The Best Way to Organize a Small Refrigerator

Use these easy suggestions and storage options to prepare your small fridge and maximize the house on the similar time!

Is it bizarre that I’m nervous to indicate you guys inside my fridge? You all are an intimidating bunch. 😉

I virtually scrapped this submit altogether as a result of I used to be pondering, “What in the event that they assume we eat all the flawed meals? What in the event that they assume I’ve every little thing within the flawed place? What if they simply assume I’m unusual?” (Which I’m, however that’s a narrative for one more day… 🙂 )

However ultimately, it’s simply meals. And it’s considerably organized meals, so I assumed possibly if my concepts may assist another folks, sharing can be price it.

Earlier than I bounce into the tactic behind my insanity, although, I assumed I’d begin out with a number of caveats:

• There may be not one “good” technique for organizing a fridge. Individuals have totally different meals preferences and house wants and so no two fridges shall be precisely alike, and that’s completely okay.
• Our household has plenty of bizarre meals points. Donnie has a sensitivity to grains so he eats primarily meat and veggies. Connor doesn’t love meat and prefers to eat largely bread and cheese, although we do handle to get him to eat some meat for protein’s sake. Caleb is allergic to peanuts, so we don’t hold peanut merchandise in the home. I’m a considerably choosy eater. How’s that for a tough mixture? 🙂
• Due to the aforementioned meals points plus the truth that I don’t like to prepare dinner, meals at our home are tremendous duper easy, so we might have much less substances in our fridge than many individuals.
• We don’t stockpile meals. Our home is small and neither Donnie nor I like litter, so for this part of our lives, we’re primarily shopping for meals for 2 weeks’ price of meals and that’s it.

Organizing a Small Fridge Step by Step

As a result of we’re already working in a small house, we have to declutter as a lot as potential. Right here are some things we do earlier than we really begin organizing. 

Clear Out the Fridge and Toss Expired Gadgets

I wish to take every little thing out of the fridge and throw away the expired groceries. Then I take every drawer and shelf out one after the other, clear them, allow them to dry, then place them again the place they belong. 

Type Meals into Classes

Whereas the drawers are drying, I start dividing the meals by class so I can see precisely what I’ve. I kind out the cooked (and prepackaged) meals, fruits and veggies, dairy (eggs and milk), condiments, meats, and cheese. 

Consolidate Gadgets If Obligatory

There are occasions the place I’ll find yourself with duplicates of things like sauces, shredded cheese, condiments, and so on. Whereas I’m cleansing out the fridge, I’ll take the time to mix the gadgets if I’ve two of the identical factor opened. 

Restock the Fridge

I load gadgets again into the fridge, beginning with the meat. I at all times wrap it up and hold it close to the underside of the fridge so it doesn’t leak and contaminate different meals.

Then I place the fruits and veggies again into the drawers. After that, I fill the remaining cabinets with leftovers, snacks, drinks, and so on. And I end off by inserting the condiments within the door of the fridge.

I purposefully I took these photographs on a day that I went grocery buying, so this actually is what our fridge seems to be like once I get again from the shop.

How We Manage a Small Fridge

Whew! Okay, now that you just’ve seen the cleansing out course of, let’s dig into how we organized our small fridge!

Earlier than we renovated our kitchen final 12 months, we had a monstrosity of a fridge.

It was so huge that it was interfering with the structure of the brand new kitchen, so we donated it to a non-profit and downgraded to a smaller fridge:

Whereas the smaller fridge allowed for our desired kitchen structure, it has undoubtedly been a studying course of to attempt to determine one of the best ways to prepare it.

Now that we’ve had our new kitchen for a number of months although, I believe I’m lastly getting the hold of it. I sometimes store for 2 weeks’ price of meals at a time, and that is what our fridge seems to be like on grocery day:

The one factor that I didn’t have the day I took these photographs that we’d sometimes have in our fridge is leftovers, and if we had them, they’d share the spot with “tonight’s dinner.” Listed here are a number of the methods which have labored for us to maintain the fridge organized:

1. We don’t use fridge mats.

I debated backwards and forwards on this and even requested a bunch of fellow organizing bloggers their ideas on mats vs. no mats. They have been cut up down the center, and since when unsure I wish to hold it easy, I opted for no mats and have been proud of the selection.

Our cabinets are simple to wipe down and could be eliminated pretty rapidly for a deep cleansing, so mats haven’t been mandatory for us.

2. I take advantage of bins to corral totally different gadgets.

For cheese and bread (sure, I hold bread within the fridge as a result of it stays longer that manner), I’ve bins that assist hold the like gadgets collectively so that they’re not floating round in every single place. This makes it simple to seek out what we’d like, and we are able to even pull out the entire tray once we’re making lunch in order that every little thing is definitely accessible.

I take advantage of the in-built bins for fruit, veggies, and lunch meat, and so they work like a appeal– I assume these fridge designers actually do know what they’re doing!

3. I don’t go overboard with bins.

Sure, I understand I simply confessed my love for bins, however I’m additionally tremendous cautious about the place I select to make use of them in our fridge since it’s so small. Too many bins can really hinder the flexibleness of the house quite than assist.

I attempted bins for drinks at one level, however they ended up seeming too fussy for me and have been getting in the way in which, so I now go away the Cherry Coke (my weak point–eek!) and different drinks of their authentic containers, and they’re much simpler to get to that manner.

4. I clear out condiments usually.

I’m at all times amazed at how rapidly condiments can accumulate. When the cabinets within the door of the fridge are packed full, I would continuously discover condiments that have been well past their expiration dates. So now I hold the variety of condiments to a minimal as a result of I do know there aren’t many who we really use.

I additionally attempt to do a fast date test each time I unload the groceries and throw out something that’s previous its prime.

5. I put like gadgets collectively.

It is a good group rule typically, however I discover that in a small fridge particularly, it’s actually essential to place like gadgets collectively so you’ll find issues simply.

I’ve a container for frozen veggies, I stack the meat all collectively (and put the ice cream in entrance as a result of it’s crucial, clearly 😉 ), and all the boxed gadgets go collectively on the underside shelf.

(It was driving me nuts that the ribs wouldn’t match with the opposite meat. I virtually took them out for this picture however left them in for the sake of whole transparency!)

In order that’s how we set up our small fridge! It took some trial and error to provide you with the proper system for us. And generally relying on our meal plan for the week, not every little thing matches in there all good and neat. 

On the whole although, that is what our fridge seems to be like and since every little thing has its personal designated spot, it stays fairly tidy.

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What are your favourite suggestions for holding the fridge organized? I’d love to listen to about them within the feedback!

Thanks a lot for following alongside! Have an exquisite day!