Last Updated on October 26, 2024

My need to organise my home has no bounds, even Ryan’s toy room has had a makeover. More recently, my poor fridge has been the object of my organisation overdrive.

My fridge is either full of containers that are too large for their contents, I can’t fit large loaves of bread in it, or I don’t know where to put small containers of food items such as Greek yoghurt, or tall containers of coconut yoghurt.

In order to put my mind at ease whenever I open the doors, I’ve put together a list of ways that I can better organise my fridge. This means that I can stop worrying about the way it’s organised, and instead enjoy the contents it keeps fresh for my family.

I hope the organisation tips on this list will help you organise your fridge as well, if that’s something that you wish to do.

Where should items go?

When I started to research ways to better organise my fridge, I found a lot of advice saying that certain food items need to go in different areas of the fridge, depending on how cool or warm each area is.

Some examples of these were:

Upper shelves

• Leftovers
• Drinks

Lower shelves

• Eggs
• Dairy
• Raw meat

Door

• Condiments
• Juice
• Butter

Drawers

• Fruit
• Vegetables

I tried this, but given that my fridge is small I just couldn’t fit certain items in the places they were meant to go. There was no way that my milk would fit standing up on the lower shelves, and I didn’t have enough door space for all the items that should go there.

So I decided to forgo this advice and simply put things where they fit.

My fridge is now organised as follows:

Upper shelves

• Milk
• My juice
• Condiments

Middle shelf

• Beer
• Ryan’s cheese and yoghurt
• Ryan’s juice
• Leftovers

Lower shelf

• Raw meat
• Sandwich meat
• Cheese
• Bread

Door

• Eggs
• Butter
• Sparkling water

Drawers

• Vegetables

Whilst everything that I read says you shouldn’t put milk on the door as it’s the warmest part of the fridge, I’ve never had any milk go off by storing it here, it’s what works for my fridge, so it’s the best solution that I currently have.

Once you find a space for your food items, the biggest challenge is keeping them there and putting future similar items in the same spots. If you can do this, your fridge will be the organised space you want it to be.

Make items smaller

This takes time, but it’s worth it. If anything is large and takes up unnecessary space find ways to make it smaller.

For example, broccoli is quite large and takes up too much space in my vegetable drawer. To make it fit better and allow other vegetables to be stored with it, I often have to cut it up and put it in a sandwich bag.

Or if I have a large jar of olives that only have a small amount of olives in it, I’ll tip the olives into a smaller container, which takes up less space.

If you can make something smaller, put it in a smaller container, or bag it, it makes your fridge much more organised, and allows more space to be available for new items.

Storage containers

This is my favourite way to store items, any excuse to buy containers is a good one. I love containers with handles, that are clear so you can see what’s in them, or containers with compartments.

Containers and baskets are a fantastic way to group similar items so things are easy to find, and your fridge doesn’t feel so cluttered.

Before buying any containers measure the space you have in your fridge, and then buy containers that suit your needs. I also recommend buying only one or two types of containers so everything is uniform and can be stacked.

Currently I have a Lazy Susan on my top shelf holding my condiments. Even though it takes up quite a bit of space, it makes it easy to reach what I need.

I also love using baskets with handles, which I currently use to hold Nick’s beers. In the past I’ve used them to store butter, cold meats, rolls, and spinach. When buying a basket I tried to find one that was as deep as my fridge, so there was no wasted space.

I also love using containers with compartments to hold Ryan’s food items.

Lastly, mason jars are a fantastic way to store items on your door such as celery sticks, olives, and berries.

End result

After reorganising my fridge so items were stored in the way that suited the space I had, and not by recommended areas, my fridge looked so much better.

In addition, using storage containers such a Lazy Susan, baskets with handles, storage boxes, and mason jars, means that everything has a home, and I never have to clean up any spills.

My biggest challenge now is keeping the fridge in its new organised state and making sure items I buy actually fit in it (this means buying smaller bottles of sauce, and fewer double up items). 

Have you got any fridge organisation tips?