Why I Organize My Refrigerator

Keeping my refrigerator clean, neat and organized saves me money and helps me maintain a healthy lifestyle.  No joke!

Refrigerators have always been designed and compartmentalized to maintain a certain amount of organization.  That is the main reason they have so many shelves, drawers, nooks and crannies setup for specific purposes.  They are the dream appliance for us anal retentive with a touch of OCD types.  And as time goes on they are getting more creative with storage options.  Have you shopped for a refrigerator lately? 

The freezer side is narrow and cramped

Our refrigerator is over twenty years old now and (knock on wood) it is still chugging along.  It is a side by side model with a built in ice and water dispenser in the freezer door.  My kids love it and use that feature often while I rarely do.  My next refrigerator with be a freezer on the top and fridge on the bottom model.  The side by sides are too narrow, in my opinion, and don't hold as much as the others do.  With a family that can be an issue, nonetheless we've managed to make it work.

I clean my refrigerator often.  Wiping shelves, cleaning out the drawers, washing out the bins in the doors.  I go through everything in there at the end of each week to make sure we haven't forgotten any leftovers and rotate items than need to be used up.  Because of that we have less food waste and you won't likely open the door and be greeted by any foul odors or containers of science projects in the making either.

Cheeses, sour cream & yogurt

I try to keep like items together because it makes sense to me.  Eggs and some oils along with condiments go on our top shelf.  I also keep condiments in the top bins of the door.  We seem to use a lot of condiments although I am trying to pare some of that stuff down right now.  Our next shelf is our cheese and yogurt.  We love and eat a lot of cheeses in this house.  We don't eat a lot of other dairy anymore since I went Keto and my girls eat that way about 80% of the time now as well.  As my youngest told me the other day, Keto food is surprisingly really good!

Prepped meals lined out, cream for my coffee and recipes

The next shelf is my "keto shelf".  Because I meal prep almost every week it made sense for me to have a designated area to stack my food.  Of course my food is also my girl's food too, but this way we know what is what.  The shelf below that is for stuff the girls eat as well as some of the bulkier items like the sack of flour and my big pickle jar.

The first large crisper drawer keeps all of our veggies neatly laid out.  Celery, carrots, lettuces, asparagus, cucumbers, green onions, squash and zucchini, peppers, etc.  We keep our fruit on the counter.  I go through this bin every week to make sure we are using up our veggies before they spoil and to figure out what I need to pick up at the store for the week ahead.  I also have a habit of overbuying produce, but our chickens benefit from that with big bowls of veggies to munch on.

The bottom drawer is the smaller of the crisper drawers and is our bread bin.  I store all of the bread, buns and bagels my girls eat as well as tortillas.  I go through this drawer regularly as well to make sure anything going stale gets out to the hens.  My girls eat less and less bread these days too so the chickens have been making out quite nicely these days.

There are huge benefits to keeping my refrigerator organized as it helps me know what I have and what I need to replace.  I know that the items inside are fresh and healthy for us.  It allows me to plan out our meals and helps me stay on track.  We eat better and healthier because of this.  It also gives me a sense of order and when you are really busy with work and life a sense of order is a very good thing.

I hope this helps you to be inspired to clean out and re-organize something in your home.  If not your refrigerator perhaps your freezer or pantry or even the linen closet.  I'm always amazed at how good I feel once I organize something in my home and how wonderful it is to use that space after.