Tired of opening the refrigerator and shuffling things around to find what you went in there for? Organizing the refrigerator will help you find those things quickly and easily. Keeping your fridge organized is a green thing to do since, once the fridge is organized, an added bonus is less wasted energy from the door standing open longer than necessary.

Particular Places

Most refrigerators have particular places for specific items you store in them. There’s very likely a drawer for lunch meats and cheeses and crisper drawers for fresh fruits and vegetables. These drawers are designed to keep these particular food items fresh for a longer period of time too.

Some refrigerators have handy, built-in pockets for eggs on the door so you can keep them there instead of taking up space on a shelf. And most have a small lidded space to hold butter, margarine, other butter substitutes, or a butter dish. Take advantage of these areas that are already designed to help you keep it organized in there. And keep these things in mind when shopping for a new refrigerator.

Shelving

The interior shelving of any refrigerator is movable. You can decide to keep taller items like large liter bottles or gallons of milk, water, and other liquids on top or leave space for them on the bottom. I like them on top because it is handier to get to the things I reach for most often, and I don’t have to bend down to grab the heavier items. But either way is fine.

Once you decide where you want the tall shelf, you will find you are limited on space for the more shallow shelves. Typically what is left is enough space for a shallow shelf to put things like egg cartons (if there isn’t one on the door) and one that allows enough height for larger jars and containers.

Grouping Your Food Items

Now you can begin to group the items on the shelves in the fridge by food group. We already talked about where to keep some items by using the drawers and other built-in spaces on the door. So now we’re filling the shelves. When organizing the shelving in your fridge, keep the items you need most often closest to the side of the fridge where the door opens. Ones that you don’t reach for often can be kept closer to the hinged side of the fridge. For instance, I use jellies and jams more often than pickles and relishes so I keep the jellies closer to the side where the door opens and the pickles closer to the side farther away.

Since my tallest shelf is on top, this is where I put larger containers for milk and other drinks and other staples I want easy access to on a daily basis. I make the next one down the shallowest to hold small containers and jars. If you place the shallowest shelf too low in the fridge, it will be harder to spot things on it when digging in there for a specific item. It also helps me see them through the shelf above if they are further back on the shelf.

The bottom shelf I reserve for larger and wider items like that leftover rump roast, chicken pot pie, or food trays and birthday cakes before a party.

The Refrigerator Door

Refrigerator doors are designed to hold the tallest jars and containers you keep in the fridge. Things like steak sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, and things you drink that come in narrow containers can be housed on the door. You can also keep water bottles, juices, and soda there for handy placement. If you don’t have enough room to hold condiments and drinks, decide which serves the space better and find another location for the rest. This is where the tall interior shelf comes into play.

It’s a Wrap

If you are on a tear to reorganize your living spaces and you haven’t cleaned the fridge in a while, you may need to start from scratch by cleaning the refrigerator. If it is already clean, the task of organizing your refrigerator will be a whole lot easier. You may still find things you can toss as you organize the fridge. Great! That would help.

The hardest part of organizing the refrigerator is keeping it organized once you go through the trouble of making it neat and tidy. This is especially true if more people than you use it. Once other members of your household see your handiwork, be straightforward about your wish to keep it that way. It may take a fraction of a second more to put an item back where they got it but really no more time than it would take to put it back in a different spot. You may want to place a friendly reminder on the outside of the fridge to reinforce the message.