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Kim Kardashian West made news last week, first for taking a picture in front of a refrigerator with only drinks like milk and so forth — leading people to ask, um, do you not have food? So she clarified in later social media posts that it was only her liquid refrigerator (like, duh you guys) and gave an absolutely jaw dropping tour of her “main fridge” that, to be honest, is bigger than some “walk-in closets” that I was tickled absolutely pink to have.
WOW, you guys — I never knew I had #refrigeratorgoals. So I thought it might make for a fun discussion today — how do you organize the food in your house? Here are some questions to kick off discussion about fridge organization ideas:
Do you have a secondary freezer? (Standing or chest?) What goes in the “main freezer” versus the secondary one, and where is it (basement, garage, laundry room, etc)?
Do you have a secondary refrigerator, such as a wine fridge?
Have you added bins or otherwise devoted large sections of your main fridge to refrigeration of one specific item, such as soda, yogurts, or snacks?
(Do you have an organization system in your pantry with bins or boxes — and how much money and energy have you devoted to pantry organization, particularly if you did it all at once versus piecemeal?)
For fridge or pantry, what things do you always repackage once you get home (such as pasta in pasta containers)?
Bonus question: Do you have another refrigerator at the office (such as a 6-can fridge, like these, or an old mini-fridge from your college years), or do you regularly keep “stock” supplies at the office refrigerator (such as salad dressings), and if so how do you organize/label them so others know they're “yours”?
For my $.02, I bought a bulk box of clear shoeboxes years ago from The Container Store, and I've used those for everything from shoes, to toys, to freezer and pantry organization. I have used my labelmaker for those shoeboxes in our tiny pantry, but we don't have anything as fancy as you see on Pinterest or Instagram. Personally I never repackage a bulk item like flour, rice, pasta, or cereal. The fanciest our refrigerator has gotten is some nice long containers from mDesign Storage, which we use to keep my younger son's yogurt/applesauce pouches standing up (similar to this but I just bought one at a random store).
Stock photo (at top): Deposit Photos / stokkete.
Abby
I weirdly love this topic. We have a chest freezer in the basement, and I store meat that’s a particularly good price so we always have ribs or steaks on hand, and broth if I make more than I need to use. We also have a mini fridge in our kitchen that’s full of beer and technically a third fridge that’s a dual tap kegerator (we are very obviously in our 20s)
I got a labeler last year and went a little nuts labeling mason jars with pantry items, besides the obvious baking ingredients, I store chia seeds, oats, chocolate chips, different nuts, raisins, etc and keep the big bag in the basement because they’re all Costco sized if possible. I also put oils into different pouring jars and have them on my counter so they take up less space than the large jug they come in. I have more storage in the basement than I do in my kitchen and I love Costco too much, what can I say.
RD
I think you’re my fiance and me, although the kegerator is typically used for 1/4 kegs, (he homebrews) so the mini fridge is also the kegerator.
I tend to stock up on wide mouth mason jars when they’re on sale or when thrift stores are clearing out their collections. I also keep an eye out for the glass bail jars at stores like TJ Maxx or Ross.
Senior Attorney
Fun topic!
We have a big wine fridge in the hall closet and a small beer fridge on the patio next to the BBQ. And, uh, a small wine fridge in the kitchen island. Also just got a small secondary freezer that my son had in his dorm room and finally got rid of last time he moved. So far the only thing in it is a homemade turkey pie left over from Thanksgiving.
We get Blue Apron every week and the meat goes in the meat drawer in the fridge and everything else goes in a large Tupperware container on the main shelf of the fridge. It’s easy to take it out of the fridge and root around for what I need on a give night.
We have a nice big pantry attached to the laundry room and recently cleaned it out so it’s nice and organized. (Our new motto is “every three years whether it needs it or not!”)
Repackaging: these items go into stainless steel canisters on the kitchen counter: Flour, sugar (white and brown), rice, cornmeal, coffee beans, fancy kosher salt (which then gets further repackaged into a salt cellar on the cooktop), probably one or two other things I’m blanking on at the moment. Grapeseed oil and olive oil get decanted into dispensers that live on a lazy Susan on the cooktop along with the salt cellar and pepper grinder.
I have a small fridge in my office at work and I only use it for my sack lunches, maybe once or twice a week.
knyc
a great perk of moving to the suburbs is I have a second freezer (stand up, the chest ones don’t self defrost) where i keep meat on sale, soup, frozen casseroles, etc. The one in the house is basically ice cream and frozen waffles.
Jess
Our actual kitchen has a weirdly small (for the USA, anyway) fridge with a minuscule freezer, so we have a chest freezer in our garage for bulk (and bulky, looking at you, frozen pizza) items.
But if fridge inspo is what you want, check out The Home Edit on Instagram. Fridge (and pantry, and closet, and everything) organization inspiration for days! They’re the folks who organized Kim’s pantry!
FFS
I’m strangely fascinated by all things organization. We’ve got a side-by-side in the kitchen for most of our needs, a garage fridge/freezer that is primarily for drinks and backups, and pizza in the freezer (also formerly bmilk) because they don’t fit in the side by side. Costco buys and extra-extras go in the chest freezer. Oh, and we have a beer fridge on our screen porch. We got the chest freezer and beer fridge before the garage fridge, so maybe we don’t need all of them, but I love having the space. The only one I wouldn’t replace would be the beer fridge.
Vicky Austin
We just got a chest freezer and I’m genuinely so excited! It’s going to live in the garage, which means we have yet to hook it up. But I cram our existing freezer so full that it’s going to be a huge relief to have this extra space. I’ve already got so many plans for make-ahead meals…
Our current fridge is old and not very fancy, but I don’t feel the need for a fancy fridge and there aren’t really many other kinds these days, so we’ll probably stick with it until it dies. It has two nice deep crisper drawers at the bottom, so I sometimes separate produce based on whether or not they play nicely together. There’s also a shallow drawer under one shelf that has gradually become “the cheese drawer.” I also keep lunchmeat in there. Leftovers get their own zone and I stash new items in the back so everything gets eaten before it goes bad.
I recently cleaned out/took inventory of our pantry (which is just a six-foot cabinet with six shelves in the kitchen). I only decant 3 things – flour, white sugar and rice – because I think it keeps the flour and sugar fresher and easier to measure, and because I almost always buy rice in bulk. The shelves are snacks, breakfast stuff (/backup spices), baking, canned products + oils + vinegars, grains, cleaning supplies. Almost nothing lives on the counter except spices.
I’d love to get a tiny fridge for my office – technically I have one big fridge right around the corner and one mini-fridge in our breakroom, but the mini fridge is shared with quite a few people, and sometimes the night nurses steal from the big fridge, so alas.
Anonymous
It’s pretty and all, but this seems like a wasteful use of energy.
I’ve never been a fan of a bunch of extra fridges and freezers either. Just seems like a needless electricity suck.
Anon
I agree that it is a waste of electricity. That looks to be about the size of the fridge at some restaurants I’ve worked at.
Unless you have a huge family or slaughter your own meat or freeze your own vegetables or something, I just don’t see the need for an extra fridge or freezer. But I’m also a minimalists and live in a big city, so have to walk by two grocery stores on my way home from work.
Cat
We have a chest freezer in the basement because our tiny kitchen has what is basically an apartment-size fridge. NOT IDEAL for batch cooking or bulky items like frozen pizza. So, the chest freezer keeps all our pre-made meals (each of them labeled with tape as to contents and date). We also use it to store frozen meals like TJ’s entrees.
The upstairs freezer keeps ice (we don’t have an ice maker), and frequently-used frozen items like frozen veggies, breads, etc.
AJ Conroy
I swear by the Organize 365 lady with her Sunday Basket, etc. She gives practical advice. It’s usually not pinterest pretty, but things stay organized. She recommended clear bins and lazy susans for the fridge, and that’s been key for organizing the random condiments and kid snacks.
Then I clear space (i.e., leftovers) on Thursday before Hello Fresh and Imperfect Produce comes.
Senior Attorney
OMG I just looked at this and now I want to buy the whole $997 package. Talk me down…