Today I had the chance to go grocery shopping by myself. You know you are a mom of small children when going to the grocery store alone feels like a vacation! I went to Trader Joes which makes the experience even better because these days shopping at TJs with my kids is a nightmare. The aisles are so small and it's always crowded and my little ones' arms seem to reach sooo far.
Anyway... I went shopping and when I got home and put everything away, I realized that it's high time for a little fridge/freezer/pantry reorganization. I grabbed a few pictures for inspiration off Pinterest. There were a lot of great ideas for french door style refrigerators but we have a traditional side by side so I tried to stick with pictures showing the same layout.
*Please pin these from the original source. It takes a few seconds extra but directs people to the real source that deserves the credit.
I included the last example even though it's french door style because it has some good tips about actual food storage and not just how to keep things from falling all over the place.
Now in the name of keeping it real, here are the before pix of my fridge and freezer. I love them being full, but hate that all the organizing I've done in the past has kind of fallen to the wayside.
Umm.... whoa. The freezer looks like it could all come tumbling out at any minute.
After some strategic rearranging and cleaning the shelves, drawers and walls of the fridge and freezer, here are the after photos.
I used some white plastic bins from Ikea and Target to corral the lunch meats, yogurt and snacks since those things seem to quickly spread out and take over. I had the plastic bin meant for juice boxes which I used for a few randoms since we don't typically have a lot of juice boxes on hand.
Amazingly I didn't have that much expired food to toss. I go through everything quickly almost every week the night before the trash gets picked up so pretty much what we had was useable. I did get rid of a bunch of packaging just to clear out space. It's also easier to see what you have if it's not in a box.
I'm very happy with the results and it's a great way to start the week feeling so organized!
Linking up to Design, Dining & Diapers
Nicely done! This is one my least favorite areas of the house to organize, so thanks for the tips :) I like your daily inspiration column too!
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting and for the nice compliments! I definitely don't enjoy cleaning the fridge but it makes me happy every time I open the door now :)
DeleteLooks great, i love little projects like that!
ReplyDeleteGood job! I'm starting to really dislike our side-by-side style fridge and freezer. It's so deep and narrow I'm always forgetting what we have in the back, and always digging. Honestly I often don't want to start dinner because I don't know what we even have and don't feel like digging around forever with the freezer wide open. We buy in bulk sometimes and it just instantly packs the freezer, I can never see what's what in the bags they come in, and don't ever feel like taking the time to cut out the directions and put it in a clear freezer bag, so then the food stays there forever, a lot of times til it's gone bad. It's so dumb. So that's why I'm here! Thanks for the tips, I really gotta do something about this!
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