Week 4: Fridge and Freezer

I managed to finish week 4's project from Home Storage Solution's blog - organizing the fridge and freezer. As I wrote my notes, I tried to figure out what the simplest way would be to organize the food. Here are the categories I decided I needed to try to organize my food into:

1. Food for Liam - he has allergies, so he eats different food than everyone else. By giving him his own food section, it makes it easier for someone else to come in and know what they can give him.

2. Leftovers/lunch/snacks - basically a free for all that my husband knows he can take food from that section for lunches or when he wants a bite to eat.

3. Food for planned menu - basically food no one can touch - it's already been planned to use for the menu I have planned for the week.

4. Space to thaw meat

5. Sauces/dressings/condiments

6. Beverages

7. Vegetables

8. Potatoes/onions - yes, I put these in the fridge. I know I don't need to, but I don't have space anywhere else to store them.

9. Extra food. Basically things I need to try to incorporate into next week's menu, or staples that I always have on hand like butter.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a before picture, but it looks so much better than it did before! Even better, my husband knew exactly where to look to pack his lunch this morning!

Below is a picture of my little kitchen helper peeking from behind the fridge... notice the table in the background is completely clear!!

Here is the kitchen freezer. We also have a freezer downstairs. Some food went back downstairs, and I organized the rest into these sections:

1. Food for Liam (french fries, frozen meat)

2. Fruit/vegetables

3. Frozen meat for week's menu

4. Other misc boxes and ice cream

5. Ice and ice packs for lunch

The freezer downstairs took a little more organizing. There was a big bag of ice that has been sitting in there for 3-4 years that hasn't been used, so that went out. Here is a list of what I put on the shelves, from top to bottom... The door just has chocolate candy in a basket on top.. away from little 4 year old fingers.

1. Frozen meat

2. Desserts - ice cream, italian ice, frozen fruit

3. Frozen vegetables/prepared meals and snacks

4. "mystery" containers (plan is to take out 2 a week to thaw, if good we'll eat, otherwise I'll have a backup dinner to eat).

5. labeled frozen soups/meals

This makes it much easier to know what I have, and to plan meals around what I have in my inventory.

And lastly, I leave you with this image... this is what happens to unopened bags of microwave biscuits when they expired 4 years ago... I wonder if they even still sell these?