One of the first steps in my SMART resolutions was to organize my food stuffs. I started with fridge organization. In weight loss, the fridge organization can certainly make or break your goals. As Weight Watchers would say, if you can control your environment, you can gain control over your weight. I believe, if you put the good food in front of you, you’re more likely to eat it, and make better choices. 

We have a massive fridge and freezer set that we bought for our new kitchen in the summer. The fridge in particular is a Kenmore Elite 18.6 cubic feet All-Refrigerator. We went with the pair instead of having a chest freezer plus a freezer in our refrigerator.  This allows us more room for stocking up when there is a great deal, those expensive Costco runs that we do, or to freeze my garden bounty. I’m in love with my Kenmore Elite set. They are awesome, energy efficient and don’t make me bend over every time to get everything.

Here is the before shot in all her beauty….

It’s a little bit of a disaster.

Fridge organizing is really simple, just follow the steps:

1. Take everything out (yes, everything!)
   Line up everything on your counters, clean or wipe any bottles or containers that have residue, check all expiry dates (if it’s expired, toss it), if it’s something you don’t like or won’t eat again – toss it. Be ruthless.
2. Clean all of the shelves and drawers
   Fill the sink full of hot water with a little dish soap and give every shelf and drawer a wipe down, dry thoroughly
3. Group like items together
   If you have more than one of an items (I had 2 olive jars open) – marry them together. Always reach for the ketchup, mustard, relish for your hamburger? Group them together. If you have more than one type of item, ask yourself if you need them all.

 

4. Review shelf & container sizes
I actually measured all of the frequent items in our fridge along with measuring the height, length and width of each of the shelves where it was currently before we moved it into place. I know this may sound a little anal. But you can make the shelves fit what you typically have. We customized the fridge shelf height when we turned it on to fit a milk jug perfectly. One of the things I absolutely love about this fridge is all of the containers on the door are movable.

5. Consider placemats or shelf liners
If you’d like to jazz up your fridge or want to provide an easier surface to clean, you can consider adding shelf liner or placements in your fridge. Personally, I find it easy to wipe down my glass shelves, and because they are so wide I haven’t found anything that will work for that.

6. Store leftovers, fruits & vegetables in glass or plastic storage containers
Not only will this make them easier to see, you can wash & dry them in advance, making a quick snack or meal very easy! (Mr J has taken to choosing his own vegetables for lunch with “dippy” since I did this, he loves being able to see or choose – bonus, it’s right at his eye height.)

I especially like the fruit & vegetable section – clear and easy to see! I used 3 different types of containers to see which I liked best (from Left to Right):
Starfrit Glass Lock & Lock
Pyrex 6 pc Mixing Bowl Set
Rubbermaid Glass with Easy Find Lid

For the way they fit in my fridge, I like the Starfrit boxes the best. I really love the sizes of the Pyrex mixing bowls for snacking and or leftover storage (especially soup). The Rubbermaid containers are a really nice size for odd sizes but these ones in particular are not long enough for the major of fruits & vegetables that I typically have. They seem to have a large selection, it’s just not available at my local store. I do like the fact they have rubber lids instead of plastic.

Have you organized and cleaned your fridge lately?