Home Organization Tips

When I recently changed from a top-to-bottom refrigerator to a side-by-side model, I almost had a mental breakdown.  Seriously.  For 20 years I’d been accustomed to a certain way of life, and then suddenly, there I was, thrown into an abyss of deep, narrow shelves, when all I wanted were wide, shallow ones.  In the first few days, I insisted that my husband put all of the food (especially the freshly-cooked and newly-purchased items) into the fridge.  Over time, however, I gradually grew more comfortable with my new appliance.  Nevertheless, I still feel a tiny twinge of nervousness every time I need to stock it up with food for a large gathering. There are, however, certain tricks that I’ve learned that can help make extra room in your refrigerator where you thought there was none.  Although it may seem obvious, the easiest way to make room in your refrigerator is to throw out everything that is spoiled, past its due date, or you know you won’t ever eat.  There’s no point in saving last night’s steak-n-fries leftovers if you know you’ll never eat those soggy, ketchup-soaked taters.  Likewise, sticking a half of a leftover cucumber in the fridge will probably not yield the tasty green salad that you had planned for tomorrow.  Instead, it will probably produce the shriveled, moldy white mess that makes you wretch.  So use forethought when putting items back into the refrigerator, and consider whether or not you’ll actually want to eat that item.  Similarly, if you need to make extra space, be realistic about your probability of eating something, and chuck things that you know deep-down you won’t want. Storing your food in an appropriately-sized container is perhaps the easiest (and most often overlooked) way of making space in your refrigerator.  While a 7 quart soup pot may be necessary to store your freshly-made chicken soup, a smaller vessel can just as easily hold the meal’s leftovers.  Voila!  You instantly created extra space in your refrigerator. 

Another, albeit more difficult way of keeping your fridge organized is to make a concerted effort to put things in their proper place while unloading your groceries.  Though it may take more time to be organized when you’re in a rush to put your groceries away, a bit of forethought can prevent you from having to unload your entire fridge to find the yogurt you know you threw in the back.

Consider organizing your space according to the size of the containers, and stacking everything that can be stacked in an orderly fashion.  Place larger jars in the back of the shelves, so that they don’t prevent you from locating the smaller jars and bottles.  Avoid balancing things on top of each other- they are likely to fall, spill, or get needlessly lost.  Alternatively, organize your refrigerator according to product usage, so that you’ll know where something is when you need it.  Keep your dairy items separate from your condiments, for example, so that you don’t accidentally grab the mayonnaise when you really want the Cheez Whiz. 

 

There’s no doubt that staying in control of your refrigerator contents is an ongoing chore.  However, it will undoubtedly save you from having to confront repulsive, rotting contents or worrying too much when you need to make extra space in your refrigerator.    

Posted on December 31st, 2006 by Sari
Filed under: organizing tips