Cleaning and Organizing the Fridge
chaos to order, in a little over an hour
Today I finally tackled a job that I had been avoiding, and it turned out to be fairly easy, and not take too long.
I purchased the storage baskets at TJ Maxx for about $8 each. Here are some similar ones, available online. Be sure to measure first: most of the online baskets that I looked at would be way too big to use in a refrigerator. The baskets that I am using are collapsable cloth baskets, roughly 8 inches wide by 12 inches deep by 6 inches high, and 9 inches wide by 13 inches deep by 7 inches high.
The cleaning mixture consisted of a small squirt of natural dish soap in hot water with about a 1/2 cup of white vinegar.
Here is a video of the process of cleaning and organizing the fridge - it’s just over 5-minutes long:
I am planning to follow up in a few weeks with daily photos of the fridge interior, to see how well we are able to maintain order and cleanliness. I promise not to do any pre-cleaning before the photos!
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Thanks Diane! I think the freezer list would be perfect for the chest freezer downstairs (now filled mostly with chicken feet, for broth.) I will try that celery tip - amazing how quickly it goes floppy. The system is holding up so far - rinsing outsides of jars before putting them back in is key!
Kate, this is an online tip that actually works (as opposed to those you try and suspect no one ever had success with them). Wrap celery in foil. It will stay crisp and not rot for a rather long time (about 4 weeks, sometimes more). I find, after a deep clean of the frige, I can do quick wipes on shelves more often without removing everything and maintain the overall clean longer. For my freezer, I make an inventory in pencil (list form found free online) and post it on the door. I am not as good at erasing what we use so it needs to be repeated about every 3 months but it really helps me plan how to use thing up.