If you’re like me, clutter drives you NUTS – but when life is busy, it starts to pile up. As it piles up, I can simultaneously feel the anxiety rising in me. One place that seems to clutter up quickly for me is my refrigerator.
Between my own Diet Cokes (yes, it’s an addiction and yes there’s aspartame, leave me alone, it’s my vice), my little one’s yogurts and applesauce packets, and leftovers (because who can cook the perfect amount for one adult and one toddler every time?), my fridge fills up and gets chaotic QUICKLY.
I was beyond frustrated with the amount of sheer STUFF in my fridge, so I used a night that I didn’t have my little one and took the time to really clean it out and reorganize.
I started by spending my lunch hour at Dollar Tree. Y’all know I love a good bargain. At Dollar Tree, I got several plastic placemats, three bigger white basket-bins, and a 2-pack of the smaller white plastic bins.
The first thing I did was line the bottom of all the shelves with the placemats. I have a fairly small fridge, so I did have to cut some edges to fit properly in various places. I did also line my crisper drawers with trimmed placemats for easier cleaning. You can see the bottom of the crisper drawers here. I store produce on the left and things like tortillas and pie crust on the right.
I then started organizing my shelves. The top shelf has bottles, drinks, and leftovers, so it was easy enough to organize. The second shelf fit 2 larger baskets and 1 smaller bin. I love sauces, so I always ask for a lot of extra sauce when I’m out places. A few weeks back, my boyfriend brought takeout Chinese over, and I love duck sauce, so he asked them to toss in some extra – we have so much duck sauce I could bathe in the stuff (and if given enough eggrolls, I might). I put all of my miscellaneous sauce packets in the smaller bin and stuck it between the two larger bins. The larger bins contain deli meat and cheese on the left and my toddler’s yogurt and applesauce on the right.
On the bottom shelf, I organized canned drinks on the right and used the remaining white basket to put in my miscellaneous items like my Greek yogurt, individual containers of hummus, laughing cow cheese triangles, et cetera.
For the side door, I made sure to wipe out the ledges. I spent a lot of time throwing out or recycling near-empty bottles of sauce or dressing. You don’t realize how much you have until you start tossing things out! I left just the items that were in-date, usable, and of interest.
All in all, I spent about $7-8 on placemats and $4 on bins/baskets, so with tax, I was under $15 for this fridge clean out and organization effort! It took about an hour of my time, but in the days since I did it, I’ve felt way less stress opening up the fridge or preparing meals, and my two year old can reach in and grab his yogurt easily, too.
What tips and tricks do you use for organizing spaces in your kitchen? Comment below – I’d love to hear from you!
Kate with a Twang 
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