in our household we tend to fill up our freezer in the fall / winter after deer hunting season and pork butchering season and then it gets nearly empty by early fall. My goal is to completely empty it by October each year so that I can defrost it without any hassle.

So, what do you think? Will any of these tips help you to have a more clutter free kitchen?