Fridge & Freezer Organization
Happy New Year, guys! I know it’s cliche, but the start of a new year always inspires me to reset and get back on track with many aspects of my life: health, fitness, organization, etc. After the holidays you feel bloated from all of the pies and cookies and festive cocktails. Your house is a freakin’ disaster with new toys and gifts Santa brought and the pile of wrapping paper in the corner. You can’t remember what day it is, or who last fed the dog or even if Little Suzy got a nap today because all the days are running together since there has been no school or work and everyone’s been home together. While these are amazing and magical times, I am always glad for the new year. I had many, many plans to get “back on track.” First up: fridge organization.
It’s not just organizing the fridge (while, I’l admit, that was the most fun!) but it was also getting the fridge cleaned out and fresh! We bought a new fridge over the summer and I was still using the same setup I had in the old fridge, but this new fridge was much larger, so while it worked it wasn’t utilizing all the space effectively. I also wanted to get rid of all the leftovers and junk food so I could stock it with healthy, fresh produce! (Yep, you guessed it. I also made a new year’s resolution to lose weight. #cliche But seriously, y’all, I had gotten OOC.)
I got uber inspired after watching Miss Louie on YouTube show her new fridge and how she organized it. I got lots of good ideas and mimicked a few in my fridge and freezer. :)
Refrigerator Organization
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Shelves
I like to remove as much as I can from the original packaging from the store. It looks better and typically stores better and makes access much easier.
Starting on the top row, I have two of these egg containers. We eat a lot of eggs, so one was just not cutting it. Also, they stacked just perfectly here!
I love to keep our lunch meat, sliced cheese and breakfast meat (bacon, sausage, etc) in these Prepworks Deli Prokeepers. They come in a few sizes and varieties. I keep the Kraft cheese singles in this size and use the divided container for any lunch meat.
As you can see, I like to corral like items into refrigerator bins. These come in several of different sizes so you can customize to your needs. I keep my dips together in one bin, my pickles and olives in another. I also found this divided bin that I keep our yogurt, cottage cheese or other individual snacks in.
I got this idea from Miss Louie and knew it would be perfect to help us choose healthy snacks. These are divided storage containers with lids to house our crudités. These have been a game-changer!
Probably the best purchases I made were for these Oxo Greensaver Produce Keepers. They really do increase the longevity of your produce. It’s also great because it forces me to wash and/or prep my produce when I bring it home from the store so, then, I am much more likely to reach for the fresh fruit and veggies to snack on. I have three of the larger, square ones for our greens and grapes. I have two of the smaller ones for our berries and a rectangular shaped one for things like asparagus, celery or carrots.
It seems to work best for our family to have a dedicated bin for leftovers. I’ve found by doing this we tend to eat more leftovers since they don’t get hidden throughout the fridge behind other items. I have glass food storage containers and the Rubbermaid Brilliance food storage containers. Sticking to just one or two styles of storage containers not only makes your fridge look more aesthetically pleasing, but they also stack and store easier when they are not in use.
Bottom Drawers
I keep things like apples and pomegranites in the produce drawer and then back up crudités and other vegetables in the other produce drawer.
We have a large, shallow drawer at the bottom of our fridge. I like to keep snacks like string cheese, GoGurts, cheeses, etc in this drawer. Again, by placing bins in the drawer, you can keep like things together and it will stay much more organized!
Doors
I really just keep like items separated in the doors of the refrigerator if I can. There are some shelves that just house taller items because that is where they fit. I do have another Oxo Greensaver Herb Keeper in the door for out cilantro or parsley. We usually have at least one on hand. It’s amazing how much longer the herbs last in this little guy!
We recently (you know with getting all fit and and stuff in the new year) starting making more smoothies so I needed a place to store the chia seeds. I use these Oxo containers in my pantry and thought this size would be perfect for them. (I also found this adorable little scoop at The Container Store that I keep inside the container.
To round out the organization on the fridge doors, I did purchase a new plastic butter dish. I like this one because it’s clear, so you can see how much butter you have left but also because it’s super wide where you can actually fit two sticks of butter on it.
Freezer Organization
Or refrigerator has two freezer drawers. This is one of the main features that sold us on this fridge. Most have one large freezer drawer and then a sliding tray or drawer inside. I was never able to successfully organize our freezer in the past. I would try and try and it would stay organized for about 5 minutes! I think the drawer was just so deep that it was nearly impossible to keep things neat and tidy. I love having two drawers now. Here’s how I’ve got them organized (and they’ve pretty much stayed this way!)
Top Drawer
We also decided to get away from water and ice in the door with this new fridge. So, the top freezer drawer has our ice tray. It’s shallower than the bottom drawer so we keep our frozen vegetables as well as ice packs in this drawer. By adding the bins, it helps keep them from getting jumbled up.
Bottom Drawer
I bought two different freezer bins for the bottom freezer drawer. I have two 2-divider bins and one 3-divider bin. On the left, I decided to use my Stasher bags to make individual smoothie bags. This makes it so much easier to make smoothies! I just divvied up the frozen fruit into one bag. The plastic bags on the right are the extras.
The right side of the bottom drawer has the 3-divider bin housing our little girl’s Uncrustables for school lunches. And lastly, on the right, I have our frozen meat organized in the 2-divider bin.
Freebie
Click here for a free, editable PDF of my fridge and freezer staples. You can use it digitally or print it. I use this every week when I take inventory of my fridge and freezer and highlight what we need to repurchase. Enjoy!
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