We have looked at ideas to organise our kitchen, how to organise the kitchen counters, shelves and the pantry. Now it is time to dive into the perishables and learn how to organise your refrigerator and freezer.

For those who have read some other pages on this site, I’ll give you 30 seconds to guess.

Yes, correct we will declutter, clean and organise.

Declutter the fridge

With the fridge, I suggest we go from top to bottom. This way we get gravity to work in our favor.

You can work shelve by shelve or get everything out in one hit, if you opt for taking everything out than you are in for a larger organising session.

Short small burst – one shelve at a time
A larger organising session (don’t spend more than 3-4 hours) – take everything out of the fridge.

Slow and steady

There are pros and cons for both options. We don’t want to have a kitchen full, an empty fridge and an exhausted organiser. Slow and steady is the key here. Every time you finish one tray, you feel like a little achievement.

A big job in one hit

At the same time if you have a Sunday morning to do this (ideally with some help) you can get the job done in one hit and as a reward take yourself out for lunch.

The best time to clear and organise your refrigerator and freezer is before you get new groceries in. I sometimes make it a bit of a sport to see how low I can run the fridge, declutter and clean it before the next load of groceries arrive.

When you remove old items from the fridge

As yourself:

Do I still like this item e.g. that specific sauce at the back of the fridge?
Is there anything I realistically won’t ever use?
Should I finish some items in my cooking this week?

This is a time to be honest with ourselves, yes we have bought items we aren’t using. Let’s learn from it instead of feeling guilty and remove the item. I like to look at patterns for example did you buy cheeses you don’t like or did you only use some sauces once and forget, you might still have half bottles of the stuff. You can use this awareness next time you shop or cook. If you spend some time here thinking (rather than just doing), this, in turn, can save you time, money, and “fridge clutter”.

You know you are done with decluttering your fridge when there is nothing in there you don’t keep for a reason (you want to eat it in the future).

Clean your fridge

Now it is time to wipe down all the shelves, wash all the fridge containers, where possible maybe take them out. For the crumbs and things vacuum the fridge, you get some looks but it is a great way to get those crumbs.

If you have sticky stains that are hard to remove let the soap and water sit on the stain for a minute. It is amazing how a little patience can reduce the elbow grease by 90%.

What should you clean your fridge with?

Opinions are divided but vinegar and bicarb work well as does vanilla spray.

I’ll tell you a funny story. Years ago my husband (when still single) left the house for several months as he would be away for work. He knew how to organise the refrigerator and freezer - take everything out and turn it off. Eight weeks later he returns to a wall of smell. He had left ice cream in his freezer which was a full-blown science experiment when he came back. The fridge was placed on the balcony for several days and vanilla spray saved the day and the fridge, it cleared the smell completely.

Tip: Once you have cleaned the fridge, put some glad wrap on the bottom of the fridge to clean up easily next time (as everything eventually falls to the bottom). An easy way to get Glad wrap to stick to the bottom of your fridge is to make it slightly damp (after wiping it down) and the plastic will automatically adhere to it. If you want to be socially responsible you can opt for biodegradable plastic wrap.

How to organise your refrigerator

Now it gets interesting as you should have almost a blank slate to work with.

Where will you place your items and where?

This requires thinking and deliberately testing your placement of things.

In my fridge:

I have taken the crisp drawer out because it is too much trouble to open and close it. It was also a breeding place for science experiments. Now everything is easy to spot, it is cleaner and the food is fresher as I can actually see it.

In my family we eat lots of cheese (it is the Dutch background ;-). We don’t have to place all the cheese front and centre as we tend to be motivated to grab it anyway. I place some on the bottom in a container and the brie / blue cheese at the top on the shelf which also takes a few seconds to get to it.

Vegetables are easy to access all in the same see-through containers (the same I used in the pantry). We can grab the container when making lunch or dinner and only put it back if there is still something left.

We have a box with chocolate (of which we eat too much)

On eye height, I keep the leftovers and the berries as these need to be eaten first.

A note on kitchen containers:

I like to use see-through containers preferably without any colours or coloured lids as this impacts the sense of organisation. If your lid is fully coloured it also impacts how well you see what is in the container.

As exception are some glass containers. We use these because it is easy storing and heating in the oven. The downside, it doesn’t have see-through lit.

I advise against round containers. Rectangular containers are so much easier to stack and take less space in the fridge.

For now, my perfect container is this one

In your fridge:

Ask what are your families favourite foods?
What should be easy access (the healthy stuff) and slightly more challenging (favourite snacks).
Can you place certain items on eye height? Which in turn will reduce the wastage.

Using zones in the fridge

What my examples and questions are eluding to is the use of zones in the fridge and only you can decide what zones, how large and wherein the fridge.

You know you have achieved this if you can close your eyes and tell your friend where items are in your fridge and why. In organising speak you have created homes for each item.

The great thing of zones and homes in the fridge is that it makes it easier to see what you run out of, what you have to cook with etc. One of the greatest gifts organising provides is that it produces a ripple effect. Learning how to organise your refrigerator and freezer is no different. You clean the fridge, this makes cooking and groceries easier and reduces the amount of money you spend. If done well organising pays the original effort back in dividends.

Using habits

I go on about habits a fair amount when organising. No point putting in all the effort and then not being able to keep up with it. When you have organised your fridge have a good think about how habits can support your organised refrigerator.