January Resolve: Organization

In a household of three adults, one of the things which frustrates me regularly is the state of the refrigerator. Things get moved. Moved, and then hidden. Moved, and then lost. Moved, and then discovered after their best by date. Moved, and then a second of the same item is unnecessarily opened. Moved. Ugh. 

If I could design a frig, there would be more drawers and pull out shelves. Those things once lost to the nether regions at the way back would be no more. Because I can not afford a new frig or fancy shelves I decided a container to corral and pull items forward would suffice.

Like so many others I have been enamored by the perfection of organized frigs. And like so many others, I balked at the prices of the organizing containers. $25 for one frig organizer! WTF! To that end, I spent $6.83 on three new containers and repurposed another two I already owned. 

After years long deliberation and even longer frustration I gave in and shopped WM online. I came up with three generic containers which I hope will corral my cold items. The cost was kept in check by ignoring purpose-made refrigeration-organization-specific containers and just going for containers based on measurements only. 

Welcome to my frig!

The produce drawers are always in a state of flux. I keep heavy stuff at the bottom and try to keep the leafy greens in one drawer. Tomatoes always fall victim to some random corner and end up separated so I decided to use a single tray to contain them on the bottom shelf. Normally the onions, seen cohabiting in the tray, are kept on top of the eggs but someone has not been putting them back. 

The tray itself is a repurposed food container kept from years ago when I did not know how to make good samosas. I still have a stack of these plastic trays in use all over the house and this one seems to suit the needs here. Under the tomatoes are the blueberries, a daily staple for L's lunch yogurt parfaits. There is a room under the blueberries for a second berry container. And two containers of berries for parfaits is the most I can store before they turn bad.

Also on the bottom shelf are two of the new WM plastic baskets. At left is one of the two-pack of new baskets. The yogurt had previously lived with the dairy top shelf but kept being pushed to the back, making it hard to reach. At most I have two containers of yogurt on hand so this basket fits the need. The berries and yogurt bring to mind an important food organization tip. Know how often you need to restock and keep things from going bad.

On the right side is the single deep basket designated B's vegan and misc. There are some things that only I eat, the vegan stuff and some odds and ends. Realizing a vegan sausage had disappeared somewhere in the frig and the vegan sour cream was being overlooked, I decided that I wanted one basket just for me. 

Ideally these baskets would be longer and deeper, reaching all the way to the back of the frig but I have developed a habit to use that odd rear wall of the bottom shelf. No one wants to dig around that low and that far back so it became the spot where I store my blocks of tofu. They line up nicely, stacked three high and in two to three rows across. This brings me to one of the most important aspects to consider when reorganizing: How do you use it? For me, that back wall of the bottom shelf has proven to be useful only to me and perfectly shaped for tofu.

On the middle shelf the space is cut short by the cheese drawer. In that small space, we put two bags of tortillas. In lieu of bread, tortillas serve as an all purpose wrap. Today I made L a wrap of potato curry with a side of coriander mint yogurt. Warmed and grilled, it makes an easy to-go meal. Yesterday it was black bean and tofu burritos. Best, tortillas last a long time in the frig and are easily warmed in the MW to make them pliable. 

On the shelf to the right is our unique random storage of odds and ends. As vegetarians we use a lot of condiments and dressings and other things. The frig door is the place most people store their jams and jellies. Not us. The door is my domain for cooking and salad extras: two types of soy sauce, rooster sauce, hot sauces, three types of olives, dressings, vinegars, and pickles, prepared ginger and so many other strange things inhabit the door levels. And fortunately for me, the door is my space as the main chef. Further, the slim depth of the door shelves mean nothing gets lost, is easily seen, and the fixed varied heights of each door shelf means organization defaults to practical use first and then grouping likes together. Remember, Organize according to your needs and not what is typically done by others.

On the middle shelf though, I used the second basket from the two-piece set to corral some of the jams and jellies. Ideally this would be longer and deeper and maybe someday I can find a better basket but for now I will work with this. Honestly, we always have too many jams open. But in our defense we do make a lot of hot homemade bread, toast, and thumbprint cookies.

Next to the new container I keep our bulk minced garlic and hot sauce, which I buy a half gallon at a time. Two jars of salsa and a bruschetta are in front. The jars of tomato stuff always end up on this shelf so that is another thing, like the jelly, which we all agree on: It goes here.

The upmost tier is staggered to accommodate the height of things. Dairy, like milk and sour cream, along with juice sit on the left shelf. I also put our leftovers on this shelf. It is high and prominent, hard to ignore. The cabbage is an overstock, something I need to use and have no other space to put. This shelf is our reminders shelf and our dairy shelf.

The shelf at the top right has several containers. At the rear, out of sight, is a small container with refrigerated medicines which we rarely use. To the right is a container which keeps all the butter, vegan butter, and margarine in one spot. Another container is white and long and holds all the chutneys we use. These are containers which I have had in the frig for several years and they work for their purpose. In between, a shaker of Parmesan lives because it is where we all agreed to put it. Who knew? Some consensus does occur in an organic sort of manner. And that brings me to another important organization rule: Sometimes things find a home on their own because - for whatever the reason - everyone just decided That Is Where It Lives. Why mess with what works?

So will these new containers work? Who knows? Time will tell. I do know that the yogurt is so much easier to find and use. And that basket of my vegan stuff is a good reminder to use some things otherwise lost elsewhere. For now the containers seem to keep things in one spot and encourages people to return it where they found it. For less than $10 and some repurposed containers, I'm willing to give it a go.