I just looked at a nice before and after at Real Simple for a fridge makeover. My problem is my fridge is just PACKED with condiments! It is ridiculous! Jams, sauces, chilis, pickles, olives.
How do you guys organize your fridge? I am tempted to chuck it all out but I just know it will immediately start accumulating again.
My fridge is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/badkitti/4279738750/
Its a standard european fridge, that's why its small. I used to have lots of condiments in there, and had them stashed on a pull out plastic drawer - you can just see one holding the chees and one holding the meats in the photo.
Do all your condiments need to be refrigerated? You can have a good arguement in the UK over whethr ketchup should be in there or not. Do pickles need to be kept there? If there in vinegar etc. won't they keep anyways in a cupboard? Our mustard and marmite is not fridged. Nor are the pickeld onions. If I think it'll only be used rarely and must be fridged I buy a smaller jar, so ther is more space.
Every so often look at the jars and plan a meal around them - even if its a weird pickles, cheeses and bread picnic meal for dinner!
Good luck!
That's what I want it to look like! It looks like you could actually prepare a meal. Mine looks like you could have ketchup with three kinds of mustard on it.
We've never stored mustard in the fridge!
Just in case these help:
The 'Fridge Doctor'
http://www.seattlepi.com/food/214042_fridge02.html
Condiment chicken recipe
http://americanfood.about.com/b/2009/03/30/fridge-door-chicken-cooking-with-condiments.htm
You a GOOOOD kitty.
lol!
I'm in Houston, Texas and two years ago, we lived through Hurricane Ike and no electricity. I was fortunate, I only went 3 days without power or maybe it was 5...it was minimal compared to those who went three weeks without electricity.
Nonetheless, I threw out everything from my refrigerator and freezer. And I've been very slow to replace all those condiments I thought I needed to have. I buy only what I use...which is not that much...I'd rather have fresh fruit and vegetables and they are consumed rather quickly!
Here is one of the best websites I use that tells you the life of food in the refrigerator...great guidelines for knowing when to toss it out!
Thanks Nellieb, a very useful site.
We've just returned to south-east Queensland after spending three years in the tropical north. We had to have so much more stuff in the fridge there than we do now - spreads, garlic, assorted fruit & veg - for two main reasons: mould and ants. We got to the point of seriously considering buying a new fridge because a week's worth of shopping had so much difficulty fitting in (we try to avoid shopping multiple times a week).
Two things helped:
Menu planning - means that we are less likely to buy things that we aren't going to use that week and will hang around taking up valuable space;
Containers - we're fans of Tupperware but use whatever is good for you. Containers, particularly square shaped ones, help you "see" what is in your fridge (so long as you don't stash things too deep) and allow you to place some things on top of others that you otherwise couldn't do (e.g. full milk cartons on their side on top of ripe fruit/veg).
Do do a clean out of your fridge - you'll see what things are past their "best before" dates and should be tossed and this will also give you a better idea of whether you actually use that product. Then only buy something when you need it, not because it's on special and you might want to eat that "one day". I'm currently trying to not buy any snacks until we've used up the ones we already have. :-)
Consider which condiments (or anything else in your fridge/freezer) that you don't need carefully. Toss those you know you rarely/never use. Then consider which really need to stay in your fridge. If you have more cupboard or drawer space than fridge space, perhaps you can keep them there instead (many sauces don't need to be refrigerated, even though it says to sometimes on the bottle... try Googling it).
Plan your meals. That way you won't have to get a bottle of something you only use once. Planning ahead will allow you to either avoid those recipes or give you time to find appropriate substitutions.
One day a week, go through your fridge and use up leftovers and toss mystery packages that have spoiled.
Keep a backwards grocery list on your fridge door, where you write down what you DO have and when they expire. This will remind you to use things before it's too late (stuff in the back or bottom tend to be forgotten), and will keep your electricity bill down a bit since you won't be standing with the door open trying to decide what you want. Also, having this list will keep you from buying duplicates (and show you at a glance what's been crossed off so you need to pick up).
Repackage. Some bottles and containers are really bulky. Buy a bunch of bottles/containers that will streamline things, label them, and fill. Perfect examples are ketchup and mustard. They usually are pretty fat, but those "picnic bottles" are pretty slim and you could keep them in that. Meat can be put in Ziploc bags. All sandwich ingredients like cheese, deli meats, pickles, etc. can be put in a shoe box (or a store-bought container) to corral them. This keeps them all together for convenience, but also keeps them from wasting space (since they're all small, putting each on a flat surface creates unusable dead space above them).
Some cupboard storage units might be useful too, depending on your fridge.
Think of the fridge like a closet when organizing, and you'll have it in great shape in no time.
Oh yes , ants! I lived in East Africa for a while and we would have to refridgerate a lot of extra stuff because ants love trailing in and seeing what you've got. Dry cat biscuits seemed to be a particualrly good ant food.
I was just reading about the ants in Alexander McCall Smith's No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency books. (I love those books!)
What country did you live in, badkitti?
I lived in Tanzania - where I first read those No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Books. I worked here (always willing to promte the charity so no apologies for the link: http://www.schoolofstjude.co.tz).
The tiny brown ants that ate my food were unappetaising but harmless - outside were the trails of black ants with biting soldiers. They used to seek me out - I can say "I have ants in my pants" in swahili, neede when you run into the ladies and start stripping off your clothes in front of the local cleaners! ha ha ha
LOL!
What a neat school! Thanks for the link!
we live in the wet tropics of far north queensland. which equals bugs and mould and a shelf life of two minutes.
even so, i try and keep the fridge stuff to a minimum.
one way that works for us is to just have ONE kind of jam on the go at any one time.
open a jar, keep it in the fridge and when it has gone, open another.
same with sauces and stuff.
this thread has inspired me to go clean out my fridge anyway.
i know there are some ollllldddddd choko pickles lurking in the back and NOBODY is going to EVER eat them.
if i toss them then i can use the jar for the sweet chilli sauce i made last night!
We're a family of four with a fairly large fridge, so we have plenty of space for condiments.
Having said that, we only have the top shelf with sandwich spreads and jams and sauces organised in shelf baskets to make meals easier, and 2 door shelves worth of jars of ginger, garlic, curry pastes and the like, that have reasonable shelf life.
Our fridge gets a complete empty and clean out every 4 weeks just before I do a major grocery shop, but I manage to keep on top of expiry dates by only buying stuff that we actually use and not bothering to buy big jars if I know the recipe only calls for a small amount. My sister and I often swap jars of stuff that we've tried out and not liked, so that can be an options too.
well i cleaned that fridge out and it looks so nice in there now.
i've got room for a big bag of juicing carrots now.
nom nom nom.
badkitti - I wonder if the tiny brown ants of Tanzania are the same species as the ones of north Queensland. We moved to Mackay at the beginning of 2007 and in October of that year we visited Townsville.
There was info in the booklet of the hotel room that basically amounted to:
"There are little brown ants in my room!"
"Welcome to north Queensland."
It went on to say, "Please don't feed the ants; keep your food in the fridge in your room."
We hadn't seen these little ants in our house in Mackay at that stage but a few months later, in they came. I assume that the pest control chemicals had worn off. We were able to discourage the black ants with little baits but the little brown ants just walked right through the baits and kept on going. Thumping the bench to scare them away also didn't work.
In the end we just accepted them as part of life in north Queensland and put open jars of things in the fridge instead of the cupboard. It was still annoying when they would crawl all over you and then bite you because they decided you were edible!
regarding the "I just know it will immediately start accumulating again" - that is SO key to so much uncluttering! Not bringing it in, in the first place!!!
I've pretty much banned myself from op shops (thrift stores) and really try to think twice before I buy anything at all.
With groceries - plan meals and shop with a list. I use some premixed spices now rather than attempting to make 50 varieties of curry from scratch, and only keep one type of salad dressing, mustard, tomato sauce and soy sauce and that's about it. Use up one, then buy something different next time.
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