After spinning my lettuce, I usually wrap it in a dishcloth inside a plastic bag. I love gladware. My husband keeps giving it away when he have barbecues- he doesn't like leftovers so he'll send people home with them. Drives me crazy!

I realized in this case one photo might be worth a thousand words . . .

According to Cooks Illustrated, bread will go stale more quickly in the fridge than sitting on the counter. They recommend freezing bread rather than storing in the fridge. Taking the bread out would get you a tad more space.

I agree with bbstx. Don't refrigerate your bread, Pink. Freeze it. The slices easily snap off when you need it.

I buy the little rectangular trays at the dollar store. I keep all the small jars and condiments in it. I just pull it out and take what I need out of it. Great for odd-size jars....everything from soy sauce and mayo and my capers.

LOL, y'all are assuming my freezer isn't similarly disorganized! :) It's full of bread too--rolls, english muffins, homeade muffins, tortillas, sandwich buns, sandwich bread for BF, etc. What you see there is just my "working supply." I eat a lot of whole grain carbs! I have found that bread doesn't fare a whole lot better in the freezer for me than fridge, by the time I find it, thaw it in various ways, (most of which ends in me overtoasting it), and get around to eating it. What's in there is bread for toast mostly, and some pita that I over toasted and is now waiting for me to make into pita chips. I could freeze a little bit more though, that would help. I find bread goes stale in my fridge though, I have trouble finding some way to store it that doesn't loose its seal.

I try and store like items (cheese, condiments, etc.) together in a plastic bin. They do take up valuable space, but the payoff is that I can find things.

I have also found those Rubbermaid produce saver plastic bins are great for storing lettuce and other produce. They have a plastic rack to hold the produce off the bottom of the container. I add a tablespoon or so of water to the bottom and this seems to keep things from drying out. I have taken to cutting up several peppers, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower and celery for packing lunches and storing them in the bins. It also make me more likely to quickly chop up some peppers to add to scrambled eggs -- part of my sneaky vegetable insertion technique.

I have a big garden and every summer I mutter and curse about the poor produce storage in my fridge. I think fridges are designed for people who don't really cook, or at least don't eat lots of fresh veggies. Our next fridge will be larger for sure.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rubbermaid produce storage

Yes, get the salad spinner out of the fridge! I wash my lettuce well or soak it in the sink a short while, then spin it well and wrap in layers of paper toweling or a cotton tea towel, put it in a plastic zip bag and keep it in the crisper. I'm still using up lettuce I bought for Christmas Day - and it is crisp, green, and flavorful.

Teresa

Do you have a place you could put a second refrigerator?
Garage, pantry, etc?
We have two and will always have two.

Our salad spinner also stays permanently in the refrigerator and while I'm not thrilled about it, dh uses lettuce every single day and the spinner is critical. At least according to him although I wouldn't even dare suggest moving it out.

I have no good ideas about storage, however other than to pare down as much as possible.

-Can you use your produce drawer/s (if you have one) more efficiently to include not only produce but some other food items? I have 2 produce drawers and I store my raw cashews, flax seeds, King Arthur Baker's Special Dry Milk Powder, and odd-ball things like that in one of my produce drawers.

-As others mentioned - remove your bread from the refrigerator. Testing has shown bread will stale faster at refrigerator temperatures than room temperature; and freezing is the better choice if you can't leave it at room temperature. I use sheets of foil (pop-up boxes of foil sheets from Sam's Club) for bread storage in single or double serving sizes in the freezer.

-I divide my freezer space using plastic baskets - even when I had a tiny freezer - placing like-kinds of things in each basket. When I need frozen fruit or vegetables, I pull out that basket, meat in another basket, etc... This may help in your refrigerator as well.

-A FoodSaver is also beneficial for utilizing space in the refrigerator or freezer and helps prevent waste from freezer burn.

-The small amount of juice in the bottle could be moved to a smaller container.

-I'm another person who puts like-kinds together. Put the condiments in one small basket/tray on the bottom of the refrigerator where you can slide them out like a drawer when needed, rather than a search-and-rescue each time they are needed.

-An additional free-standing shelf (or two) could be helpful in order to utilize all the space available (store things under the shelf, and small/short items on top of the shelf in order to help keep from heaping things on top of each other). I'd also place a prop under that bowing shelf before it breaks from the load.

Good luck....

-Grainlady

Lpink, you might try posting this on the organizing forum too.

Bread may go stale faster in the fridge than at room temperature, but it will get mold even faster at room temperature than it will in the fridge. To freshen bread that has been in the fridge, I spray it with water and put it in a warm oven (200 ro 220) for about 10 minutes, or toast it. I much prefer the flavor of bread stored in the fridge than bread that has been frozen. Frozen bread gets ice crystal that have a bad flavor. Anyway, that's just my experience. My concern is preventing mold.

One thing that can help your fridge storage is to put as many things as possible into plasic bags instead of bowls or jars. This will not work for many items, but it helps tremendously for those that it will. Rice, meat, potatoes, vegetables, etc can all be stored more efficiently in plastic bags than in plastic bowl.

Lars

Thank you, Lars! I agree about the bread thing.

So I am the queen of organizing. Grain lady has excellent advice.

If you're serious I'll be happy to help.

Here's the basic process

Assess.
Purge
Consolidate
organize
replace.

I'd start by taking EVERYTHING out the fridge. As you move each item from the fridge to the counter, check the expiration date or just if it's still usable and toss everything out dated or bad. Then make piles...put all your jams together, all your salad dressings, all your condiments, all your bread, etc.

Now you can see what size baskets you will be needing for each category. Me personally, I never put stuff in smaller containers, it's just an extra step.

The top shelf works for you so put all the tall things back on that shelf. The juice should be on the top shelf, adjust the height a little if needed.

I use clear plastic shoe boxes and boot boxes from the container store because I buy them in bulk but you can use anything you have. Pack the boxes/baskets/bins by type and LABEL. If they're labeled for fridge use they won't work so well elsewhere as easily LOL. I would get something like these so you can stack two boxes on top of one another without lids for easier access. You'll probably need two per fridge shelf as they are not very deep.

Click to see shelf at the container store:

Here are some other organized fridges

http://cleanandscentsible.blogspot.com/2011/05/organize-everything-fridge.html

http://penniesandblessings.com/2011/04/10-quick-organizing-tips-for-the-kitchen/

Well "I have 'CDO' it's like OCD but the letters are in alphabetical order...as they should be"...HAHAHA!

Your refrigerator is making me crazy! HA! The answer is clear...you need a bigger fridge...problem solved! :)

This post called to me. I just got home from three weeks at my mom's place and her fridge was driving me nuts. After purging out of date stuff, I divided the shelves thusly: tall things, like milk and juice cartons, and short stuff, like yogurt, sour cream, dips, etc. I put all the short stuff on a sheet tray. Leftovers were put in Gladware and had their own shelf. It worked pretty well. To find short stuff, I just pulled out the sheet tray. It sounds too simple, but it seems to work.

ROTFL, I have actually thought of some of these ideas, but I think we may be hopelessly cramped and disorganized!

First, I agree with Lars too, my last entry had a typo, I should have said that bread also seems to often go stale for me in the FREEZER too. I actually have a lot of bread in the freezer as well if you could see it, but the bags get holes in them it seems, while I'm pawing around in there trying to find stuff. A lot of my bread gets icy or picks up a freezer taste after a while. I usually toast my bread that is stored in the fridge, I keep a smaller working supply in the fridge and more in the freezer. I eat a LOT of bread products! But I don't eat it fast enough to store outside the fridge. All my baked goods mold on me if I don't store them in the fridge. Every once and a while I have a cake or pie in there!

I do have a small fridge in the guest bedroom, a dorm type one. I took some swiss cheese and an unopened sour cream container and cream cheese box up there. It joined some edam cheese I forgot I had, and that black raspberry vinagrette that I wondered where it disappeared too, and a whole lot of yogurt that BF bought on sale and forgot about. So we do keep some things in a smaller fridge but we tend to forget what is in there.

I have a small fridge in my small kitchen. The size fridge I have is as big a fridge as I can fit in my tiny kitchen. Just got a new fridge and I went through this, wanting something bigger but realizing I just didn't have room. I measured and measured. A bigger fridge isn't an option, no room in the kitchen. My fridge is right in front of the hallway into the dining room. Any bigger fridge and the hallway entrance would be blocked. No other space for the fridge. I have a horridly designed kitchen but that is because they carved out a pantry, coat closet and bathroom out of the kitchen in my house. It's the only place for a downstairs bathroom and I'm glad I have that. The other houses in my row house neighborhoods have larger, more efficient kitchens, but no bathrooms or closets on the ground floor. It was a tradeoff. I was just glad to have a kitchen after living in tiny efficiency apartments most of my life.

I have a freezer down in the basement, that is full too. We buy lots of things in bulk on sale. My kitchen fridge is just for the things I cook with week to week.

I know I'm an ornery environmentalist, but I'm not gonna go the plastic bag route. Just don't like 'em, sorry! We eat so many vegetables, both produce drawers are full, one with apples which we buy in bulk on sale, and a few other fruits, and the other with veggies. I think the biggest issue is all these random veggies. I need to wash them and put them in some clear containers, at least the extra veggies that don't fit in the produce drawer. Maybe get one of those smaller produce storage containers for the lettuce.

I actually do purge the fridge almost weekly. I just have a lot of condiments!! :) Plus single-me just doesn't move food out that fast.

Oh, and the juice was on the wrong shelf I know, blame it on BF. He is part of the problem, he refuses to follow my organizational system!! :)

Another thought......one way for more organization is to have less stuff. Is it possible to shop more often and buy less than stocking up on bulk when you don't have the room for it? I speak from experience. I am single and it took a while for me to "get it" that I was not being very economical by buying a lot of something to save money when I was throwing out half of what I bought because it went bad on me. I live about 10 miles from "town" and generally find I have to go into town at least twice a week. I just stop and buy fresh when I am in town. Less food in the fridge, more room for what I do have, and the produce and bread is fresher.
On a side note: I recently completed an experiment on keeping bread fresher in the freezer. In November, I placed the bag of hamburger buns in a large plastic Ziploc container and put in freezer. Took it out this week to check for freezer burn, off taste, etc. The buns were in perfect condition....no crystals, no off taste, no strange freezer fragrance. Gonna try it with pita breads, and sliced breads. I think the problem is in the packaging of the bread in the freezer. But I digress from the original question......
Good luck with your fridge organizational project. Too bad you can't have a larger fridge. But I totally agree about that downstairs bathroom...

Heavy duty plastic freezer bags are more environmentally correct if you reuse them! All but those harboring meat juices can be washed, dried and reused again and again. Just a thought.....

Teresa

I just spin less lettuce. I live by myself. I use the salad spinner every time I want to make a salad. Beats using up all that space in the fridge.

I like the shelf tray idea. Thanks.

Moni

Have you thought about making a list of everything in the auxiliary fridge and in the basement freezer so that you know what you have and it doesn't get forgotten? I have done that in the past. Then I made a menu plan using what I had and refusing to go to the grocery for more until I had used up what I had. The guys at The Bitten Word are doing something similar this week.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Bitten Word - Clean Out the Pantry Week

Thank you all SO MUCH for the tips and links! I'm going to try and find some stackable storage containers or a shelf system so I can group and stack like items. Also clear containers for veggies. And I love the idea of keeping a list of what is in the upstairs mini-fridge on the main fridge door. Doooh, why didn't I think of that! Although from the looks of my "to do" list, I don't pay much attention to what's on the fridge door! :)

And yes I do wash my plastic bags. I just know myself, I have a stack of about 8 that I need to wash right now cluttering up my kitchen counter next to the sink. If I increased my rate of using them I'd really be in for a pickle.

Oh, and maybe while I'm at it I can re-organize AGAIN! the plastic storage container drawer.

If I can just get BF to buy into these systems, half the battle would be won. He always wants to take the path of least resistance, which means throw it back in the fridge quick wherever you can squeeze in a spot on first glance.

Watch this space for an "after" photo! :)

One single thing you could do that would free up a lot of space is to store the lettuce in something else. Those salad spinners are big. I spin lettuce just before I eat it. I thought everyone did.

You're getting some pretty good advice here. The closest I've gotten is, my top shelf is for butter, sour cream, and pickle jars. My middle shelf is jelly, tall condiments and my son's bowls of fruit and yogurt. The bottom shelf is for leftovers on plates and eggs. Everything else is in the door, pantry, or freezer. So I'm not the one to tell you how to organize. Although, I too have CDO (I didn't even need the explanation, as I'd heard it years ago and it stuck with me).
:)

But... you reminded me of a site. It's fridges from all over the world.

Here is a link that might be useful: fridgewatcher.com

That link is funny rob! Not for the faint of heart either. Makes me want to go and organize! I think I'll have nightmares tonight! HAHAHA!

use a dry erase board for the list on the fridge and freezer. Easy to wipe off as used and add to when storing.
There are all sizes of dry erase boards out there now some for as little as a dollar.

You'd solve most of your problem by getting an additional shelf and splitting that middle shelf. I'd suggest baskets or pull-out shelves (if yours aren't) too. Look at the wasted room on the middle shelf. Be sure to use ventilated baskets instead of just totes. You need the air circulation in there.

I shudder at bread in a frig but if you're going to do it, stand the full loaves up on the top shelf or put them in the door.

Many T&T great ideas here.

I have a few ideas, which may not be surprising that they are somewhat strange.

1. As much as possible, use stackable containers.

2. Use rectangular containers. Round ones waste a lot of volume.

3. If the shelves can slide in and out, get food-grade silicone grease (Amazon) to lubricate the tracks. This will make it much easier to pull in and out.

4. You can make additional shelves by going to HD, they will cut those inexpensive vinyl coated wire shelving to the exact length.

5. Check out this place "The ContainerStore" for ideas linked below.

6. Using Bungee cords and self-adhesive hooks, you can increase storage capability on those fixed shelves on the door.

7. You can get self-adhesive mirror coated thin Mylar sheets on eBay or from plastic stores. Stick them on the refrigerator back wall and the bottom of shelves. This will allow you to see much more way back on each shelf what you have that are hidden, without having to clear out everything in front.

Have fun.

dcarch

Here is a link that might be useful: Contain Yourself

Speaking of adding another shelf, if the fridge is new enough, maybe you can get the manufacturer of it to send you another shelf or you could buy one from them? I can see that fridge really does need another shelf in there!

Looking at that photo, I bet there is another shelf that Lpink removed. I agree that it would help a lot.

No, that's the way the fridge came. It was one of the cheaper models and I got it on sale. Actually, for the small size of the fridge, there were only three basic models for me to choose from. After having had a fridge with wire rack shelves for years, I wanted solid clear shelves. Of course in my size and price range it was plastic, not tempered glass. I knew there would be a trade-off, but with the wire shelves I was always spilling things and having things tip over. Also, with this cheapie fridge the produce drawers are not clear, but I also have had to deal with that for years, so no biggie. I didn't show the doors in my photo, I have two shelves that go all the way across and on top a small shelf for butter and one for eggs. The door isn't much of a problem. It's small size is, but that's a given in my situation, as I mentioned. I actually do have a container to store the bread, but it is a square purple plastic bowl, so the first thing I am going to do is get a clear plastic rectangular container for the bread.

I didn't think this post was totally cooking-related but I guess it is. Issues like how to store bread, vegetables and lettuce are important to cooking! Like I said, I get that bread is best stored in the freezer, and I do store a lot of it in there, but if I really want to move some bread out into my meals, it goes in the fridge. Right now my oven is broken and I can't reheat rolls or any types of breads in it. I don't have a toaster oven--no room in the kitchen for it. It's a priorities thing, I use my bread machine and crockpot every week so they get the limited prime realestate in the kitchen. I'd have to choose between a toaster and toaster oven, and so far I haven't found the toaster oven that will make me switch, so the toasters get the other spot on the counter. Someday I will have the time and money to find the right toaster oven, but it's not now.

As for lettuce, we eat exclusively leaf lettuce, and I have found that unless I store it in some type of crisping system, the outer leaves wilt and aren't usable as is for salads. Having lettuce pre-washed and crisped is a big incentive for me to make salads more often. But the round salad spinner is probably not the best thing to store it in. It was what I had. I'm going to investigate something to take its place.

I also know that I should wash up my week's supply of veggies all at once, so they will be ready to use when I start cooking. Nine times out of ten the sink is full of something or other anyway, a real impediment sometimes to my creative cooking. Plus I need to store them in clear containers so I know what I've got, rummaging through the white shopping bags that I throw in there isn't cutting it. But again, it's what I have and money is tight. But I think a small investment in some fridge containers is warranted.

I really struggle with how to organize my "one butt" kitchen. I have tried various systems to somehow create an additional prep-area, but nothing off the rack seems to work. It is my dream that someday my carpenter honey will build me another work island on the other side of the kitchen. It's such a small, odd space that it would have to be custom designed. Oh well, a girl can dream. Meanwhile, we joke about the "power position" in the kitchen. There is basically one spot in the kitchen where you can prepare a meal, and it is the nook between the stove and sink, an area less than two feet wide. That's where you have to stand to access anything having to do with water or the stove. Anyone else in my kitchen is relegated to flitting around the edges. You can get stuff out of the fridge and hand it to the person in the power position, you can peel a potato or slice something up, but you just aren't "in control" lol!

I was just at Bed Bath & Beyond and they had "Fridge Binz" - I'm sure you can get them on-line too. They looked like see through acrylic storage containers to organize the fridg - had lots of different kinds.

So I am searching around still. Erasable labels. Whodda thunk it. I think that'd be a great idea. You get containers made specifically for the fridge and put on erasable labels, so you can use them repeatedly. Might have to do that. Cool! Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: erasable label idea

lpinkmountain. I'd think you could reheat rolls in your crockpot..they wouldn't get crispy but they'd be warm. Might even take the refrigerator "stale" out of a couple of pieces of bread.

L, I don't think I'll be much help, although I have a very old and small refrigerator which occupied a "built-in" space cut into the counter so it can't get any bigger either.

I'm not OCD or CDO or even organized and don't really particularly care about organization anyway. My pantry and spice drawer would drive L2C46 completely over the edge and she'd hyper-ventilate if she saw my fridge. (grin) I tried baskets which kept things all together but took up a lot more room than the items themselves did, so that didn't work for me.

I use the Lock N Lock containers, square. I love those darned things, even if I knock a container of soup over, it never spills. Plus they stack, so take up less space.

I never put bread in the fridge, I leave it on my counter in the window corner and it keeps for several days in a large rectangular Lock N Lock. Of course, my house is 55, so yours may be warmer.

I did smile at dcarch's sugggestion of bungee cords on the doors instead of solid shelf fronts. The shelf fronts on my old fridge broke and I replaced them with bungee cords, stretchable elastic ones with hooks on each end. The hooks fit in the holes left by the broken shelves. Now strangely shaped items fit on the shelves, I like it better than I did the solid shelves. I don't think I'd rip the shelf fronts off on a new refrigerator, though.

I seem to have a whole refrigerator fill of vegetables and condiments. Fruit goes in one crisper drawer, vegetable in the other. Any additional produce items go on the bottom shelf. The center shelf holds leftovers and things like pickle jars, sour cream containers, etc. The top has milk and juice, maple syrup jugs and taller items.

The furthest back part of the bottom shelf contains things that are used seldom but keep a long time, like Lock N Lock boxes of salted sausage casings, waiting until we make sausage.

So, the only thing that works for me is having designated "zones" and being serious about keeping things where they belong, so at least I have an inkling of the area the item is going to be in, rather than searching the entire fridge.

Annie

Like I said, LOL! Bread keeps for a couple of days on the counter, ha ha . . . some of my bread has been hanging around for a couple of weeks! I've lost too much to mold over the years to risk it, I am very slow at moving food. If it goes in the freezer, god help it may never see the light of day again! I do try to POOF regularly! Yes, I have a zone system too, but BF refuses to get with the program!! And he is the king of the "two for one" sale. So we end up with lots of stuff sitting around waiting to get used up. He just came home from the grocery store tonight, saying something abut how the rain got him thinking of the ark and "two by two" and something about cubits! :)

I have one advantage in my fridge. Where you have your bread, I have another half-shelf and a meat/cheese drawer...that extra drawer helps and the only shelf with any height is the top shelf. Things do get shoved to the back, though. It's not too bad this time of year because my pantry is a walk-in fridge (high tech - open or close window as needed, lol). We keep leftovers in there...out in plain sight where I can't forget about them. Summer is a different story.

I try to keep everything in its own place on its own shelf, but DH doesn't get it. I TRY to purge regularly. Also try to label with date. Though, once it's fuzzy the date is irrelevant, hehe.

We always seem to have a lot of open jars of jams etc. I keep those in the cardboard trays from canning jars, soda or canned vegies. Easy to pull out, and when it's full it's time to dump something.

When we do buy storebought bread it's usually buns or English muffins. I wrap each one in plastic wrap, then put them back in the bag and into the freezer. They keep pretty well that way.

katiec, I have that extra walk in fridge this time of year too, it's called the garage. It's where I keep Diet Coke and leftovers can stack neatly on top of the freezer, so I have to use them up or I can't put anything in or take anything out of the freezer. a little inconvenient, but it keeps the leftovers from piling up. ;-)

I very seldom buy bread from the store, I make bread, so maybe that's why I usually have one kind and it's whatever loaf is on my counter. Right now it's cornbread because I made a pot of beans for supper, but I'll bake some "real" bread tomorrow or Sunday. If it sits long enough to get stale it becomes bread crumbs or croutons or bread pudding or french toast, and then I bake a fresh loaf, so I seldom worry about storing bread.

Annie

annie, doesn't your freezer put off heat though? I'd make sure before stacking things that need to be cold or spoil. I know that my freezer is warm on top. Just sayin'....

It hasn't been cold enough this year to put anything in the garage here in Ohio, one day it's below freezing and the next day it's in the 50s. Totally crazy weather this year!

Nope, it doesn't get hot on top, it does generate heat from the side, I have a big chest type freezer, not an auto defrost one.

My garage here in Michigan can get cold enough for the Diet Coke to become slush, and that was this year. It's frozen and split the cans in winters past.

Annie

OMG Annie. ROFL at your comment above but it's probably true. I've been dreaming of lpinks fridge and how I'd sort it for her.

LP, you may not like what I am going to say but here goes. I was you until about a year ago when I acknowledge that it was out of control. You could survive for 6 months easy on my supplies.

First, as someone else wrote, that everything out and evaluate. Haven't touched it in 2 to 3 months? Pitch, you probably don't like it anyway. Out of date and concerned? Pitch.

Now do this once a week. I do mine on Saturday mornings.

Now put it back in and try some bins. All deli items, like cheese, salami, etc in one, catsup, mustards, in another. Consolidate where you can: leftover green beans mixed with corn for another night or soup. Label the bins so BF knows were what goes.

And lastly, you are basically cooking and serving for 2 but buying for an army. Put a ban on any new purchases until you are down to the last one or none. Yes, you may miss out on a "2fer" sale but you probably still have some in the freezer from the last sale. It's just buried in there. This one was very hard for me, I hate missing a sale. But grocers cycle the sales, so keep track of how often you see the items and plan with that info.

And the salad spinner in there? Big waste of space.

Good luck! If I can do it, you can too.