Getting that refrigerator in order

Ugh, our refrigerator is a mess! I really don't care to organize it because it's just going to get messy again, but I know I should... Okay, here goes nothing!

The refrigerator is a great example of how being organized can save you money. If you have food items shoved in the refrigerator, like we currently do, chances are you'll forget what all is even in there. If you forget about it, it will eventually go bad and have to be thrown away. Thrown away food = thrown away money. I hate that! Before we moved, I had a shelf location for each type of refrigerated food. When we moved to our current house, though, we ended up with a different style of refrigerator. I now get to start from scratch, which can be a good thing. At least that's what I'm going to keep telling myself!

Step 1: How many shelves do you have to work with? We have four main shelves and three main drawers (two larger, one smaller). In the door, we have four shelves, two soda can holders, and one shelf with a "door".

Step 2: Who uses your refrigerator? We have four people who go into our refrigerator throughout the day - two adults and two children ages 5 and 3. This means I'll have to leave space down low for my kids to be able to reach the items they need.

Step 3: What are the categories of items you keep in your refrigerator? For us, I'll use meat, veggies, fruits, cheeses, dairy, beverages, condiments, and leftovers. Yep, I said leftovers. I found at our old house, that if I had one particular place for our leftovers, we were less likely to forget about them. Remembering about and using leftovers that were previously thrown away is like putting money back in our pockets. Gotta love that!!!

Step 4: Pull everything out of the refrigerator. What the heck, while everything is out of the fridge, why not wipe down the shelves, too.

Step 5: Group the items into their categories and decide which shelf/shelves make(s) the most sense for each group.

Step 6: Finally, re-pack that refrigerator.

Task for this week: challenge your family to see how long you can maintain the organization in your fridge