Sep 12, 2012

Organize One Thing Wednesdays Gets Chilly!


There is nowhere in my house that disorganization drives me more crazy than in my kitchen.  I'm constantly looking for new ways to organize my pantry, under the kitchen sink, cabinets....and the fridge.  I was wasting so much food because my refrigerator was so ridiculously unorganized.  I had no idea what food I had in there on a day-to-day basis.  A fridge organizational overall commenced!  Afters:

"The Dairy Shelf" is where I keep all my dairy products (except a gallon of milk).  The cream cheeses, shredded cheeses, ricotta cheese, cottage cheese (geez, cheese overload!!), butter and buttermilk all reside here.  A cheap dollar store basket helps me corral all those shredded cheese bags that are too wimpy to stand or stack on their own.

I don't even want to think about all of the money that I've wasted on produce that rotted or went bad before we had a chance to eat it.  I would make the effort to buy healthy fruits and veggies and throw them in the crisper drawer, still in their little produce bags, to be forgotten about forever.   Problem was, when they were still in the bags, it was hard to see what was in there..."Is that a green pepper or a granny smith apple??"  So I bought some more dollar store baskets and started putting the veggies in the bottom drawer and fruits in the top so I could easily identify what we had on hand.

If I buy veggies for the purpose of adding them as toppings on salads or sandwiches, I slice them up as soon as I get home.  I slice my green peppers into strips.  I cut one tomato into slices for sandwiches and dice the other for tacos and salads.  I cut celery sticks into hand-held pieces for snacking and lunch sides.  After I'm done cutting, I put the veggies into Tupperware containers.  This makes it SO easy in the morning when I'm making lunch.  If I want a ham sandwich with green peppers and tomatoes, I open the Tupperware container and throw 'em on.  Before, I would have to get the tomato out, find a knife, cut it up, add it to the sandwich, wrap the tomato back up, add the tomato to the sandwich, put it back in the fridge.  Time-waster in the morning--and I need every free second I can get during my morning routine.  Time wasters are NOT allowed. 
I've also started putting my bagged lettuce into a sealed container that can easily be taken out and made into a fresh salad or be added as a topping.  I know it's no different than grabbing the bag out of the fridge, but this way, I have the container on a shelf at eye level and it helps me remember that I have lettuce in the fridge that can be used.  I've cut down on some MAJOR lettuce wasting by doing this. 
All of the lunch meats are on a shelf together for easy grabbage.  Tortillas in the "meat" drawer because they're a funky shape and I just wanted them out of the way :)

And voila.  You have yourself an organized, but not obsessively so, fridge.  It makes things so much easier when lunch and dinner prepping and has actually helped me eat healthier.  I still have some ideas out there, like place mats or Press and Seal paper to help prevent spills and make an easier clean-up if one were to happen.  What's your fridge look like?  Organized bliss or crazy chaos??

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Can you come organize my fridge please!? Awesome job!

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