Tips on Organizing Your Fridge and Kitchen
The title sounds super cliche, but Marie Kondo was right. You need to organize and declutter areas in your life to bring joy to your space, and your kitchen is no exception. As a young adult, whether in your college dorm, your first apartment or house, you will have access to a kitchen. It might be communal, or if you’re lucky, one all to yourself. Whatever the case, I found that kitchen fridge organization has brought me increased happiness, and has made cooking much more fun. So while organizing your freezer box might not bring you immediate joy, it will later when you are coming home tired from studying or work, and you open your fridge to find a clean and tidy plethora of yummy things waiting for you. It doesn’t require fancy containers or lots of cash either. All it takes is some creative thinking.
Keep and clean out takeout containers.
Just ordered Thai Food and it came in one of those black meal prep boxes? Wash it out and keep it. These boxes are great for storing leftovers, extra ingredients and are also great for meal prepping. Just be sure that their microwaveable safe, and if not, only store things in it, but do not use it to heat up anything. I also like to save soup containers to meal prep items!
2. Ask yourself: how do you use your kitchen?
Do you cook a lot? Or do you store snacks more. Depending on if you’re a student on a meal plan or a full time 9-5’er, this might differ. When I was a student, I was on a meal plan so my mini fridge was used mainly for snacks and beverages. If that’s the case, then I would buy some little plastic container boxes (rectangular and square shapes only) from Target or Daiso and organize snacks in your boxes. You should also arrange your fridge so that the things you use the most are at the front of the shelves, and least used items in the back. Snack Items: Items that are soft, irregularly/spherical shaped, or can’t stand on their own are the ones you need to put in a box. Think about it, if you want a cheese stick, but it’s in a big plastic bag, shoved to the back of the fridge behind another bag of grapes behind some drinks, you’re going to have to dig to get it...or you’ll forget about them in a week. So take the cheese sticks out of the bag, separate them from each other, and put them in a box. Other snack ideas could include Gogurts, fruit and etc. Items that come with a lot of packaging also need to be dealt with. Cut up your watermelon right away, put it in some rectangular tupperware and store it. Grapes and carrots can be pre-washed, dried and stored in separate tupperware as well.
On the other hand, if you cook daily, I also find that organizing your utensils, spices, pantry, cookware and dishes correctly are extremely helpful. It is the same logic as before, place your most used items closer to the front, and less used to the back. For example, I always have a medium pan and a pot clean and at the front of my lower cabinets so that whether I need to boil or saute something, I always have that handy. My larger pots and pans are in the back. My kettle and espresso machine are obviously on the counter top, but I do not put my rice cooker out (I cook my rice once a week and keep the rest in the fridge). For spices, my housemates and I put our most used spices in a turntable in a easily reachable cabinet while putting other unique items in a pull out cart. Our pantries are also neatly organized with non-perishables, mainly canned items and things like pasta, tuna, beans, instant ramen, rice and dry noodles. When I’m pressed for time, those are a god send.
3. Pre-wash groceries that you want easy access to OR that spoil easily.
I love blueberries in my granola and yogurt. My gripe with them is that they go soft and mushy super easily. Same things with raspberries. However, here is a fascinating tip. Wash ALL of your blueberries, straight from the store, in a large bowl with some water and vinegar and let it soak for some 10 minutes. The vinegar will kill most bacteria. Then in the plastic container it comes in, wash that, dry them off and put 1-2 paper towels on the bottom and put your blueberries back in. This provides the moisture somewhere to be absorbed, and allows your blueberries to stay fresh for way longer. This also applies to a lot of other fruits and vegetables!
4. Parcook Items
Even the best chefs can find preparing food from the beginning tiring. That’s why they have sous chefs who prepare everything and kitchen aides to wash and partially cook things ahead of time. You can do the same! Things I like to cook, or partially prepare ahead of time are below
Rice
Prechop Onions and Garlic
Grilled/Baked Chicken
Prewash Cucumbers
Eggs (boiled)
Pre Chop and Wash Romaine Lettuce
Washed and chopped fruit
This makes assembling a stiry-fry, a pasta, or a salad incredibly quick!
5. Always keep some toppings/sauces on hand
The best way to keep this interesting and fun is to keep a variety of sauces and toppings available so that you can transform your meal into something more elevated. For example, I liked keeping pickled onions, Kewpie Mayo, salsa, greek yogurt and various crumbled cheeses on hand. They are very versatile items that can instantly upgrade your dish, and add a little extra joy in your day!
In the end, the goal behind these methods is not to have an aesthetic fridge. It is to have a fully functional system that allows for optimal efficiency. This way, you can save time and spend it on the things that you truly love. I hope this helps!
