The Great Purge 2014-Our Refrigerator

The Great Purge 2014- Our Refrigerator

This is what our refrigerator looked like when I began. You absolutely could not fit one more item in it!

To be honest, most of it is fruit (blueberries, strawberries, a cut up watermelon, etc…) that I had purchased for the party and to encourage healthy eating in our home. I generally reorganize and wipe down the fridge at least once a week, but I only completely empty it every month or so.

Due to recent health issues, it has actually been closer to three months since I emptied and scrubbed it as deeply as I like to.

I was not looking forward to it, but who wants to eat from a dirty refrigerator?

To me, the hardest part of cleaning out the refrigerator is finding a place to put everything while we clean the shelves and scrub the interior.

Most of our shelves are glass, and this means we need to handle them with extra special care so we have shelves, drawers and groceries everywhere!

On the table, stove, bar, counter, sink, etc…

Thankfully, neither the refrigerator nor the shelves were all that dirty. It only took a few minutes to wipe them out, and then we were ready to re-assemble everything (minus a few items).

Here are the “Few” Items We Tossed or “Repackaged”

For some reason a certain unnmaed member of our family feels the need to return empty or almost empty items to the refrigerator and open new ones.

Due to this “behavior,” I discovered several partial bottles and I was able to combine several them and toss others.

Our Drawer Organization

Our fridge is equipped with four drawers but I only took photos of three. I’m not sure why; I think I got distracted…look shiny thing!!!

We use the top two narrow drawers for meats and cheese items.

The bottom two drawers are used as follows:

Left Drawer: Muffins, Yogurt, Rolls of Biscuits, Bagels, Etc….

Right Drawer: Smaller fruits and vegetables not in containers

Confession: The big and bold mango above was purchased for all of us to “try“. As you can see, we are not all that adventurous- after a week no one has been willing to “try” it, yet.

Finished, Clean and Organized

I know, it is still amazingly full and will hopefully be emptied as we “Eat from the Pantry” for the next two weeks; only purchasing dairy, fruits and veggies to supplement the pantry items we have on hand.

How does your refrigerator look?

If you want a good laugh, be sure to check out this post where I share all the “surprises” I discover while cleaning the freezer- located under this refrigerator. It is full of insights into an entertaining, if not somewhat frustrating day.

Treasured Tidbits by Tina