Installment Two - The Frustrating Fridge And The "Mysteries" Within

Welcome to the next installment of articles aimed at helping just about anyone survive the domestic challenges of home organization. In my last article, "Honey, Where's the Tuna Fish?" I gave you practical solutions for organizing your kitchen pantry. In this article, we will face head - on the ever challenging refrigerator to avoid yours becoming a giant petri dish.

So if you were to open your fridge and take a look inside, and I mean REALLY LOOK inside - don't just peek quickly and shut the door as soon as possible- what would you find? A collection of un-identifiable containers that contain some left-over portion of something from God knows when? Some produce in the veggie drawer that no longer resembles anything you would ever actually eat? Four different bottles of ketchup in various degrees of use?

Well, I'm afraid there is no easy way to tell you this. You have to suck it up...be brave. Go into that frightening fridge and dig right in. Remove ALL the contents. I know it's scary, but you can do this. Group all the removed items from the fridge onto your counters in groupings that make sense (don't forget that freezer!) Put all salad dressings together, then a group for condiments, then dairy, produce, etc. Once this is done, this is a great time to thoroughly clean your fridge and freezer. After that, carefully inspect all items for expired food, moldy leftovers, or anything that is not good enough to feed your family and throw them away or compost them. The final step is to consolidate any duplicate items (like ketchup) so that you have less to put back.

Are you still with me? Good. Now, the key to organizing your fridge and making it work for your family is to be consistent, persistent, and realistic. The goal is to be able to keep control of the situation before it gets away from you. Make it as easy as possible by determining what items your family uses the most of and the frequency that they need to access them. Adjust your shelving to accommodate the sizes of the food you keep in the fridge.