Basic Kitchen Organizing Part 3 - Inside of the Refrigerator

For many people, cleaning the appliances is one of the most daunting and neglected tasks in the kitchen. This week we will tackle all of them. If you are a new housewife and have never had to clean an appliance before, a step by step walk through one time will give you a hand.

For those that have their kitchen more under control, scan and pick up some tips that may help you reduce the amount of time it takes to keep you refrigerator and other appliances clean, then make sure to share some of your tricks for the rest of us in the comments.

Here We Go - Starting with the Refrigerator

Fill the sink half way with soapy water and a cap full of bleach. Pull everything out of your refrigerator. Have a garbage bag handy for any spoiled food. If the shelves come out, take them out and wash them. Pull out the drawers and wash them. While the shelves and drawers are drying, wash out the inside of the refrigerator.

Usually the three largest causes for mess in the refrigerator are meat juices, spoiled fruits and veggies, and long expired leftovers. There are fairly simple things that you can do to really reduce these messes.

Controlling The Meat Juices

First let’s tackle the meat juices. Look around your kitchen and find a casserole dish. I suggest a glass type that is 9 inches by 13. From now on I suggest you store all of your thawing meats in this dish. The high sides will contain the leaking juices and keep your refrigerator shelves free from the messy ooze and potential contamination. I actually have four of these now so I can have one on hand to rotate and two on hand at all times to cook with. (I am from the South after all - can you say casserole?)

I prefer glass because it does not absorb the bacteria like plastic would, it cleans up easily, and it does not leave rust spots that a metal container would eventually leave. Most also have handles that make it easy to pull out of the refrigerator without spillage or icky fingers. The size is perfect to fit front to back in most refrigerators so nothing gets hidden behind it and it easily holds three days or so of meats including large roasts.

Taming the Fruit and Vegetable Drawers

Fruits and veggies spoil at different speeds, but all will spoil faster if left in the plastic bags from the grocery store. From now on, do not allow any plastic wrap in these drawers. Unwrap lettuce and keep the bagged salad on a shelf.

I have a set of white terry cloth dishrags. I line the bottom of the drawer with one of these rags before I put the produce away. Line your drawer with a similar towel or paper towels.

If the produce is not in the cooler at the store, it should not go into the cool in your home. Many things such as bananas will spoil faster in the fridge than if put into a basket on your table. Our family eats these fruits a lot more now that they are in plain sight and they tend to last until they are eaten.

Another thing I discovered is that certain veggies cause others to chemically react. I keep a sturdy basket that I can wash when needed in a darker corner of my counter that has potatoes and onions.

Green onions are tricky. They can not stay out on the counter but do cause the other produce to deteriorate faster. We use them a lot so I usually just loosely wrap them in a paper towel and keep them in the door. If you use them less often, you could dehydrate them and reconstitute them for use by soaking them in a cup of water for a few hours.  If there are other things that you would like to have on hand more often, but would only occasionally use, look into dehydrating.

All of these tips should help your produce last longer.

Leftovers

The final big mess is the leftovers turned science project. There are several things I suggest you try.

• If you have leftovers every time you cook, make an effort to reduce the amounts during cooking.
• Make a point to eat last night’s leftovers today for lunch.
• Keep all of the leftovers together in the same area of your refrigerator so they are less likely to go hiding.
• Make stews and soups every two or three days using the leftovers.
• And most importantly, make a note on your calendar to empty the fridge of all leftovers the night before trash day.

Kid Considerations

They are going to learn to get into the fridge and get what they want. I suggest you find a descent sized plastic container without a lid and put some of their favorite snacks on one of the bottom shelves. Also keep the drinks on the bottom shelf or low in the door.

They will spill things. Doing these two little things will keep the damage to a minimum. Drinks drip through fewer shelves and setting their snacks at their level keeps them for trying to climb to the top shelf pulling everything down with them.

If you take care of these three messy items and the kid considerations, your fridge will only need to quickly be wiped out. It will take a few minutes to clean instead of an hour of scrubbing.

Condiments

Go through salad dressings and condiments. Do you really need all of them? Honestly, how long have they been taking up shelf space? At one time I had six different salad dressings and four or five different types of mustard. Some of them were used regularly, but there were others that were almost a year old and practically full. It was silly for me to keep them. By the time I would have gotten around to using them, they would have been bad anyway. Now I buy the smallest bottle available when I need a condiment that we do not regularly use. If a spend a few cents more an ounce for food that will most likely spoil, it is more frugal to get the smaller package.

After you have culled some of your condiments, sort them by use if possible i.e. dressing’s together, sandwich condiments together, steak sauces and marinades together, etc. and store them on the shelves in your door. This will keep you from buying a duplicate because you couldn’t find the original.

Keep in mind that most condiments are purchased off the shelf in the grocery. If it is good enough for the store, it is good enough in your kitchen. Just keep it on the shelf in your pantry until it is opened. (If it was in the fridge, keep it in the fridge now or it will spoil. But remember this for the next time you shop for any condiments.)

Put the fridge back together

Now that you have a clean fridge and know how to prevent/minimize future messes, it is time to set up your fridge.

Replace the dry drawers. Set up your produce drawer using the information above. The most important thing is no plastic allowed.

Replace your deli drawer. This drawer is all about plastic. Pretty much everything in this drawer should be kept in a zipper bag to keep the foods from drying out and to prevent leakage into the drawer and cross contamination. If the original packaging does not reseal or if the seal is torn, put the items into zipper bags of appropriate sizes. Locate all of your lunchmeats, hot dogs, and the bacon. Zip them up and toss them in. Locate all of your cheeses, zip them up and toss them in. What other items do you keep in your deli drawer? Zip them up and toss them in.

If the shelves in your refrigerator can be adjusted, take advantage of that capability. All of the large containers, usually sodas, milk, juices and the like need to go on the bottom shelf or on the bottom of the door. Wipe them all off and put them in their place.

• First decide where you are going to keep the thawing meat container and put it in with any thawing meats.
• Decide where you are going to keep the leftovers and put any in or if they all needed to be tossed, take a dishrag to reserve a good size place for them. (Try not to put the leftovers too near thawing meats.)
• Put the eggs back in.

Further Considerations

The rest is up to your discretion, but try to keep smaller items to the top and larger items to the bottom. Small items tend to get lost behind and below bigger things.

Sort the remaining items like by like and by items used together i.e. jams with biscuit dough. Put everything back in their place wiping them off as you go. Try to return items to the same spot every time.

When you are done, wipe down the counter.

Go to your calendar and schedule a weekly leftover toss the night before trash day. Change the towels, toss or use any wilted produce, and clean or swap the meat thawing container on this day, too. Wipe as you go or schedule one day every month to really wipe out your refrigerator. It should take less than five minutes if you have contained the messy items in the mean time.

I do not have any special tips for the freezer. But try to keep like with like again. Meats together, frozen veggies together, etc.

Your Refrigerator Tips

Make sure to share some of your tips for the rest of us in the comments! I am always up for a new good tip or a new way to try!

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