If you have a french-door style refrigerator...

[kristenk]

how on earth do you organize it???

We switched from a side-by-side to a french door several months ago. When we moved food over it was fairly rushed and I just put stuff in but didn't really organize it. I thought that after I used it for a few months I'd have a good idea of how things would work and could organize it then. Well, it's been a few months and I feel like my fridge is an unorganized mess but I can't figure out how it *should* be organized. The only thing I'm coming up with so far is to use some bins on the shelves for condiments b/c they don't fit in the door like they used to.

Any ideas? No clue why this is so difficult for me to arrange. :(

[smiles33]

DH is the cook in our house and he's very particular about where things go, so I do my best to conform to his standards. For our French door fridge:

- eggs are always on the top shelf on the left side (presumably so he can open the left door and grab eggs with his right). We usually keep it stocked with 2 boxes of the 18 count Costco organic eggs so it's nearly the entire shelf. Hard boiled eggs for snacks are also on this same shelf in a bowl.
- DH's coffee creamer, hummus, and any of his leftover beverages (he keeps his tea in the fridge sometimes and just re-heats) are on the top right shelf (This is pretty much DH's area for his food)
- Second shelf left and right side usually has fruit for DDs (anything ready-to-eat, like sliced watermelon chunks, as well as berries and other fruit that should be refrigerated). There are two shelves but we have them set at the same height. I also put our next day's lunches on the right side second level shelf. Sometimes when we have a lot of leftovers, I squeeze them on this shelf, too.
- Bottom full-width shelf has leftovers (DH cooks huge meals 3 times/week so we eat leftovers on the other days)
- Milk for DDs, DH's soymilk, and butter are on the right door while all condiments are on the left side door shelves.
- Marinating meats take up the right side bin while cheeses, yogurts, and DDs' other snacks are in the left side bin. The full-width bin holds produce.

Hope this helps!

[mom2khj]

Left side:
Top Shelf - eggs, DS's snacks
Middle Shelf - juice boxes/snacks for DDs
Bottom Shelf - water bottles
Drawer - vegetables

Left Door
Top Shelf - small condiment bottles, rarely used items
Middle Shelf - marinades, sauces for cooking
bottom shelf - DH's gatorade and OJ

Right Side:
Top Shelf - misc items (jelly, pickles, etc)- rarely used items towards back
middle shelf - soft drinks and an open spot for when something doesn't have a place
bottom shelf - meats/items for the weeks dinner and the middle of this shelf is for leftovers
drawer - fruit

Right Door
Top shelf - butter
middle shelf - condiments/salad dressings
lower shelf - milk (2 gallons)

full width drawer is for cheese/deli meat, extra butter gets stored here too.

[kristenk]

Thank you both!

I guess drinks seem to be the hardest things for me to place. I get milk from a local diary, so I'll have 2 half-gallons of milk and 1 pint that get added to the mix on Thursday. We'll usually still have part of the previous week's half gallon left, so placing 3 half gallons is difficult, especially when you add in half gallons of orange juice and then random other drinks like that in large containers.

My other problem is that I'm so used to a side-by-side that I tend to open the right side more than the left and so want to stick everything on that side. Clearly that's user error!

[mom2khj]

Thank you both!

I guess drinks seem to be the hardest things for me to place. I get milk from a local diary, so I'll have 2 half-gallons of milk and 1 pint that get added to the mix on Thursday. We'll usually still have part of the previous week's half gallon left, so placing 3 half gallons is difficult, especially when you add in half gallons of orange juice and then random other drinks like that in large containers.

My other problem is that I'm so used to a side-by-side that I tend to open the right side more than the left and so want to stick everything on that side. Clearly that's user error!

We have that problem too, but are fortunate to have a second fridge in the garage and extras go in there until we need them.

I really find I can organize this fridge so much better than our old side-by-side. I hated that fridge!

ETA - I also found these containers perfect for drinks (we make a lot of powdered gatorade for DH). They fit three across on the bottom door shelves.

http://www.rubbermaid.com/Category/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?CatName=Beverage&SubcatId=BeverageStorage&Prod_ID=RP091195

[reneed]

Its the bottom freezer that is always a huge mess for me. I HATE going in there...

[belovedgandp]

My shelves are all catty whompass, but the system works for me.

Doors - reusable full water bottles, salsa, and open pasta sauce on bottom tallest ones. Other shelves have condiments and some alcohol.

Full width drawer - BOOZE

Left drawer - sandwich meats, cheeses
Right drawer - kids snacks - yogurt, string cheese, applesauce

Right shelves - tall area, milk (can get 6 Costco gallons in there)
Above that is super short self with yogurt, butter

top full width shelf - left side= eggs, rest of shelve dinner/leftoevers
Left middle - tall shelf - stacks of containers of veggies/fruit
Left bottom - lower - just tall enough to feed my cans of Diet Coke habit and the cups the kids reuse throughout the day

Freezer is just a mess. Thank goodness we have a deep freeze.

[emily]

I know french door is the way to go these days but frankly I hate ours. Ours is counter depth to boot so I feel like nothing fits in there. We have an extra fridge and deep freezer in the garage. Like OP, we have 3-4 gallons of milk after our weekly grocery shopping. No way we could fit it in our french door. We also have left overs and meal plan. we only keep what we're going to eat in the next day or two in our kitxhen fridge. Eveeyting else goes in the garage.