Every few months or so, I clean out the refrigerator, tossing items that have expired, wiping down grimy surfaces, and reorganizing everything. It can be a daunting task, but there are ways you can organize your fridge to make both retrieving items and cleaning much simpler. These hacks can also help you get the most out of food, maximize freshness, and maintain an overall much neater look.
Here are some tips and hacks for both keeping your refrigerator organized and simplifying cleaning.
Clean out the fridge
The first, most obvious step, is to clean out the fridge. This means emptying it entirely, wiping down shelves, cleaning our crispers, and, as noted, tossing things that are no no longer good, either having spoiled or gone beyond their “expiry” or “best before” dates. See our guide on how long food will last in the refrigerator if you are unsure (hint: yes, even ketchup expires!) Once you have cleaned out the interior of the fridge and are left with only the contents that need to be put back inside, the reorganizing fun can begin!
Take produce out of bags and plastic containers
If you shop for fresh fruits and vegetables at the grocery store, chances are you place them in clear plastic bags or they come in cardboard or plastic containers. Take everything out when you get home and organize them neatly in the crispers of the fridge. Put fruits in one crisper and vegetables in another, for example, or store items that emit a lot of ethylene gas away from those that will ripen quickly because of it.
If you prefer to keep small items like raspberries and blueberries neatly organized, wash and place them in your own Tupperware and put that in the crisper. Keep an eye on fruits and when they getting close to becoming too ripe, place them in a Ziplock bag in the freezer and draw from that selection to make smoothies. See our tips on storage tips for how to get the most of our your produce to ensure they’re not only organized well, but also stored for maximum life.
Store small items in the doors, use an egg carton
The door storage areas of refrigerators are ideally suited for storing small and bottled items that you need to access frequently versus tucking them in the coldest part of the back of the fridge’s main area or leaving them at the front where you have to push them out of the way to get to other things. Organize them from tallest bottles to smallest, or by use (e.g. hot sauces on one shelf, condiments on the other, marinades on the next, and so on).
A neat trick is to place a portion of an empty egg carton on the bottom of a door storage area. Place condiment bottles upside down on top of it to keep them from toppling over as well as so you can get every last drop out of them. If you’re like me and love to keep those little packets of ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, and dip from fast food restaurants, keep them together in a small Ziplock or container in the door storage area as well.
To go the extra mile, buy a set of condiment bottles that you can label (or that come pre-labeled) and transfer condiments to them to keep things neat and tidy in the door instead of maneuvering bottles of various shapes and sizes into a storage bin.
Put meat, poultry, and fish on the bottom shelf
When you come home with a fresh selection of meat, poultry, and fish, store it on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. This is for a number of reasons. First, it’s the section that tends to be the coldest as well as the largest for fitting big trays. Second, this also prevents juices from potentially leaking onto food below. And note the guide above in terms of how long to store food, like meat, poultry, and fish, in the refrigerator. Dedicate a section in the freezer to store meats, poultry, and fish before they expire so you can keep them frozen (and free from bacteria and spoilage) if you aren’t going to get to them right away. Having a dedicated spot will make it easier for you to remember to move them to the freezer without having to shift everything around to make them fit.
Put the most frequently used items at the front
Regardless of their size, put the most frequently used and perishable items at the front of each shelf, like milk, cheese, and yogurt, for quick and easy access. This will make it easier to grab them and prevent you from forgetting those yogurts way at the back that end up expiring before you can eat them.
Use stackable Tupperware and Ziplocks to organize items
Use Tupperware to organize things in the fridge (and it absolutely has to be stackable Tupperware!) If you want to be extra-organized, consider labeling and dating everything.
If I know I’m not going to get through a huge pack of chicken breasts or ground beef, I like to transfer it to individual serving sizes stored in Ziplock bags that are clearly marked with what’s inside as well as the best by date. Roll things like ground beef and pork flat so they don’t take up as much room and stack them neatly. This also makes it simple to check the eyeball the best buy date and if necessary, transfer items to the freezer where they can be kept safely until you’re ready to defrost.
Use a Lazy Susan on the top shelf
If your fridge is like mine, it is fully stocked with condiments and, thanks to my husband and his obsession, multiple bottles of hot sauce. If you have the space, consider adding a Lazy Susan to the top shelf to accommodate these items, which will leave your door storage areas open for other things. Organize items like sauces, herbs, chopped nuts, and things used for cooking or spicing up dishes so you can quickly rotate and grab the one you need instead of digging through a wide selection and knocking bottles over in the process.
Store items used together close by
Whether it’s the fresh peanut butter and bottles jam or deli meats and cheeses, store them together so you can easily grab and go when it’s time to make a sandwich and you don’t keep the refrigerator door open for too long as you hunt for each item.
Use a baking tray to divide shelves
Maybe your fridge has three shelves but the bottom one is spacious and high. If you use door storage for tall bottles like milk and juice, you can maximize that height by using a baking tray to turn one shelf into two. Then stack multiple things on top of others and remove the tray when you need to get what’s underneath. Keep essential items you access all the time on the top and place items you might use less frequently underneath. This leaves the back of the fridge free for those truly once-in-a-blue-moon items like Maraschino cherries used exclusively for Christmas baking or cornmeal you break out a few times a year when the inspiration for cornbread or homemade English muffins hits.
Bottom line
Sometimes, reorganizing food in your refrigerator can seem like a game of Tetris you just can’t win. But there’s a lot of cool tips that can not only make things neater, and easier to clean, but can also help you get the most out of your food. You can potentially keep food fresher, longer, reduce the amount of food waste, get every last drop out of condiment and sauce bottles, and fit more inside to allow for creative meals.
Check out a wide selection of refrigerators at Best Buy Online, including models with plenty of useful storage options, including door-in-door, four- and five-door designs, French doors, adjustable shelves, and more.
