Organizing in 2021: The Refrigerator

 This year I'm going to post about organizing once a month.  Last month I talked about the most essential, for me, item: my planner!  This month: the fridge.

Here's the deal: most normal people probably don't worry about organizing their fridge, or they don't care, or they don't get bothered when it's crammed full or you have to hunt for something.  I readily admit that I may not be normal on this point.  But it does irritate me to open the refrigerator and find that I have no idea where the item I need is!  It's inefficient for me to spend a minute looking for something every time I open our refrigerator.  I mean, really.  Do you know how often I open that thing?  I should keep track.  

A lot.

Anyhow, I had indicated to my family what goes where, but that's hard to keep in one's head, particularly if one is a child. 

So a few years ago, I labeled my refrigerator shelves.  Ahhh!  

The day I took these photos was a day in which I'd done a large shopping trip.  My refrigerator is almost never this full. 

I printed labels and stuck them to shelves.  Game changer. Sometimes the fridge is like it was in these photos: packed, and I have to make allowances for putting something somewhere else. But in general, we know where to place things and where to find them. Since my family cannot read my mind, labels are helpful. 

Top right shelf: nuts/seeds.  I like to store these in glass jars, but I've gotten away from it.  We always have a lot of nuts on hand: pecans, almonds, sliced almonds, pine nuts, cashews, peanuts.  

On the top left-hand side there are salsas, relishes, jams, pickles. 

The middle shelf is for proteins--tofu, meats, yogurt, eggs.  (And, on this crowded day, cauliflower and strawberries. Ha!)

The bottom left hand area is for leftovers.  I don't like it when I completely forget that something exists in my fridge, so I check the leftover area for lunch ideas, little dinner add-ons, snacks, etc., which cuts down on food waste. 

On the bottom right shelf--veggies.  We have too many veggies, usually, and they take over most of the bottom shelf.  But this is where I put boxes of spinach and spring mix (I buy a large box of both every week) and any other veggies that will onto the shelf. In the drawer below I keep other veggies--always carrots, onions, plus cilantro, peppers, zucchini, etc.  

The bottom left drawer is for fruits. 

I have a wide drawer at the bottom which I just LOVE.  That's where I keep the cheeses, extra butters, and any other "overflow" proteins (on this day--pepperoni for homemade pizzas and tofu....). 

Top left bin of the door holds the butters. 

{not sure what's up with the sad little section of real butter there, but this is real life! I didn't scrub the fridge and make it pretty for these photos!}

On the top right part of the door I keep my jars of yeast as well as my little container of essential oils. 

On the next shelf I keep things we consider condiments: sauces, dressings, tahini (technically a seed butter, but it works here!), red curry paste, ketchup, mustards, etc. 

And the bottom shelf holds the milks!

The old adage "a place for everything and everything in its place" really works well for me with the refrigerator.  I value efficiency in the kitchen, because I make pretty much every meal we eat from scratch. Cooking is quite time-consuming for me, and I don't want to spend extra time hunting down things in the refrigerator.  My family knows where things go, and they are good about putting stuff back into place (generally). If I open the fridge and see something out of place, I just shuffle it back to its rightful spot, but because we've used these labels for years, that doesn't happen too often.  I'm not a taskmaster about it.  The whole point of organization is to make life easier--not to drive my family crazy. ;) 

So that's it!  An organized refrigerator is a joy to the family chef.  Truly!