Organize Your Refrigerator Like a Pro
By Karli Bertocchi
Having trouble finding the food in your refrigerator because it’s overstuffed with wilted lettuce and leftovers from last week? These 10 tips will help you to organize your refrigerator so that you will be able prepare a healthy meal with ease or grab a quick, nutritious snack on the go whenever you want.
1. Don’t believe everything you read.
Refrigerator door compartments are too warm to store dairy items. Even though refrigerator commercials often tout their large door compartments as a great place to store milk, it tastes better when it’s cold, so use the door compartments for less perishable items such as condiments.
2. Customize your refrigerator to your lifestyle.
Whether you eat most of your meals in a restaurant, or you’re the next Julia Child, you should figure out how you will use your refrigerator to complement you and your family. If it’s only used to keep leftovers cold, then don’t stock up on lots of perishables you won’t use.
3. Plan your meals for the week.
Put together a master list of meals with ingredients to make food shopping and rotation in the refrigerator easier. You will save money by using up ingredients that you already have on hand and you will save time trying to figure out what to cook when you are hungry! Check out our handy shopping checklist for some great nutritious items that should find their way into your cart.
4. Limit cooking experiments.
We all love new recipes, but try limiting those that call for exotic ingredients to once a month. When you do buy specialty ingredients, buy the smallest amount and plan to use it in another recipe. Don’t overload your refrigerator with new condiments and vegetables that you use only once and forget about. Save that valuable space for the milk, cheese and yogurt that you and your family eat three times a day!
5. Clean it up.
Purge shelves, drawers and doors each week, throwing away anything past its expiration date. Can’t remember the last time you opened that jar of salsa? When in doubt, throw it out (or recycle!). Then wipe down all surfaces with hot soapy water.
6. Keep it in the zone.
Keep like items together where you can see them, such as kids’ snacks, breakfast items, and lunch fixings. Yogurt containers won’t get lost if they are clustered together in a small plastic tub. Taller items should be kept towards the back of each group of items so that you can see them behind the smaller ones in front.
7. Store it right.
Store food in airtight containers. Reusable, plastic bins are perfect for the job. Purchase about 10 or 12 clear plastic high quality bins of the same brand. They are easier to stack; and see-through containers mean you won’t be guessing what’s inside. Toss out or recycle all those oddball take-out containers.
8. Know your food.
Label all containers with a date. Keep a marker or grease pen near the refrigerator for a quick label. This helps to rotate the older foods to the front so they can be eaten first.
9. Keep it cold.
The back and bottom of your refrigerator are the coldest areas, so keep perishables and hardy vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower, there. Crisper drawers have higher humidity to keep vegetables such as celery and peppers crisp.
10. Leave it out.
Some things keep better outside the refrigerator, such as potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and apples. And overstuffing your refrigerator just makes it work harder and costs more in electricity. So don’t overstuff yours with items that don’t need to be there.
With these tips, your refrigerator not only will look good, but it will make food preparation and storage a snap.
Karli Bertocchi combines her talent for making sense out of chaos with her natural ability to help people discover their personal organization styles. Based on the premise that finding a client's own organizational style is the key to successful space planning, Karli founded Organized With Style in 2004, specializing in home and office organization. To learn more go to
www.organizedwithstyle.com