If your fridge looks like a mess, food is going to waste, and you can’t find what you need, then it’s probably time to clean out the fridge and start organizing everything from scratch!
But don’t worry, it sounds more complicated than it really is. Everything you need can be found at places like Target or the dollar store.
So grab some bins, containers, squeeze bottles, binder clips, dry-erase markers, labels, and get to work re-organizing your fridge with these 35 very useful tips!
11) Use the fridge as a dry erase board…
You don’t need any special tools to use your fridge as a dry erase board. Just make sure you use a dry erase marker and not permanent, otherwise that one-time grocery list or dinner menu will stick around forever.
12) …Or make a chalkboard fridge!
Instead of slapping a sticky piece of chalk paper onto your fridge, turn the entire thing into one massive writing tool with special chalkboard paint! This is especially handy for an older or ugly-looking fridge – it’s like makeup, but better.
Get the full tutorial here.
13) Corral everything into cute little bins.
If you’re a home chef, having a fridge that lets you grab ingredients in a flash is important. The great thing about these cute little plastic bins is that they’ll help keep you organized AND it looks pretty!
14) Don’t forget to label those bins!
You can’t always see what’s stuffed inside each bin when it’s tucked away in the fridge. That’s why labeling it will help you from being constantly surprised.
You can download free printable labels from this blog here.
15) Save those empty egg cartons!
Keeping the bottle flipped upside down makes it so much easier to get a good, non-watery stream of mustard onto your hot dog. Just cut the top off an egg carton and let gravity do its thing!
6) Use magazine holders as freezer shelves.
If your freezer is becoming just as disorganized as the fridge, then use a couple of magazine racks to stash those bags of frozen peas. That way you can put those pints of Ben & Jerry’s front and center, exactly where they ought to be!
7) Add a wire rack for extra storage space.
If you’re running out of room in the fridge, head to the dollar store and grab a wire rack. It comes in real handy for making use of unused vertical space!
8) Make an “Eat Me First” bin for food that’s about to go bad.
Yup, food triage is now a thing! Now you can guilt everyone in the household into jumping onto the anti-food waste bandwagon by making a nifty “Eat Me First” bin.
9) Label highly perishable foods with a “use by” date.
There’s an easy way to keep track of your leftovers so you know when it’s no longer safe to eat them. Just write down the date you opened/bought/made it, so you know exactly when to toss it!
10) Use clear containers to organize food and make your fridge look pretty.
There is nothing more satisfying than being greeted with a very pretty, well-organized fridge when you first open the door. But if you store everything in clear containers, it makes it even easier to find what you need.
1) Make your own egg basket.
If your fridge doesn’t come with a dedicated egg compartment, head to the dollar store and grab a wire basket. This way you can store more than a dozen of at a time.
2) Pour all your condiments into squeeze bottles.
Store all your condiments in plastic squeeze bottles and label them. It’ll help save some space since all the bottles will be the exact same, uniform size.
3) Put everything into its rightful place.
Refrigerators have been designed to keep foods fresh, but only if you store them in their proper place.
Dairy, ready-to-eat foods, and leftovers should be kept on top shelf where the temperature is the most consistent.
Raw meats should be wrapped up and placed on the very bottom shelf, so their juices don’t accidentally drip onto everything else. This is also where eggs should be stored, as it’s the coldest part of the fridge (air sinks and all that).
The crisper drawer is meant for produce, as that section of the fridge is designed to maintain moisture.
Check out the infographic below for more tips.
4) Put a lazy Susan in the fridge.
It “turns” out that a lazy Susan is as lazy as it sounds! The little turntable makes it super easy to grab food like pots of yogurt or condiments with the flick of a wrist.
5) Line the shelves with placemats.
Placemats make cleaning your fridge a breeze! Instead of pulling out the whole shelf and washing it in the sink, all you have to do is grab the placement and give it a good scrubbing.
16) Use a binder clip to hang up bags of frozen food.
Make use of empty air space in the freezer by hanging up bags of food with a binder clip. There’s also an extra added bonus with this method because the clips keep the bags closed!
17) Use binder clips to keep bottles of beer in place, too!
Bottles have a way of getting all rolly polly when you try to store them on their side in the fridge. When you don’t have any room to stand them upright, you can keep them in place with a binder clip.
18) Construct a magnetic airstrip in your fridge.
Attach strong magnetic strips to the roof of the fridge to hang up bottles of beer, soda, iced coffee, or pretty much anything that has a metal cap. You could even hang up a can of diced tomatoes if that’s what you really want!
19) You can glue magnets to the sidewalls, too.
The side of your fridge is a great place to store small snacks. Instructions on how to make these DIY magnetic containers stick around can be found on this blog
here.
20) Label all the shelves for super simple organization.
If baskets and bins aren’t your thing, then make use of what’s already in the fridge. Put labels on the existing shelves so that you – and everyone else in the house – knows exactly what’s allowed in that space.
For more info on how to create the labels, check out this blog here.
21) Don’t forget to label the door shelves, too!
If you want everyone in the house to put everything back into their rightful place in the fridge, sometimes you have to spell it out for them. Or in this case, label it for them!
22) Make your own crisper drawers.
If you eat a plant-based diet and need to keep all your produce fresh, DIY additional crisper drawers with these plastic bins. Not only will it help keep fruits and veg fresh for longer, but organizing them this way means they’ll actually get seen, and therefore eaten!
Find out more about this DIY system on this blog here.
23) Reuse Crystal Light containers for finger food.
Empty Crystal Light containers are great for storing finger foods like baby carrots, celery sticks, cherry tomatoes, and cucumber wedges. Put them in the inside the fridge door for a quick grab-and-go snack!
24) Create a dedicated snack-attack zone in the fridge.
When your kids have munchies on the brain, that’s when the fingers really start to go flying! Give them something healthy to grab onto with a cute little snack basket like this one.
25) Make a tasty snack drawer.
If you have a large brood of kids, a small basket of snacks won’t keep them satisfied for long. Put a plastic drawer in the fridge so each kiddo can have their own drawer of tasty goodies.
26) Use empty six-pack containers to help you organize your fridge.
Use empty six-pack containers to store condiments so they don’t fly around every time you open the fridge door. Empty tubs of margarine are also great for storing the little packets of ketchup and mustard that you get at the fast food drive-thru.
27) Store greens in mason jars.
Store herbs and green in mason jars and place them on side door of the fridge. Putting the produce on a pretty display like this will inspire you to make a healthy, home-cooked meal!
28) Use multipurpose bins to organize slide-out freezer drawers.
Multipurpose bins can come in pretty handy if you have a slide-out freezer drawer. You can use them create categories of food – such as breakfast, veggies, and snacks – to keep everything organized and easily accessible.
29) You can also use reusable shopping bags to organize the freezer.
Reusable shopping bags are great for sectioning off a chest freezer into separate “compartments.” If you have a hankering for toaster waffles, just pull out the frozen breakfast foods bag, and when you’re done you can put the whole thing back with ease.
30) Store pre-cut fruit and veg in glass containers.
The crisper drawer is great for keeping fruit and veg fresh, but if everything is in a plastic baggie and you can’t really see what’s there, it’ll quickly go bad. Take the time to pre-cut all your produce and store them in glass containers so you can actually see what you have on hand!
31) Use bins to store juice boxes, apple sauce, and yogurt cups.
These bins make it super easy to pack school lunches for your kids in the morning. Just grab a juice box, a snack, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and off they go!
32) Make a DIY drink dispenser.
Forgo all the cartons of orange juice and stick them into this drink dispenser. Since it lays flat, there’s extra room to store other items on top of it!
Get the full instructions on this clever DIY here.
33) Meal prep ahead of time to keep the fridge even more organized.
If you do all your meal prep ahead of time and store them in containers, it’ll automatically keep everything organized since there won’t be any food leftover!
You can learn more about organizing your fridge with meal prep on this blog here.
34) Use a drip tray for raw meat.
There’s nothing grosser than raw meat juice dripping all over the fridge. Store raw meat in its own little tray to keep it from contaminating the crisper drawer.
35) Install mini slide-out drawer
Sometimes one mini slide-out drawer isn’t enough. That’s why you need to install a drawer just like this one! You can stockpile it with protein bars, string cheese, boiled eggs, or whatever else you like.
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If your fridge looks like a mess, food is going to waste, and you can’t find what you need, then it’s probably time to clean out the fridge and start organizing everything from scratch!
But don’t worry, it sounds more complicated than it really is. Everything you need can be found at places like Target or the dollar store.
So grab some bins, containers, squeeze bottles, binder clips, dry-erase markers, labels, and get to work re-organizing your fridge with these 35 very useful tips!
