5 Tips For Organizing Your Refrigerator for easy meal prep to save time and money, so food stays fresh all week.
5 Tips For Organizing Your Fridge
You’ve decided to tackle the oh-so anxiety-inducing task of organizing your refrigerator. Refrigerator organization can be both painless and rewarding when done the right way. I promise, it will be worth it when you see your hard work beautifully displayed each time you grab a snack out of your fridge!
Why I Chose a Sub-Zero Refrigerator For My Kitchen
You may remember from this post that we renovated our kitchen earlier this year (final kitchen reveal post coming soon!). Having the opportunity to create my perfect kitchen was an absolute dream, and as a home chef, appliances were top of mind. When preparing meals refrigeration is where you start and end, so when it came to choosing the right refrigerator I was looking for two things: adequate storage space and optimal food preservation. Sub-Zero checked each box.
Since I cook with so many fresh ingredients, I love that my Sub-Zero has a NASA-inspired air purification system. It scrubs away ethylene gas – which hastens food spoilage – and removes bacteria, mold and viruses every 20 minutes. How cool is that? Another major plus was that it came panel ready. This meant I was able to blend the refrigerator and freezer seamlessly into my kitchen cabinet design. Score!
While my new Sub-Zero has made refrigerator organization a breeze for me, you can organize ANY fridge with a few simple tricks. Here are my top 5 tips:
1. Familiarize yourself with the temperature and humidity in each zone of your refrigerator.
- The door: The refrigerator door is typically the warmest zone. That makes it perfect for items with higher concentrations of vinegar, salt, and preservatives, like condiments.
- The drawers: These are usually humidity controlled. This makes them ideal for produce like fruits and veggies.
- The shelves: It’s best to store drinks and ready-to-eat foods like leftovers on the top shelf. This is because heat rises, so the internal temperature will always be higher on the top shelves than the middle and bottom shelves. I suggest you keep any raw ingredients on middle and lower shelves. Even milk, which spoils easily, will have the longest life on the bottom shelf.
- My Sub-Zero refrigerator actually came with a freshness card inside the door. The card details which shelves and drawers to store certain types of food and produce for maximum preservation. The cards are also color coded and categorized to help keep foods grouped and organized. If you enjoy organizing, you’ll probably love this convenient guide.
2. Establish a system based on what you use most often.
- Consider which items you reach for in your refrigerator most often and prioritize their placement. Position them in the easiest and most convenient spaces to grab – think eye-level and front row. See this list for my go-to Refrigerator, Freezer and Pantry Staples.
- Another perk of my Sub-Zero refrigerator is that the shelves are shallow and wide rather than deep and narrow. This makes it easy to see everything in my refrigerator and freezer without forgetting about the food that used to get pushed to the back.
3. Use containers to maximize space and efficiency.
- If you love organization as much as I do, these containers (affil link) are perfect for holding citrus and avocados, which keeps them fresh longer.
- Use mason jars with screw top lids available on amazon (affil link) to store your pre-chopped veggies, onions, peeled garlic, etc so it’s ready to use for the week.
- Store meal prep dished, leftovers or salads in clear glass containers (affil link) so you can see what’s inside. Here’s a link to my meal prep recipes for inspiration.
- Use a deep container for thawing meat. This prevents a mess if the package leaks and helps prevent cross-contamination.
4. Keep herbs in mason jars
- Wash your herbs and keep them in mason jars with a little water, it will keep them fresh for weeks.
5. Use a Lazy Suzan for Beverages
- A lazy susan makes it really easy to see all your beverages or containers and keep them at arms reach.
Now that your refrigerator is organized, I’d love to see the finished project! Tag me on Instagram @skinnytaste and bonus points if you share a before and after pic!
Disclosure: This post is created in partnership with Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Cover. All thoughts are my own.
