National Clean Out Your Fridge Day 2021

Today is National Clean Out Your Fridge Day. I hope you've all set aside some time to tackle your refrigerator. I know it can seem like a daunting task, but it's something we've got to do. If you're like me, you probably don't clean your fridge out that often. I mean, let's be honest. It isn't fun and sometimes falls low on the house cleaning list. But I found some great tips on Pinterest for how to clean your fridge.

When I set out to clean my fridge, I used these tips from Creekline House to get your messy fridge sparkly clean in just three minutes! What I love about this power cleaning tactic is that you spend one minute doing a task: getting rid of leftovers and expired foods, taking all those foods to the trash can, and then wiping down the shelves and drawers before putting back in what you're keeping. The author admits that this isn't a deep clean of the fridge, but it's a doable clean.

It doesn't matter what cleaning supplies you use to get a clean refrigerator. I used Clorox wipes, but you can use a spray, your own homemade cleaning mix, or other types of wipes. The best way to clean a refrigerator is just to clean it!

Before you put everything back in your fridge, you might want to check out some guides that tell you where all the food should go. I pinned this handy guide from Grandparents.com, and even though I don't have a dual-door fridge, I still followed some of its guidelines. If you want a bit more explanation for why certain foods should go where they go, check out this graphic from Squawkfox that was reposted by BuzzFeed. Condiments are perfect for the shelves in your fridge door because they don't expire as quickly as, say, milk. And raw meat and seafood need to go on the bottom so juices don't accidentally drip on everything else.

So now you know where everything goes, but how to keep it all organized? That's another task for National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Let's take a look at some tips for how to organize fridge shelves.

While I don't think I have the space in my fridge to do this, I love this Buzzfeed idea to put a Lazy Susan inside the fridge. You can see another example of that in this organized fridge from Apartment Therapy.

And if you've got kids, you might want to check out this idea from Kids Activities Blog for organizing kids' snacks. I took an unused mason jar and filled it with string cheese to make it easy for my kiddo (and husband) to easily see and grab a string cheese whenever they wanted one.

Now, up above, I mentioned not letting food juices spill out. That doesn't mean something won't spill. (I can't tell you how many times milk has spilled in our fridge.) So maybe you want to put down some fridge mats, as in this fridge from Decorating Your Small Space. DIY and Craft Ideas make it really easy:  use plastic placemats.

And don't forget about organizing your freezer! Polished Habitat has tips for containers to use and printables that help you keep track of what's in there!

I think one of the best parts of cleaning out my fridge is that it forces me to reevaluate how much food we have in the fridge. I feel like I've gone a bit minimalist in terms of how much I buy at the grocery store because I can now see how much space we really have and how much food we're really eating.

It also makes me realize that I wish we had a bigger fridge. Ha ha!

So tell me, how often do you clean your fridge? And what are some of your favorite ways to keep it organized? I hope these tips for how to clean a fridge were helpful, and I hope you have a good and productive National Clean Your Fridge Day!