18 Clever Ways Organizing Your Fridge Can Save You Money And Time
Clean it once, and keep it clean for (almost) ever.
1. Keep paper towels or a kitchen towel on the outside of your fridge or on your fridge door so if there is a mess, you can clean it up quickly and easily.
2. Line every drawer and shelf with washable placemats.
If there is a small spill, you can pull the placemat out and wash that, instead of having to struggle with the big glass shelf in the sink. Here's the tutorial.
3. Or, cover your shelves with Press 'n' Seal wrap, then anytime there's a spill, toss and replace the wrap.
Brilliant (if slightly more wasteful). From here.
4. When it comes to making it easy to clean your fridge and preventing spills in the future, bins are your best friend.
There are all sorts of great fridge bins out there, but you 1) don't have to cover every bit of your fridge with a bin and 2) you can totally limit the items that get bin space to the most spill-prone items (like the food your kids reach for the most). See more of this super organized spot here.
5. If you want to take it to the next level, label your bins.
You can get these free printables here.
6. Designate one of the bins as an "Eat me first" box to help reduce food waste, and to give you a one-stop spot to double check for what may need to be thrown away.
Read more about the system here.
7. Turn another one of the bins into a healthy snack bin, maybe even one specifically for the kids.
Keeping the fridge clean is a family effort, but it's easier to keep everyone else (who may or may not want to use your system) out of most of the main storage by designating a bin with pre-portioned snacks for family members to chew on. Read more about what's in this bin here.
8. Never just stick a plate without a cover in the fridge. If you have leftover food, put it in a sealable glass container.
Plastic works too, but glass is easier to reheat. Plus, it makes it easy to see what's inside each of the containers, so it's harder to ignore your leftovers. Get this set of Pyrex bowls for $22.99 here.
9. Re-use empty glass jars (like pickle jars or jam jars) to pack individual-serving salads.
The greens will last longer than they would in their plastic bags, plus it's easy to grab a salad for a meal or a snack whenever you need to nom. Get the recipe for this Peach and Arugula salad here.
10. Once you open a package of meat, don't try and store it in its original package anymore.
You don't need the drips of chicken breast or bacon juices gathering in the bottom of your meat drawer, and a package like this bacon keeper, $8.00, can keep the most delicious food you buy fresh until you're ready to eat it.
11. Devote a small basket to keep all of your eggs together, especially if you regularly keep more than a dozen at a time.
You'll never be dealing with two dozen-egg containers again, and you'll always know at a glance when you have eggs — and when you're running low. Read more about it here.
12. Put a lazy susan in the back corner of your shelves to make it easy to grab everything you have stored back there.
It will do two things — first, it will make it so much easier to grab stuff that you frequently forget you have. Second, if any of those things leak out, you can just pull out the lazy susan and wash that. Read more here.
13. Or, use a lazy susan with storage compartments if you like to keep fresh fruits and vegetables prepared in your fridge.
It will keep all of your food both fresh and (if it does start...going bad) from dripping on your fridge shelves and down the front of your drawers. Get it here for $19.99.
14. Keep a roll of washi tape and a marker next to your fridge, so it's easy to label something when you know it will be in the freezer for a while.
15. If you have leftover wine (which SOUNDS like an impossibility, but hey, sometimes it happens), seal it up so you can rest it on its side without worrying about it leaking.
My family and I have been using Vacu Vin for years with no problems ($12.38 for the tool and two stoppers). Just make sure to quickly wet the stopper before putting it in the bottle!
16. Save space in your fridge, and store your butter for up to two weeks up on the countertop.
17. If you still find yourself forgetting what you have on hand, update a dry-erase inventory on the outside of your fridge at the beginning of every week.
If you have a fridge that isn't stainless steel, you can probably just use the surface of the fridge as a whiteboard. You can also use this to meal-plan through the week. Read more about it here.
18. Store a jar of activated carbon in the back corner to keep the place from smelling like your favorite stinky cheese.
