If your family’s fridge always looks a hot mess, you need to see these clever fridge organization ideas that will help you keep your fridge clean, organized and easy to use!
Hi friends!
Your fridge is hand down one of, if not the most used appliance in your home!
If you have a growing family, you know exactly how easy it is for your fridge to quickly become extremely chaotic! Left overs, groceries, kids cups, lunchboxes and snacks can take over your entire fridge in a heartbeat.
Keeping your fridge clean and organized will help you keep your sanity during crazy mornings and busy nights! These fridge organization ideas will whip your fridge into shape in no time!
This post is all about fridge organization ideas for your family!
The Best Fridge Organization Ideas
1. Lay down fridge mats for easy clean up
If you have small kids who tend to tip items and leak all over the fridge, these are a must!
Liners are easy to clean or better yet, just replace all together to keep your fridge in tip top shape!
2. Use dry erase tape to date & label leftovers and opened containers
Listen, I’m not exaggerating at all when I tell you that this is LIFE CHANGING!
As a busy family, I constantly find leftovers in the fridge and can’t remember when they were made and if they’re bad or not. These erasable labels are the best! They stay on through the dishwasher and hand washing. Once you’re ready to use your container for different leftovers, you just wipe it off and reuse it!
We mainly use these to date and label leftovers but they’re also extremely helpful for sauces and things that expire within a small amount of time!
3. Save space with stackable drawers
If your family is like mine, you’re constantly running out of space in the fridge!
Stackable containers are great way to use vertical space. More than that, using stackable containers with drawers is even better because you don’t have to worry about moving a bunch of bins just to get something out of the bottom bin!
4. Use a lazy Susan for bulky condiments and jars
If you have the room for one, a lazy Susan is a great option to store and easily access bulky or large condiments!
A big jar of pickles takes up a lot of room in the side doors but on a shelf it always seems to get pushed all the way to the back! This will solve that problem!
Unless you have a lot of space to spare, I wouldn’t recommend getting a huge lazy Susan. A small/medium sized one to hold specific types of things will work!
5. Put a magnetic grocery list and weekly menu on your fridge door
Even if you’re not a strict meal planner type of gal, you need this!
Having a menu board will help you keep track of what needs to be made first (ex. those avocados might be looking sad if you wait til the end of the week to use them for tacos) and when to defrost meat, etc.
I LOVE having a grocery list too! I don’t use this for my entire grocery list but it’s a great way to keep track of your staples. For example, as soon as we’re low on ranch it gets added to the list! Snap a picture of your list before heading to the grocery store and you won’t be caught off guard next time you need olive oil and realize there’s only a drop left ever again!
6. Organize your kids cups
Two out of three of my kids currently go to school and other still stays home with me. We still have tons of reusable water bottles!
Mornings are BUSY around here as I’m sure they are at your house too! A huge tip is to fill your kids school water bottles the night before and keep them in the fridge overnight. In the morning I call for both kids to grab their cups and lunch out of the fridge. Sometimes it leads to unnecessary fights..
Instead of the bottles all lined up in a row where the kids have to dig and move things around, use a stackable organizer like this! Super easy access so that no one has to move or even touch anyone else’s water bottle to get theirs!
7. Have a kids snack section
There are so many different ways you can create a snack section in your fridge. It really all just depends on where you have space and wheres within in reach of the kids!
Using a couple bins (psst – the stackable bin with drawers!!) on a lower shelf to stock a few snack options is a great idea!
Love the idea of using the fridge doors with simple containers as a snack section too!
How To Get Your Fridge Organized
8. Take everything out
Once you’re ready to organize your fridge it’s best to start with a clean slate!
Take everything out. If you’re the super prepared type, you may want to get use a cooler for certain items. If not, the counter works equally as well!
9. Throw away expired items
Now that you have everything laid out, you need to start going through what you have.
Throw away expired items or items you you don’t need/use. Ya know, that bottle of something you bought for a specific recipe and then never touched again, leaving 3/4 of a bottle? That kind of stuff!
If there’s anything in there that you’re low on (someone left 1 pickle in the pickle jar) jot it down and keep a mental note that you’ll need to factor in space for that item!
10. Measure your spaces
Time to whip out your handy dandy tape measure and get to crunching numbers!
Kidding, but you’ll definitely want to measure as much as you can! While you’re measuring the length, width and height, start thinking about a potential game plan!
11. Group like items together
When mapping out your fridge game plan, it helps to lay out similar items in groups.
A major tip is to not over organize! Just because you’re kids are currently going through a huge go-go phase, doesn’t mean you need an entire go-go drawer!
Instead, broadly label it “snacks” so that you have flexibility later on that still makes sense!
{Related Post: 5 Worst Organization Mistakes To Avoid | Organization Tips For Parents}
12. Buy your new containers
With your measurements and game plan in mind, nows the fun part!
Purchase your new containers! Remember not to go too overboard – you never want to organize to capacity!
While having an entire fridge with rows of beautiful clear bins might sounds great, it’s pretty impractical for a busy family. Make sure you’re leaving open fridge shelf space for flexibility!
13. Give your fridge a good wipe down
Before you start adding all your new bins and setting up your newly organized fridge, you’ll want to give your entire fridge a good wipe down!
Don’t forget to thoroughly clean your new containers, especially if you’ll be putting food directly in them!
** Remember to cut and lay down your fridge mats if you’re using them!
14. Group like items in containers
When mapping out your fridge game plan, it helps to lay out similar items in groups.
A major tip is to not over organize! Just because you’re kids are currently going through a huge go-go phase, doesn’t mean you need an entire go-go drawer!
Instead, broadly label it “snacks” so that you have flexibility later on that still makes sense!
14. Set up your new fridge space
You’re almost done! Time to finally put everything into action!
Since you measured beforehand, you won’t have to worry about anything not fitting but if you need make some minor tweaks on what goes where, that’s perfectly okay!
**Family tip: If you have an oblivious family like me, I’d call them over and briefly explain the new set up so that everyone is on the same page!
