Tips for Organizing Your Refrigerator

Organizing Your Refrigerator

The Internet is chock-full of tips for organizing your refrigerator—everything from labels and baskets to pricey containers and customized shelving systems. But the most important organizing decision you can make comes into play before you’ve ever purchased a single grocery item: buying the right refrigerator.

Start by assessing your needs before you commit to a purchase. Don’t base your decision solely on the outside design of a refrigerator; consider your family’s shopping, eating and cleaning habits to make sure you get the best appliance for your needs.

• MAXIMIZE YOUR SPACE Measure the space you have available for a refrigerator, and make sure you take advantage of every millimeter your kitchen layout affords you. Make maximum use of all dimensions: height, width and even depth. Choose a counter-depth model to gain a few more precious millimeters of storage space.
• INTELLIGENT DESIGN Seek out smart design features like high-efficiency LED lighting, which lights up everything inside the refrigerator so you can quickly spot what you want.* Its sleek design also saves more space than the traditional incandescent bulb.
  
  An intelligently designed interior will not only look good, it will increase usable shelf space. With an expansive 32 cu. ft.** inside, the Samsung RF323 is our largest French Door refrigerator with enough room to fit up to 32 bags of groceries.***
  
  An intelligently designed interior will not only look good, it will increase usable shelf space. With an expansive 32 cu. ft.** inside, the Samsung RF323 is our largest French Door refrigerator with enough room to fit up to 32 bags of groceries.***

• STOCK UP Now that you’ve chosen the right refrigerator for your needs, consider a few quick tips to keep your groceries fresh and well organized:

• CUSTOMIZE YOUR STORAGE

  Look for built-in modular storage features like adjustable dividers, shelves and rails that you can easily rearrange to fit your particular needs. The RF323 provides all of those features:

  • It’s all too easy for a refrigerator door to become a jumble of condiments and other small jars and containers. Adjustable Guard features four easy-to-move guards on the door that help you to organize and secure items of any size.
  • Gallon Door Bins offer a special door shelf with the vertical clearance and depth to fit bulk-size beverage containers or even a whole gallon of milk.
  • Don’t give up an entire shelf of storage space just because you have one unusually tall item. A Foldable Shelf folds in on itself to offer you a variety of configuration options. Fold it back once to accommodate a tall bottle, or twice to fit a particularly bulky dish—the sturdy folded segments will still be usable for storage. Or fold the shelf back completely to accommodate oversized items like tiered cakes or stacked trays.
  • Don’t forget the freezer. You need flexible storage for your frozen items as well. A convenient slide-out drawer offers an extra-deep storage compartment with adjustable rails to maintain separate compartments for meat, fish, vegetables, or whatever you’re storing.

• If you choose (like most people) to store condiments in the door, don’t feel like you have to keep all of them there. Designate a back corner of a regular shelf to house some of your less frequently used accompaniments. Your fridge will not only look more organized without so many small jars and bottles right out front, you’ll also gain some prime real estate to store other, more frequently used items.
• Group like items together, and always keep them in the same designated area to help your family find them quickly and cut down on energy-wasting open-door time. (“Like items” can mean similar things like dairy products or functionally related items like sandwich ingredients.) Consider your family’s unique needs to decide how best to group your groceries, and then stick to your system.
• Keep it clean. Even the best-organized refrigerator requires a periodic purge. Do a quick once-a-week clean-out on garbage day to get rid of any questionable leftovers or produce. Sending it straight from the fridge to the garbage bin to the trash truck will keep it from stinking up your kitchen.

Don’t let clumsy DIY solutions complicate your life and clutter your refrigerator. Spend the time up front to consider your family’s needs to make sure you purchase a refrigerator purpose-built for smart organization.