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You probably organize your fridge the same way you’ve done it for years. If I had to guess, you have condiments in the door, a section for drinks, and a drawer full of produce. This is the classic way, and there’s nothing to be ashamed about, no matter how inferior you may feel when you see one of those viral “fridge stocking” videos on Reels. However, I’d recommend a new approach, not only for you, but for the content creators who make those clips. Instead of organizing your food and beverages by type, try creating new types of sections. I’ll explain.
First, outline your sections
This idea came to me after browsing a Forbes story on organization. In it, True Residential’s Chelsea Bothe suggested decluttering and organizing a fridge by “stations,” either by designating them within the existing shelves and drawers of your fridge or using a separate, smaller fridge to hold overflow. The goal of the stations is to categorize your food a little differently. Here are some ideas:
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A designated section for the ingredients you’ll need for all your meals over the next week, categorized by day
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A section for each member of your family and their favorite foods and drinks
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Sections for you and your roommate(s), so everyone knows whose food is whose
Think of the Organizational Triangle I’m always yapping about. That cleaning philosophy calls on you to store similar items together and make sure there’s a designated place for everything. In your fridge, you probably already do store similar items together, like condiments in one area and leftovers in another. But that can get cluttered and it can be hard to see what you already have before you head to the store or make a new recipe. By planning in advance and reconsidering what “similar items” are, you can make sure you have everything you need well ahead of when you need it, plus get rid of what you don’t need at all.
Start by pulling everything out of the fridge and using a decluttering method to pare down what you don’t need. Then, look at what you saved and consider which new kind of categorization strategy could work, whether that’s sorting by day, by person, or another way. If you stick to the new categories and store everything together based on them, you’ll have an easier idea of what you need to pick up the next time you go shopping.
Next, physically create the sections
You can do this by designating certain areas of your shelves, as well as your drawers, but that really limits how many sections you can make. Instead, I recommend adding in some removable, pull-out drawers, so you can make use of wasted vertical space within the shelves and fit a lot more sections in there. For example:
With these, you can create enough little sections for every day of the week, every family member, or whatever categorizations make sense for you and your life. Make sure to designate one section for miscellaneous, necessary food items that are frequently used or important to keep, then just stick with your new program to keep the fridge orderly.
As you add new food to the fridge, keep up with the organization by dating everything.
