How to Arrange Your Refrigerator Leave a comment

Learning how to arrange your refrigerator can be the deciding factor in how well the appliance performs and how likely the food items in the unit go bad.

The refrigerator is the most common home appliance, and you’re in and out of it multiple times a day, between grabbing a quick breakfast on your way out the door and going to the kitchen for a late-night snack.

With so much traffic every day, the inside of your fridge can rapidly become a shambles. Expired food lying in the back, shelves stuffed with rarely used condiments, and containers of leftovers stacked so high you can’t see over them: you know the signs. Fortunately, learning how to arrange your refrigerator is a straightforward task.

Taking just an hour or two to organize its contents will help prevent food waste and bad odours while also making dinner preparation much more efficient. Take your kitchen organization to the next level with these fridge organization tips in this post.

Not only can arranging your fridge help you save time sifting through it for that misplaced cream cheese, but it will also help you save money on groceries and waste less.

Now, here’s how to spend a day properly arranging your refrigerator.

How to Arrange Your Refrigerator

Clean it well

The first step toward a well-organized refrigerator is to remove everything and thoroughly clean it. Remove the drawers and shelves if feasible and soak them in hot, soapy water.

Wipe off the entire interior, being cautious not to scratch the plastic with harsh cleaning methods. To help avoid future fridge odours, replace the shelves and drawers and have a box of baking soda on hand.

Tip

Baking soda is a simple and efficient solution to keep your fridge smelling fresh for longer periods of time. Stacking some in a bag and keeping them at the back of the fridge may not be a bad idea.

Examine the Expiration Dates

Check all of your things for expiration dates while replacing food in the fridge. While some foods can be eaten safely after these dates, you should be honest with yourself about whether they will ever be.

Go through jams, jellies, and sauces you haven’t touched in a long time and decide whether to utilize them or part ways.

When you’re not digging through endless jars of stuff you’ll never touch again, it’ll be a lot easier to find what you need.

Organize Your Shelves

If you have a habit of stuffing your food into whatever available space in your fridge, now is the moment to break that practice.

Organizing your shelves will help you save money because you’ll know where everything is. In fact, it is one of the key highlights that determines how well you arrange your refrigerator.

While you should develop a method that works best for you (and that you will stick to), here’s an excellent place to start:

Top Shelf

Because this is one of the warmer shelves in your fridge, avoid storing any fresh meat on it. Instead, set it aside for leftovers and takeout—food that needs to be consumed quickly.

It’s usually the first shelf you notice when you enter your door, so store the foods you reach for frequently here.

Middle Shelf

Consider keeping dairy items or products that can be kept out in the open (such as berries). You also have the greatest vertical space on this shelf, so taller containers can be kept here as well.

Bottom Shelf

Use the bottom shelf to store meat or seafood. Not only is this the coolest location in your fridge, reducing the chance of rotting, but you won’t have to worry about inadvertent leakage over the rest of your food, which generates unpleasant aromas or contamination.

Drawers/Cabinets

This one is simple – attempt to store all of your vegetables in the crisper drawers for maximum freshness.

Fridge Door

Because the front is the warmest portion of your fridge, keep more stable things like condiments and jams here.

Tip

The front and top shelf of your fridge are the warmest locations – organizing your products according to these temps is the greatest method to help your food last longer, and don’t forget to use those speciality drawers.

Clear containers should be used

Investing in a couple of shallow transparent containers is an easy method to ensure you stick to your system and keep everything in its place.

These are really useful for organizing your belongings and keeping similar items together. Each one should be labelled with the category of food or the expiration date.

Clear containers will not only help you maintain a solid structure for your organizing, but they will also be a lot easier to remove and clean than an entire shelf.

Make a List

Consider affixing a dry-erase sheet to your refrigerator to improve your organizational abilities. This allows you to keep a running tally of what’s in your fridge without having to go through everything.

This does not have to be an exhaustive inventory of every single thing, but it can be useful to note down which side vegetables you purchased this week or which meat products will expire soon.

This way, you can readily identify what components you’re lacking and keep track of expiration dates, allowing you to plan how you’ll use whatever you buy.

Final Words

Keeping your refrigerator tidy may require a bit more effort, but the time spent now will save you money and brain space later. A few simple actions can help your food last longer and help you have dinner on the table faster.