Keeping your refrigerator organized is one of the bigger challenges in the kitchen. Everyone in the house uses the refrigerator, and the contents change day by day. You can maintain order by being diligent about where things are put, and by establishing a logical organization within the refrigerator. (Be sure to tell your family your organization principles so they'll abide by them.)

The first order of business is weeding out obviously spoiled foods and leftovers. Then throw out any open jars, bottles, or cans that are more than 6 months old and ones that you haven't used in recent memory. You'll need to do the same weeding out of the freezer. Keep in mind that food in the freezer doesn't stop aging, it just ages very slowly. If you have food in the freezer that is more than 9 months old, throw it out. Now give the whole unit a thorough cleaning and you're ready to put everything back according to assigned locations.

• Packaged food: Grouping food in distinct areas can be tough because the refrigerator layout is usually pretty open. Use transparent covered bins for bags of food, such as shredded cheese, open packages of premium coffee, and other loose foods. Keep bottled condiments together in the door slot. Other packaged foods, such as coffee beans or ground coffee, should be kept together in trays, which contain spills and make it obvious what goes where.
• Beverages: Soda bottles have a tendency to tip on wire shelves, so if your refrigerator has wire shelves, buy a piece of Plexiglas at the local hardware store (have it cut to size) to serve as a platform for the soda bottles and other tall, unsteady containers. Canned beverages such as beer and soda should be organized in a wire can-dispenser. Inexpensive and simple in design, these dispensers — for those who drink a lot of canned beverages — hold twelve or more cans, take up a minimum of space, and use a gravity feed system to neatly dispense one can at a time. If you're a fan of sports drinks and buy several bottles at once, refrigerate only one at a time-keep the rest in another location, such as the pantry.
• Leftovers: You should also have a distinct area for leftovers, so you and your family know where to find them. Of course, if you're running low on room and the leftovers may spoil before use, it's wiser to freeze them.



For more on organizing clutter, see <Good Housekeeping's The Complete Clutter Solution

Reprinted with Permission of Hearst Communications, Inc. Originally Published: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/toolarticles/clutter-solution-refrigerator-freezer-may07