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A lot of us spend significant time and energy organizing our closets, home offices, and even our kitchen cabinets, but we toss our weekly groceries and daily leftovers into the fridge with little thought. Soon enough, we can’t find the ranch dressing behind all the plastic containers filled with food that looks more like a science experiment.
Even if you don’t let your fridge situation get quite that bad, a lack of organization in there will make it harder to keep it clean and find and grab what you need. If you want to get serious about organizing your fridge, you have to go beyond the standard drawers and shelves most models offer. Here are the products I recommend to turn your chaotic fridge into something more manageable.
Add extra drawers to your fridge
Many refrigerators come with just a few drawers for storing produce or other foods, and that may not be enough to keep things separated. These under-shelf drawers clip into place and provide extra pull-out storage that won’t eat up precious shelf space (though they do, admittedly, reduce the vertical space you can use, so you have to be thoughtful about where to place them).
Use fridge drink organizers
My wife buys a lot of soda. A lot. She used to just shove those cardboard sleeves into the fridge and take cans as she needed them, but the cans would sometimes just roll out onto the floor, the cardboard often got soggy, and it was just ugly. The better choice is to install a can holder—either a stand-up version like this one, or a plastic dispenser like this. Either choice will keep those cans organized and in place, and will make your fridge look neater.
Stackable pull-out drawer bins make use of vertical fridge space
The key to fridge organization is a modular approach, dividing those vast shelf spaces into tidy, stackable components. These plastic bins are a good choice here: They can be stacked up so you can actually use the vertical space in your fridge, and their contents can be accessed via a pull-out drawer, so you don’t need to un-stack them to get to what you need.
Add storage bins with removable colanders for your produce
A great option for folks who eat a lot of produce that needs washing before use, these sturdy, airtight plastic containers stack up in your fridge for maximum neatness and have a built-in colander for quick and easy rinsing before use.
Organize your condiments with a Lazy Susan
A Lazy Susan—a rotating turntable—is an amazing addition to your refrigerator’s interior. It allows you to keep all those condiments and jars of leftover sauce in one place so you can easily access them without excavating the entirety of your refrigerator’s contents.
Use peel and stick fridge organizers to save shelf space
Another way to maximize the vertical space in your fridge is to get those yogurt containers currently eating up so much real estate off the shelves. These peel-and-stick organizers fit four standard yogurt containers—or any similarly sized plastic containers. They can be mounted under shelves or even sideways on the walls of the fridge, keeping them out of the way but easily accessible.
Use shelf dividers to make better use of your fridge door space
The door shelves on your refrigerator are loaded with condiments, milk cartons, and anything else, all of it crammed together. The solution is to divide up the space. These adjustable dividers allow you to corral your bottles and jars, and they can be moved and removed to create different storage solutions as your grocery list changes over time.
Organize your freezer too
If you’ve got packs of meat, frozen meals, vegetables, and/or boxed items stacked up in the freezer, this organizer rack is an easy way to keep everything tidy and easily accessible. It’s designed with built-in handles, so you can easily pull the whole thing out if you need to, or just pluck that one box to defrost for dinner tonight.
Use an egg storage tray to stack a few dozen
There are two kinds of people in this world: Those who enjoy an egg every now and then, and those who fuel their entire life on a steady supply of them. If you fall into the latter category, consider picking up a stackable egg holder or two. They are a far more efficient system than foam egg cartons for storing your eggs.
Use an under-the-shelf bottle rack to free up shelf space
Another way to keep your shelf spaces clear is to get those bottles of soda, beer, wine, or water off of them. This under-the-shelf bottle holder is a great solution. It not only clears up shelf space, it makes it easy to grab your favorite beverage without rooting around in the depths of your refrigerator.