I've Been Nesting...
Last week, actually 10 days ago, I was nesting. I felt the urge to clean up a few things and clean out a BIG thing. Since I'm not pregnant (I know, scared ya didn't I?) 11 days ago I allowed Pinterest to control my hormones and the very next day, thanks to a PIN, I found myself nesting. I seriously never thought much about this issue, but all it took was one beautiful picture on Pinterest and BAM...my next day was planned. That BIG thing? The
REFRIGERATOR
I couldn't help it. The picture was amazing, but what was more amazing was the thought of all these clean and washed fruits and vegetables sitting so beautifully in containers, some open, some close, and organized and right there for you to grab and go. It was stunning, it looked magnificent, it looked healthy, it looked like a wealthy yoga driven vegetarian movie star owned it...which meant it didn't look ANYTHING like mine/ours. In all honesty, I can't believe I'm going to even share a picture of it with you, but for the sake of mankind, I wanted to show you it is completely possible to achieve an organized fridge!
Oh Lord what a hot mess...and this pic was taken after I already cleared off the top shelf, so trust me, there was more! Before getting started, I had to make a plan of action. I loved the inspiration picture, but it was organized with glass containers, which for one, are heavy, and two, not cheap. I didn't want to buy organizing material that was going to cost more than the food I was trying to organize...soooo off to the dollar store I went. I had a pretty good idea of what I had in the fridge and what size storage containers I was going to need so I just needed to find what would work for me. I was actually shocked at the selection the dollar store had AND the amount you get for a dollar. I had some glass containers (small ones) at home already so the goal was to make the big section of the fridge, not necessarily the door section, look tamed, controlled, and accessible to healthy food. I was pretty happy that I had kept up with the inside being cleaned and wiped down, so getting rid of unnecessary, unhealthy, and/or food growing some inedible life form was pretty easy. Then it was time to put it all together again!
I have to admit, it's not the fanciest, but it's ORGANIZED! 👏🏼
I can't tell you how thrilled I was to get this all done and be able to sit back and admire it😂 I mean, I'm a child of the Tupperware era and you would think this would have been a habit, but sadly, it didn't turn out that way for me, until now. I love that everything has a container, so when we run out of something, it will be easy to know AND it will already have a container to add a refill. Some of you may be asking, "How long do you think she'll keep it up?". Well, anyone who knows me knows I'm an organizational freak (and why my refrigerator isn't is beyond me) so, undoubtedly, it will stay organized.
So what all did I do? Let's see, the bottom bin has our meats and cheeses so the blue lids are all meats (deli meats, no so healthy but well hidden hot dogs, sausage/bacon), the red lids are cheeses, anything from shredded to deli cut. The next bin up is our vegetable and fruit bin and that was the bin I was so excited to be able to free up. Now it only houses large cabbage, and in this case a pomegranate and an extra bag of spinach I didn't have a container for. Moving on up, our creamers (and sadly we have about 5 different flavors!! We love our coffee and tea!) and milk. See the containers holding the creamer? They are glass and have pourable spouts and were just $4 each at Kroger. 💪🏼 I decided to leave the milk in the jug because of the handle it has and since it's a gallon jug and heavy, no sense replacing that. And the rest of the shelves are pretty self explanatory. The goal was to eliminate all original cartons, boxes, tubs, etc., and give it a cleaner look.
The top shelf houses butter sticks, sour cream, crème fraiche, and cream cheese, but if you noticed, I took them all out of the cartons/boxes they were sold in. I also wrote expiration dates on the glass with permanent marker that will come off when I need to change it. What you don't see are the grapes on the second shelf. They are behind the Brussel sprouts because I was so excited to take a picture that I didn't take my time placing everything. I have since re-arranged some things and it's so fun to be able to open the fridge and the grapes are right there in a topless bowl all cleaned and ready to eat. Eggs, too-no carton, just clean farm fresh eggs at eye level so I can message my local farmer friend when I need to pick up some more!
As for the door, all I did there was just organize condiments, marinades, dressings, etc., per shelf. I didn't get rid of their containers because there are just too many, but for those wanting a more "cleaner" look, you could always remove the labels and write on the bottles. I may just do that when I get a free couple of hours!
After it was all said and done, Bill was impressed and it's still very organized and tidy. Which brings me to the reason I guess I was nesting...
This little girl was given to me for an early Mother's Day gift this past Friday and made me a fur baby mom once again! Everyone, I'd like to introduce you to Karma Reign. She is a 9 week old (today) German Shepherd just like her older sister Kimber (not biological).
And she is feisty, evil and angelic, smart, and sleeps puppy hard and plays puppy harder!
Having the two is like having a toddler and an infant....with sleepless nights included. I keep telling myself that all this behavior is temporary. There are so many milestones and it amazes me that we've already had Kimber for a little over a year now and how incredibly smart and trained she already is. Kimber has taken on the "mother" role...she of course wrestles with her to the point of giving Bill massive anxiety, she will share her toys at HER discretion by bringing the pup what SHE would like her to have, and of course no puppy can go to the bathroom without a double hygiene check for cleanliness by dog-mom. 🤦🏻♀️
How about you? Did you have a wonderful Mother's Day? Anyone else nesting?😂 If not, maybe you'll be just as motivated to do a little refrigeration organization!