How to Organize your French Door Refrigerator


[Disclaimer: We have partnered with Maytag to bring you this post. All opinions are our own and are not influenced by Maytag. Thanks for supporting the brands that support this blog!]

Handsome Finn is the master of this kitchen, especially when it comes to organizing the refrigerator!

Even though I’m a fairly organized person, I have a really hard time keeping our refrigerator organized. In fact, my husband always prefers to unload the groceries because I usually just throw items in willy-nilly and I certainly don’t utilize all of the valuable space inside the fridge.

Finn is so good at spatial organization. He’s our go-to guy for packing up the car for road trips, making all of our bulk items from Costco fit in our cabinets, and (of course!) organizing our fridge. It doesn’t hurt that he does all of the cooking in our household too. (I know…I’m one lucky gal!)

Our French door Maytag refrigerator is a dream for storage when organized efficiently.

Our new refrigerator from Maytag was a new (exciting!) challenge for him as he now had to figure out how to efficiently use a fridge with French doors. Since we’ve lived with the new fridge for a few months now, I figured it was time to share what we’ve learned when it comes to organizing a French door refrigerator.

How to Organize your Fridge

Here's how to maximize the space in your fridge, while keeping your groceries fresh for as long as possible.

Here’s how to maximize the space in your fridge, while keeping your groceries fresh for as long as possible.

Condiments on the Doors

Condiments are great to keep in the door because it is the warmest part of the refrigerator.

The doors are the warmest part of the fridge, so you want to make sure that you don’t put anything there that simply can’t get warm (I’m looking at you milk!). Instead, this is the ideal spot for condiments. Since condiments have preservatives, they’ll stay just fine in this part of your fridge.

Leftovers at the TopPut your leftovers at the top of the refrigerator to avoid missing out on your delicious food.

We like to put our leftovers right out in the open where we can see them. That makes it way more likely for us to eat them. The worst thing is having delicious leftovers that you put in the back of the fridge and forget to eat. Instead, we like our leftovers right at the top of our fridge.

Adjust the Shelves

Be sure to adjust the sizes of your shelves to accommodate your family's needs.

Another tip? Make your fridge layout work for you. Don’t be afraid to adjust the height of the shelves so you can make the fridge work for you and your family. Taking a little bit of time now to get this all set will save you lots of time later on.

Wine Storage

We like these inexpensive wine holders to save space in the refrigerator.
Wine bottle take up less space on this small shelf with the wine holder.

We recently purchased this inexpensive wine bottle holder and it has been a great addition to our fridge. We used to always have wine bottles taking up space on the drink level, but now we can lay these flat on a shorter shelf. I suggest looking into a few budget-friendly fridge organizers to take your refrigerator to the next level!

Utilize the Deep Pull-Out Tray

The deli tray is amazing for storing meats, cheeses, and veggie platters.
The wide deli tray offers so many storage options, including the occasional pizza box on the weekends.

The wide deli drawer is BY FAR our favorite part of our new Maytag refrigerator. The pull-out tray at the bottom is amazing. It’s sooooo deep and you can fit so much in there. I’ll admit on the weekends this area usually holds a pizza box, but it’s also a great space for veggie trays or party platters. We also keep all of our cheese and deli meat in this compartment too.

Keep Dairy in the Back

Keep your dairy fresher longer by keeping it in the back of your refrigerator.

Dairy items should be kept in the very back where the fridge is the coldest. We’ll put our almond milk and yogurt in the back of the fridge so it stays fresh as long as possible.

Separate Fruits & Veggies

Keep your veggies super fresh by placing them on the high humidity side of the refrigerator..
Your fruit will taste best when kept on the low humidity side of your crisper.

The humidity is regulated in the fruit and veggies drawers to keep your produce tasting great.  We used to just throw all of our produce in 1 drawer, but utilizing these separate spaces has made a big difference for us. We’ll put fruit in the low humidity side, and vegetables in the high humidity side.

Wash & Chop Right Away

Washing and chopping all your veggies right away will help your eat healthier on-the-go.
Celery, broccoli, and peppers will be cut so they can easily be hummus dippers.
Wash and store your berries and grapes in easy to reach containers for quick snacking.

The best way to get yourself to snack on fruits & veggies is to have it handy! Immediately when we get home from the grocery store, we will wash and chop everything. Celery, broccoli, and peppers will be cut so they can easily be hummus dippers. Berries will be rinsed and added to this cute little colander so they’re quickly added to yogurt and cereal. And grapes are washed and put in a bowl for convenient snacking! Doing this task right away will help you make more nutritious choices when your hunger kicks in.

Label Tupperware

Labeling your food can save you time, money, and guesswork while keeping your refrigerator organized.

This is something we recently started doing, but it has been a game changer for our household. Whenever we do cut up veggies or do Sunday prep for the week, we always separate our prepared food into tupperware. Often times we would forget how long items were in the fridge, and we’d end up tossing them too early, or too late. Now, I take a piece of washi tape and a pen and I write the prepared date right on there. It takes 2 minutes and keeps everything much more organized in our refrigerator.

I am loving Maytag's fingerprint resistant stainless steel outside of this refrigerator.
Finn keeps the fridge in tip-top shape and me well fed.

So there you have it. Some of the tips we practice on a regular basis to keep our fridge looking good and organized. And I must add that the outside of the fridge stays just as neat as the inside, thanks to the fingerprint resistant stainless steel. What a game changer for this household (no more wiping smudges away constantly!). With these tips, I’m hopeful that you too can organize your fridge for good!

And a special thanks to this guy, who always keeps the fridge in tip-top shape and me well fed.

Check out some of Finn’s favorite recipes below…

Casey


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.