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Kitchens can quite easily become a hotbed of chaotic clutter. From busy countertops and cabinets, to the dreaded miscellaneous junk drawer crammed with appliance manuals and spare batteries, there’s often not a surface left uncovered. And in the heart of the kitchen is the refrigerator, an area so prone to chaos and confusion that it can send (literal) chills down your spine. If you’re wondering how to organise your fridge, you’ve come to the right place.
Why you should organise your fridge
‘The fridge is where people waste the most food,’ explains Jacqueline McLeod, who is a professional declutterer on the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers board. According to climate action charity WRAP, we throw away around six million tonnes of household food waste in the UK each year. The majority of that is food that could have been eaten and is worth approximately £14 billion, or £60 a month for an average family with two children. But food waste doesn’t just come with a monetary cost, it has a huge environmental one, too, as this waste is responsible for nearly 25 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, which is equivalent to almost six per cent of the UK’s territorial emissions. The key takeaway here? Organising your fridge properly will help keep food waste – and costs – down, helping you and the planet.
So where do you start? There are several schools of thought when it comes to fridge organisation, as many will know by the sheer number of fridge organising videos on TikTok. Fridgescaping, the practice of organising your fridge in the most aesthetically pleasing of ways, has really taken off on social media lately, with the likes of Gwyneth Paltrow offering tantalising glimpses of their incredibly well-stocked and well-ordered fridges. Eager to emulate a similar sense of order at home? Here’s what we learned from the professionals.
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How to organise your fridge
Like grouping your kitchen into different zones (i.e. prepping, cooking, cleaning), Jacqueline suggests grouping what’s inside your fridge, too. Her two go-to methods are organising by meals or by category, with the latter the more popular option. If you’re grouping your fridge by meals, the rule is one meal per one container. For those grouping by category, there’s a tried-and-tested method of categorisation by shelves, taking into account the temperature in different sections for all-important food safety and hygiene:
- Top shelves: In most fridges, the top shelf is the second coldest place in the fridge, which makes it a great place for drinks, pickles and condiments like jams and chutneys.
- In the middle: This is the place for your dairy and eggs.
- Lower shelves: Meat-eaters should keep anything raw on the bottom shelves, because lower shelves tend to be the coldest (and to avoid any juices running where they shouldn’t).
- Door: The refrigerator door is the warmest so keep things there that are less likely to spoil, such as bottled drinks and condiments that are used more frequently.
- Drawers: Fruit or vegetables are best here – just make sure that the two are separated as fruit can emit gasses that cause veggies to prematurely decay.
Plastic boxes, drawers and Lazy Susans or turntables are ideal ways to keep your categorised ingredients clearly defined – plus they’re a great way to make the most of the vertical space that would otherwise go unused. John Lewis, Amazon and Ikea are excellent sources for good-value fridge organisation products. Here are some of our favourites to buy now:
Expiration dates are controversial, with many people believing they are at the root of much of our unnecessary food wastage. However, if you do tend to adhere to these dates, they can be a useful organisational tool. ‘Label your items with expiration dates or the day that you put the item in the fridge,’ continues Jacqueline, explaining that this includes leftovers too. This can, in fact, be a great way to minimise wastage as it serves as a reminder of what should be eaten first and avoids us having to throw anything away in a panic. Another use for labels is to keep your storage systems and boxes clearly defined, and to help others in your household to follow the rules.
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