I don’t know about you, but I cringe when I look inside the refrigerator and freezer and see items strewn about. The fact that yogurt containers can be on multiple shelves and drinks can be mixed in with the leftovers sends me into a state of oblivion. Well, that’s probably a bit of an exaggeration but it does drive me insane, nonetheless.
Here are some of my helpful tips for keeping the chaos inside the Frigidaires from overwhelming you:
- Purchase containers to corral like items together. I recently purchased these neat containers. There are lots of these containers out on the market, I just happened to pick and really like these. I store yogurt, smoothies, and pudding cups in them.
- Keep healthy snacks in easy reach of little hands! My son is a snacker. If we let him, he would nibble all day long. I put healthy snacks on the shelves that are at his eye level. He can easily reach a cheese snack, yogurt, smoothie or fruit. This also allows him some independence, and me some rest time because he can get his own snack.
- Use random Tupperware (you know you have them…..bottoms with no tops) for keeping the cheese/deli drawer organized. Those containers are perfect for storing individual cheeses, opened bags of shredded cheese and the like. When you open up that drawer, everything is neatly arranged which helps you to see what you have and use up anything before it expires.
- When you get home from the grocery store (or shortly thereafter), process your fruits and veggies. Wash, cut up and store your peppers, cukes, lettuce for easy grabbing and salad prep during the week! Pick the grapes off the stem and store in a bowl. Cut up the watermelon into bite size pieces and store in a big bowl. Having these items readily available has saved us from binging on not so good stuff before dinner or during meal prep when you’re starving!
- Label….label….label! I prepare a lot of freezable meals for future cooking. Before putting anything in the freezer, make sure that it’s wrapped tightly in foil and write on the foil the date that it’s going into freeze, along with the name of the dish/recipe and any cooking instructions. Presto! No more trying to figure out the mystery meal, or thawing that lasagna only to bite into a shepherd’s pie. Also, by having the directions readily available, someone else (hint…hint….the significant others) can cook the meal while you enjoy a pedicure or glass of vino!
- Corral bags of similar frozen veggies in a gallon-size freezer bag. I don’t know about you, but we could have several opened bags of peas going on at one time…..grrrrrr! I put all of the bags into one gallon-size bag so that they’re all together and not pushed way to the bottom of the freezer never to be seen or heard from again!
- Inventory the contents of your fridge/freezer! We have an extra fridge and freezer in our garage. We store most of our meats and extra drinks, etc. in them. I have an inventory of what’s inside of them. I’ve been picked on for having said inventory but it really does help to know what I have on hand. This helps me not to overbuy because I can review the inventory before I go shopping. A quick glance at it helps me to come up with meal ideas as well. My inventory is on an excel spreadsheet and I update it every few months. In between, I mark it up with a pen so it’s always up to date.
I hope these tips have been helpful to you! If you have others, please share below!