I think the most important thing about organizing your fridge is making sure you have a system to easily see what will go bad soon. It will make sure your fridge is not losing space to expired food and helps reduce the amount of money you lose from not eating the food you paid for. If you let your fridge or cabinets get too full, it becomes hard to find things and perpetuates a bad cycle of having to buy more stuff that will in turn make it harder to find the stuff you already have.
I have ADHD and I trick I recently learned to (help) be more efficient with food waste is to put condiments in the vege drawer and veges on a VERY visible shelf. Now my vege drawer isn't a place I send my veges to die. Lol. Cool video, inspiring me to give it another clean out 👌
I take a photo beforehand to know how the shelves go back and how I had it organized. I tend to forget when replacing everything, plus you can see the big difference of the time and energy spent. Great video!
I had a clean fridge then my daughters visited YAY and now I have a ton of leftover meals they made and ingredients that need to be put to use. My fridge is now blessed with food memories lol.
I always wait with the cleaning until I have to go grocery shopping and I'll do it right before. This way there's less food to take out of the fridge, as I'm always hesitant to break the cold chain and it may look empty
Lobe your videos; I know pretty well how to clean my fridge at this point, but I always watch your video before I do so just to psych myself up! Cleaning the fridge is so time-consuming, physically strenuous, and daunting. But you feel so much better once it’s done.
Anyone else binge Melissa Maker podcast interviews while Spring Cleaning? New level of enjoyment for this Neurodivergent home manager this morning...and I suspect there may be more doing the same. Thank you for years of quality content that I still chomp at the bit for every new video. Melissa, wow. 🥔 Is she a force of nature, or what? Thank you, Melissa and Chad.
I thoroughly clean my fridge several times throughout the year as you have shown in the video. However I use vinyl placemats on top of the glass so if there are any spills from milk or juice etc it’s easier to wipe the placemat instead of removing the glass shelves.
One more time saving tip I would add is to toss old food/produce when you’re removing everything and group similar items as you put them on the counter (i.e, drinks/condiments/dairy/etc). It makes putting everything back way easier in the end!
Melissa, I would love to see a video on how to clean scuffs and dirt off walls, particularly for different paint finishes. In my last place the paint was flat and I used magic erasers (BIG MISTAKE) as it rubbed the paint off our wall!
Oh wow! It must i’ve been the type of paint that was on the wall… The landlord how used a magic eraser to take the scuffs off of my walls when I was moving in, and there wasn’t a problem with the paint coming off.
@@cleanmyspace I would love this, as well!! With a 4 year old, and a husband that slings food like a four-year-old when he cooks, a video like that would be most appreciated!!😄
Also take the time to pull the refrigerator out and clean the heat exchange coils etc. You won't believe how dirty it is back there. Your refrigerator will last years longer and will use a lot less energy which saves a lot of money.
I am a reformed slobby fridge keeper. We were tired of losing leftovers to time, mold, and bacteria. Plus we inherited a fridge that is actually kinda small. After getting a few caddies for condiments and salad dressings, I've been on top of leftovers by keeping a list of what was made when. Most things have a general location and we're pretty consistent.
I’m a organized fridge lover. I even have a left overs basket in it. Otherwise my husband will just open and toss. We always know where everything is and nothing goes bad.
My 17 yr old son and I are "this goes here, that goes there" organizers, but the husband and MIL who live here too are NOT. They are shove it in and hope it doesn't fall over types LOL. Keeps things interesting ;-) The whole thing is definitely overdue for a thorough cleaning- including the coils and seals so this is well timed.
Before watching your videos I thought my place was clean 😂. Since the last 3 weeks I clean, I clean and I clean behind my appliances was a crime scene! Anyway now I know how to clean like a pro. Already received my Maker’s mop. Thank for all the videos. ( My fridge is organized).
For any big fridge drawers/shelves which are difficult to clean in a kitchen sink, I take to the bath tub to wash. Helps keep the area around my sink dry.
Glad to see you have a fridge with stuff that every normal family has in it. Food, sauces, condiments, vegetables etc. My son cleans our fridge and organize it for me and he's pretty good at it. Every day stuff is at the top like milk, OJ, cheese, leftovers etc. Condiments and sauces in the door, vegetables in the crisp drawer. Good job Melissa 👏
Perfect timing! Cleaning our fridge is on my list. Our fridge is semi-organized. Soda on the top shelf, condiments and dressings in the doors, fruits and veggies in the bins. Bottom shelf is for milk and other larger items.
I found this video motivating! I help my daughter-in-law with housework and have really wanted to get into the fridge. This has helped to give me the confidence to have a go. Thanks.
I have moved recently and i sort of watched many of your videos to help me clean my new flat. The oven rack technique of soaking it in the tub overnight really worked wonders. Soaking my shower head in vinegar also worked so well. Unclogging my sink with vinegar and soda also worked !! You're so cool and chill ! I don't get annoyed listening to you lol I love how you present your videos. Keep it up !! Thank you very much !
This is probably the most tedious task in my home but it’s pure satisfaction once it’s complete. I too have broken a glass shelf in my fridge using the wrong cleaning solution on tempered glass, so I would recommend that everyone know what to use to clean the components of the fridge in addition to handling them with care moving them in and out and cleaning them.
I love your videos!! Super helpful and I always learn something new. I don't know why I didn't think of turing off the cooling element on the fridge when cleaning it. Great tip!
Melissa, u r my lifesaver. There are so many “cleaning experts “ on RU-vid and their advices hardly ever work and u end up more frustrated than before. Whereas, yours ALWAYS work! Not once was I disappointed and cleaning is still not enjoyable but bearable and most of all efficient! And yeah, just cleaned my fridge 🤪
Great tips! Something I like to do is have a large cooler with freezer packs waiting before I empty my fridge to clean. Cleaning can take a considerable amount of time, and there are certain things I know immediately I want to keep that really need to stay cool for food safety reasons. It can take some of the pressure to rush off.
I’m in the middle. Everything has a place or an area of a shelf, etc, but it doesn’t have to be pretty. But everything goes where it goes. I don’t have to look for things, and I don’t lose things or have things go bad. I use stuff up and eat the leftovers before piling more in.
I just done this yesterday. Took every single item out, wiped down. It is very important to do it slowly. Take ur time. As I do clean my fridge every single Tuesday. As trash day is Wednesday. But to deep clean, thoroughly this was on my spring clean list. I am very particular with like items together, in their certain bin, or drawer. My fridge is identical to yours. I have struggled with organizing over the months. But I think I have honestly got a plan with it now..
I have an acrylic bucket container to put our yogurts in because I can pile them up pretty high and they won't fall all over the place. Saves space and makes them easy to find. Everything else is pretty tetras style. Beside my milk and water bottles. (There is likely lead in our inline water pipes)
🙋🏻♀️ definitely an “MTV Cribs worthy fridge” at all times kind of person. And amen to how fragile fridge parts are. I’ve broken quite a few parts in my day, too.
Thank you for the tips. My fridge so needs this right now! I saw your kitties! I love cats. I also saw what appeared to be another human carrying a small bundle of joy.
That was great. I’d like to see how you properly dispose of the food that has expired in the fridge and the freezer. I think that would make a great video.😀
I take everything out of my fridge at lest once a month to check dates and see if we still want it, will give the fridge a general wipe down, makes the “big clean” just before Christmas more bearable as stains haven’t had a chance to set in
You were reading my mind - fridge cleaned - check! Great job reminding people to be careful with the interior pieces - one of my bins once cost 80$ to replace! Yikes! IColour me excited! just purchased a set of Maker's cloths to make the cleaning job more efficient , enviro -friendly and cheerful!
Your refrigerator looks a LOT like mine. Thank you for this information. I "seriously" need to do this particular job. I was hoping you would also cover cleaning the freezer ... but that can be for another day.
I live in a small apartment, so I tackle one section at a time. It's a 10 cubic so it is not so bad. The hardest part is the bottom under the crispers. I have glass shelves, so I use clear plastic liners that I get from Amazon or a home store. I worry about breaking the glass.
When I clean my fridge, I do it in sections. It takes me about 3 days, so I don't have to shut the fridge down. I always think of the food spoiling if it's taking too long. Also I feel it over whelming to do this job all at once. Just saying....
Fridge Love, by Kristen Hong, is my current favorite kitchen book. Yes, I am a happy WFPB person, in love with caring for fresh produce. Your videos are excellent; I look forward to your posts👏🏻🥰.
I have organized my fridge both ways, Ulta-organized and just shove it in. Now it is somewhere in between, zones of organization, but flexible within the zones.
Before I had kids I kept pretty much everything in the fridge BC I was paranoid about mice and spiders, even though I never found either in my pantry. You could open my fridge and find the cereal right next to the milk 🤣 Now, as a family of 5, we have eggs on the highest shelf and then open milk on the next highest, the middle is yogurts, lunch meats cheese etc and then the bottom shelf is over flow produce and unopened milk. The drawers are filled with produce and the door with condiments. If we don't seperate the open milk from the unopened we end up with multiple opened BC some family members do not check!
Just cleaned out the fridge - one of the hardest things is just gettin started. I will be keeping my fridge clean from now on. No more science experiments (rotten food with fuzz)
I'm not particularly regimented when it comes to organising my fridge but I keep a chalk pen handy to write "use by XX" on my leftovers and homemade sauces
I do Tetris lol. My motto is "there's always room for one more thing" and so far, so good. I'm ashamed to admit this, but when I lived in San Diego, Ca. and food in the 'fridge went bad, it stunk! But since I moved to Gig Harbor, Wa. I can have spoiled food in there and I never smell it. It must have to do with the air and what kinds of microbes are around, but I have stuff in my 'fridge which probably got moldy last year and I can ignore it because it doesn't smell. I know I need to hunker down and clean it, but it has been a low priority. Maybe next spring lol!
Please do a video on how to clean marks off (newly) painted walls such as scuffs, kids marks, grease? My son has got red marks all over my freshly painted white walls and I need help thank you! X
I love your videos but I honestly wish I had never seen this one. I decided to take the fridge apart and clean it and the glass crisper bin cover exploded and now I'm out $155 for a replacement. You're right - they are definitely breakable
I don't have anywhere near enough counter space for this method! My first plan: arrange the food on baking sheets on the floor. Then maybe wash the shelves and bins in the bathtub? We will see how this goes ....
