reorganizing the fridge

Let me preface this with the fact is that I love organizing, but I can be a slob sometimes and get lazy when putting things away.  The fridge was a perfect example of this.  The frustrating part is that it's something that we use everyday, so it would be most useful if it were organized.  For one, I'm generally hungery, and therefore cranky or getting cranky, when visiting the fridge.  Everything should have a place and be in it's place is my philosophy.
Without further ado, let me introduce you to the state of my fridge before I got to it.  Disgusting.

I started the project by clearing everything out of the fridge.  I did both fridge and freezer, but I did one at a time since we're dealing with cold food items.  Working as quickly as I could, I removed everything and then cleaned the entire inside of the fridge.  I removed the produce drawers and washed them in the sink.  I wiped the inside of the fridge with a mild dishwashing detergent.

Once all that was done, I sorted through all the food, grouping together like-items.  And, surprise surprise, I found a few things that were expired and dumped those.

After I had an idea of how I wanted to group things and what I wanted to put in baskets, I pulled out the label maker and labeled the baskets with what food item they should contain.  I made a basket for cheeses because we have a ton.  One for breads including baker's yeast.  I also made one for Asian cooking because we seem to cook a lot of Asian dishes.  When the next curry or stir fry comes up, we'll just grab that basket and have everything at our fingertips.  Yay!

side note: Baskets are perfect for keeping things tidy in the fridge.  I highly recommend getting a couple. You can get them from the dollar store which is what I did. 

I also threw some labels on the inside of the doors for clarification. This is when DH walked in and noticed what I was doing.  He said he really liked it and that this system would really help him out. Make sure the surface is completely dry before putting on the label or it will not work.


Then I put everything away and did more or less the same thing for the freezer, although we don't usually keep much in there besides frozen fruit and a couple other things.

Don't forget to load your fridge with baking soda to absorb smells.

And voila, it looks so much better.  We've had it this way for about a week now and it still looks great, even with a new load of groceries.