How to Organize The Fridge and Freezer

It seems that one area of our home that gets pretty messy rather quickly is our refrigerator (and even the freezer).   From spills to crumbs and even spoiled food, it can quickly become a pretty unappealing site.

The best way to keep this under control:

Clean up your refrigerator weekly;
Deep clean both the refrigerator and freezer monthly.

 You may be thinking  — weekly Tracie?  Are you serious?!  Yes.  Yes I am.  The reason is that it allows you to keep your fridge cleaned and organized.  You don’t end up with that “mystery food” hiding back in the corner. Yep – you know the one.  The thing you find only because your nose tends to lead you to it.

I know it can seem tough to find the time to do this, but it actually can fit easily into your own schedule.  What I do is take time to wipe things down and go through the containers in the fridge, the produce in the drawer and other items that may be reaching expiration dates.

The simplest way to clean your fridge is to do it when you grocery shop each week.

Before I head to the store, I take the time to wipe things down and clean out the fridge.  This helps me in two ways:  1) I know that I won’t mix in expired (or soon to spoil) foods) and 2) I can use the clean out as a chance to make sure I don’t miss anything on my shopping list!!  When I get home from the store, my fridge and freezer are both cleaned and ready for me to put away the items we’ve purchased.

Then, once a month, I take the time to really clean it all out.  This when I take the time to go through everything.

I just tackled my monthly cleaning here.  You can seeee from my photos how clean and easy it is to find items in our refrigerator.

I also took the time to clean out our freezer too:

It really does not take me that long to do – maybe 20 – 30 minutes at the most.  The reason I can do it quickly is because I do it monthly.  If I did not, it would take me longer to clean it all up.  Therefore, it really does save you time if you do it monthly (so you can get it cleaned up and then get back to your family and having fun)!!

As I’ve done with our other posts, I’ve created an easy checklist which you can download and use weekly and/or monthly.

(Click Image to Download)

If you do not want to download the checklist, here is how to go about cleaning your fridge and freezer:

WEEKLY

• Remove all spoiled food
• Add needed items to your shopping list
• Wipe down shelves
• Put groceries away (keeping like items together)

MONTHLY

• Remove all items from the refrigerator (that means every bottle, jar, etc)
• Add needed items to your shopping list
• Wipe down sides, floor and shelving; clean out drawers
• As you put items back, check for the following:
  EXPIRATION DATES:
  – If item expired, toss
  – If close to expiring, place so you find it and can use it before it goes bad
  ROTTEN PRODUCE
  ITEMS USED MOST FREQUENTLY
  – Place these where you can see them easily and get to them (includes kids foods)
• Repeat steps for freezer

If you want to make it more fun for yourself, you can always take a before and after photo.  I’d LOVE to see it!  So you can share by tagging me @pennypinchinmom on Instagram or Twitter so I can see!!

Now you know how to quickly and easily clean and organize your fridge and freezer!!