Kitchen Organization: The Fridge

I'm not going to lie, ya'll. I was dreading this day. Our fridge was nasty. It needed to be cleaned so badly. You know when things reach a certain point and you just want to give up? Yeah, I was past that point.

But for the sake of this challenge I powered through. Here's where we started:



From a distance it doesn't look too bad, just cluttered.

Here's the after:



Much better! What you can't see is how clean it is now. There were some pretty nasty spills and stuff going on in there.

Alright, so here's how I clean the fridge:
- Pick a place to start, either doors or interior
- Start at the top and work your way down
- Remove everything from each area.
- While you've got it in your hand check the best by date. If you are past that date, go ahead and toss (or recycle).
- Wipe down empty surface.
- Once the area is clean, start putting things back in a logical manner.

For me I like to put leftovers that need to be eaten first at the top and the more recent stuff at the bottom. We don't necessarily eat it in that order, but its like a mental clue to eat it up first.

I keep vegetables in one drawer and meat in another. Occasionally one will overflow into the other, but for the most part I like to keep them segregated.

For the record: those aren't our Natty Lites. They are my in-laws who like to keep a stash at our place. I'm kind enough to give them fridge space... sometimes.

So there you have it. Our clean fridge. I feel better now. When was the last time you cleaned your fridge? Any horror stories?