Fridge Organization

How many of us have found moldy, fungus-infested leftovers in the back of the fridge. I know it's happened at some point in all of our lives (or for those unfortunate, many times!). Here's a method which I found works for me to make sure all of the food is clearly visible:

Clear boxes (these are shoe boxes from the Container Store) compartmentalize the fridge so everything isn't all over the place. In the door, I've reused pasta sauce jars for things like homemade ginger and garlic pastes. 

So starting from the left, there is a box of condiments. This makes it easier to find everything in one place. Also you can just slide out the whole box and set it on the counter when making a lot of sandwiches. 

Next to that, I keep my breads. Wheat bread, tortillas, buns, naans etc. With bread you have two choices, to keep it out somewhere or keep it in the fridge. Keeping it out helps it to taste fresh and soft, however, it can also develop mold much faster. Being a small family (2 + baby), I opted to keep the breads in the fridge as we can't possibly finish it that fast. Although it does dry up a little, I've never had problems with mold. If you feel your family can finish the bread quickly, then by all means keep it outside in the pantry! That just makes more space in the fridge for you!

After that, the leftovers are in plain sight. I don't let any of it get in the back. Keeping it in glass containers makes it safer to heat in the microwave. 

In the bottom row I keep fruits, vegetables and packets. Washing the fruits beforehand allows the family to just grab and eat. Taking the fruits and vegetable out of their plastic bags also shows me visually what we have left so it finishes faster. The packets in the last box are for things like pre-made tossed salad, spinach, carrot sticks, cilantro etc. 

One thing I've constantly read about is that you shouldn't keep your milk in the door of the fridge because the temperature fluctuates in that area, so it could go bad faster. They say you should put the milk in the middle shelf where the temperature is the most stable. Personally, I've never had this problem of milk going bad. I think that it takes up valuable space from the center shelves while it can very nicely and neatly fit into the door of the fridge, with the juices. If I did have a problem with it going bad then I would definitely have stored it in the middle shelf. However, that's not the case. Also, with an organized shelf, you don't need to look around for things so the door doesn't need to be open for more than a few seconds! :D

As an afterthought, I decided to write up these labels:

It took less than a minute to write up and would ensure that other family members know where everything else goes in order to prevent future...chaos? Yeah.

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Do you have any fridge organizing tips?