How do you organize your fridge? Question; Are you a shove all of your groceries “wherever they fit” type? Or do you arrange food into categories, separated by type, labeled, and dated in clear containers (picture The Closet Edit but for your fridge)? Believe it or not, there is actually scientific reasoning behind how you should be organizing your fridge for your convenience and best usage! In this post, you will learn what goes where and why.
Below are loose guidelines for how I like to organize my fridge and expert tips I’ve learned over the years to maximize space and reduce waste.
Make sure to check out my How to Stock a Pantry post for more helpful tips and insight on how to maximize your cooking potential while staying on budget.
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Best Ways to Organize Food
This is how I organize my fridge to help make my time in the kitchen more efficient. Knowing what you have and where it is, significantly decreases the time it takes to meal prep! Follow these tips below to store your food safely by keeping certain foods separate so that nothing gets cross-contaminated.
Top shelves
Just like an oven has hot spots, the fridge has variations in temperature. Heat rises so the upper shelves are the warmest, which makes them best for:
- Pre-cooked food: Basically leftovers and meal prep.
- Dairy: Hard cheeses, pre-grated bags of cheese, cream cheese, sour cream, and yogurt. Even butter will last longer if you put it on a shelf instead of that compartment in the door. (I know it’s MADE for butter, but just stick with me on this one)
- Eggs: Some fridges are designed with egg compartments on the door, however, eggs actually do better on the second shelf where the temperature is cold and stable.
- Bread: If you prefer to refrigerate wraps, bagels, and bread, place them on the upper shelves.
Lower shelves & drawers
It gets colder the lower you go in your fridge! How you want to organize this tier will depend on the style of your fridge, does it come with designated meat and produce drawers?
- Meat & Chicken (if you eat meat): If you do not have designated meat and poultry drawers, these items go on the lowest shelf towards the back, it’s the coldest part of the fridge. This minimizes the possibility of contamination of items below if any packaging leaks.
- Fish & Seafood: This also goes in the coldest, low back part of the fridge.
- Dairy Milk: Avoid putting dairy milk in the refrigerator door. That is the warmest place in the fridge. Unless you drink plant-based milk then it can be stored in the door.
- Produce: If you don’t have produce drawers, you’ll want to store your fruits and vegetables as low as possible. Separate the vegetables from the fruit, fruits can emit ethylene, it will wilt your veggies. If needed, create your own produce drawers with clear bins & containers.
Drawers
Use your designated drawers for their purpose, unless you’re vegetarian/vegan, then repurpose as needed.
- Meat and Poultry Drawer: Do not waste this specially designed drawer. These are the lowest, safest temps possible.
- Produce Drawers & Crispers: Separate fruit and veggies to prevent wilting. If your fridge allows you to control the humidity, do it! Vegetables like high humidity. And fruits like low humidity. Only fill crispers 3/4 full for optimal usage.
Doors of the Fridge
Each time you open the fridge, the items in the door get a surge of heat. That being said, doors are great storage space for shelf-stable items you want to cool, like juice or water, and any items with higher sugar or vinegar ingredients, usually found in condiments.
- Cold drinks: Juice, Brita water, cans of sparkling water, rose/chardonnay wine, and kombucha will go here.
- Jams, jellies, and syrups (maple & agave).
- Condiments: ketchup, mustard, salad dressings, vegan mayo (regular mayo on the top shelf), marinades, and soy sauce.
- All things pickled, relishes, kimchi and sauerkraut.
- Soft cheeses: goat cheese, ricotta, and brie are will thrive in compartments designed for cheese or butter.
Organizer Bins: Great for separating items like cheeses and snacks, or doing DIY produce bins, separating the fruit and veggies, see-through bins in every size will change your life.
Lazy Susan Turntable Storage: A turntable device will make accessible all of the little things that risk getting shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten.
Glass jars: I save all of my glass jars with twist-top lids that I get sauce and condiments in from the store and sanitize and remove the old labels. These are amazing for leftovers from canned ingredients, soups, coconut milk, making quick overnight pickles (just to name a few) my fridge is always full of clear glass jars and it makes things easier to find too.
These storage canisters are my favorite and they are completely eco-friendly. Made from a 1.5L repurposed wine bottle with, smooth fire polished edge. All-natural cork lid included. 40 oz volume. Glass is microwave and dishwasher safe. They come in 4, 6, and 8-inch sizes.
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Tips
Buy a thermometer: Keeping food at the right temperature (32˚F up to 40˚F ) prevents harmful bacteria from forming and optimizes a food’s shelf life.
Label everything. When you open a package of cheese, meat, or simply pack up your dinner leftovers into Tupperware containers, figure out the last day it will be safe to eat, it will most likely be different from the “sell by” date and write that date in marker on the packaging or on a piece of masking tape on the container.
Label Areas of the Fridge. Now that you’re nice and organized, label your shelves and bins to help yourself and everyone that you live with to keep everything tidy. Label makers sell for around $25-$30 on Amazon but make sure to check places like FB marketplace for even better (thriftier, environmentally friendly) deals.
Do a fridge purge before you go to the store. This way you are not doubling up on anything, you’re going to be saving money, and you’ll be avoiding shoving new purchases in front of older food that needs to be used first.
Just like stocking shelves at a supermarket – put older items at the front of the fridge and new ones at the back. You will have less waste this way by eating older stuff before it’s best before date.
Cut down on food waste by – Making what I like to call a “fridge dump special” – before running to the store for new ingredients to make dinner, shop what you already have inside of your fridge, take out the items that need to be eaten ASAP, and simply Google or Pinterest search a list of ingredients that you have on hand for a quick and easy recipe. Don’t forget that plenty of vegetables, herbs, and cheeses can be interchangeable in a recipe so don’t be afraid to get creative!
FAQ
What’s the best way to clean out the fridge regularly?
The inside of your fridge definitely needs to be wiped down regularly to avoid contamination (mostly if you eat meat or you’ve had any produce go rotten). Soap and water are probably the best cleaners as harsher solutions can leech chemicals and fumes into uncovered food.
My refrigerator is set to the coldest temp possible but my thermometer is still reading above 40˚, what should I do?
It might be overcrowded! Try a purge and re-organize, keeping cold zones in mind, and see if that helps.
If my power goes out. How long will my food last in the fridge?
Refrigerated food is fine for around 4 hours. DO NOT open the fridge door, you want to keep the cold air inside! When the power comes back on check your fridge thermometer. If it is 40˚ or below, you’re fine! If not you might have to start throwing out the most perishable items, like chicken and seafood.
Organizing your fridge is a great way to protect the investment you make at the grocery store every week and for preventing food waste. Plus, it just feels so good to be organized! How many of you agree? Please let me know in the comments below.
Be sure to check out my other organizational resources:
- How to Stock a Pantry
- How to Stock A Freezer…coming soon!
If you find these tips useful, I’d love to hear about it! Take some snapshots of your well-stocked pantry, share them with me on Instagram and I will repost on my stories!
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